Candidates for Georgia House District 142 address key questions on voters' minds based on Listening Lab Results
In sit-down interviews with each candidate for HR 142, 13WMAZ asked about issues important to you: inflation, violent crime, road conditions, and poverty.
13WMAZ is bringing you answers to questions you have for candidates based on the information viewers gave us during the 2024 Listening Labs.
This election cycle, we're incorporating the results we gathered from the Listening Lab surveys Central Georgians filled out earlier in the year.
In Bibb County, the top 5 issues participants pointed out were: violent crime, inflation, road conditions, good-paying jobs, poverty, and homelessness.
We sat down with the two candidates in the race for Georgia's House District 142: Democratic incumbent Miriam Paris and Republican Calvin Palmer.
In separate sit-down interviews, we discussed the three issues you said were most important to you when it comes to the race: inflation, violent crime, and poverty.
Here is what the candidates had to say:
Violent Crime Listening Lab Issue 1
Q: How will you work with local law enforcement to address violent crime in the county?
Miriam Paris (D) - "Because I have served at the local level as well as state level. I have a really good working relationship with the commissioners and the mayor. So it makes it a seamless effort for me to get in contact with the mayor and address whatever local issues may be going on."
Calvin Palmer (R) - "I think when you're talking about law enforcement and what you do with criminals, I think the common concept for everybody is when somebody does an egregious crime is to put them in jail and keep them in jail until they have paid their debt to society. And so we're not trying to come up with some magic formula, but if they do a crime, they need to go to jail."
Poverty Listening Lab Issue 2
Q: What policy changes are needed to reduce homelessness in the county?
Paris (D) - "As a realtor, I know that affordable housing is a big issue, not just in Middle Georgia but across the country, housing prices have skyrocketed, rent has skyrocketed. So until we can replenish the amount of houses that are affordable that people can purchase with a 40-hour-a-week job then, we're just looking at more of the same."
Palmer (R) - "I think the major question in homelessness is to find out basically if you're gonna spend some money, why are you homeless? What makes you homeless? If you talk to probably five different people, they'd have five different answers. So that might be our first priority. The government should be involved. I think in trying to help homeless people, you got to figure out what level these homeless persons are at and you can't just put everybody under one category, find out why you're homeless, and then work with that."
Inflation Listening Lab Issue 3
Q: What would you like to do to address inflation?
Paris (D) - "Inflation, of course, that's a tough one. More of a federal issue. But of course, here, at the state we're doing everything we can to get the governor to look at outside of Atlanta for job opportunities, for career opportunities. Everything is centered right there. In the metro, you've got over 6.5 million people living in the state in the metro with a population with a state population of about 11 million. So you've got about 4 to 5 million people outside of there. And it's always my push for them to look outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and start looking at Middle Georgia for economic opportunities for the people that live here."
Palmer (R) - "Inflation and the cost of living that's going on right now, we're gonna have to do some regime changing because of the thought processes. The cost of living is obviously too high. People can't afford gas groceries and things of this nature. We have to put a regime in there that will lower taxes and allow businesses to thrive. And then we also want to make sure we educate our children to make sure they understand what area they need to move towards, to help with this inflationary thing, inflation, economy, whatever is all basically one umbrella called cost of living. We've gotta let people be able to buy groceries, uh educate their Children, put gas in their tank, but also they gotta have some discretionary income because if they don't, then your fast food places are closing, which is already happening in the county and also other businesses will start closing and people that we've got to make it to where making is a burgeoning society, not a society that just takes money out of the private sector. We've got to put money back into the private sector so that will keep our society strong and our county strong."
Meet the Candidates Background
Miriam Paris
- Education, Career: She is also a veteran realtor with over 25 years of experience. Paris went to school in the Bibb County School District and is currently enrolled at Mercer University.
- Public Office: She became a member and later the President of the Macon City Council in 2006. From 2011 to 2013, she served as a GA State Senator, where she played a significant role in consolidating the city of Macon and Bibb County. Currently, Miriam serves in the GA House of Representatives, where she is a member of the Appropriations, Education K-12, Tourism and Economic Development, Special Rules, and Urban Development committees.
- Family: She is a fourth-generation Maconite
Calvin Palmer
- Education: Palmer went to Mark Smith High School. He was a part of the first graduating class out of Mark Smith. He graduated from Georgia State University
- Career: He served in the Army for six years. Currently, Palmer is self-employed and owns a mattress store on Emery Highway.
- Community Involvement: Palmer is a former Bibb County GOP Chairman.