The best jobs program will always be to ensure we provide our children with a world class education.  The Raleigh – Cary area has been on countless lists of the best places to work and do business in the nation.

The best way for us to make sure we remain among the most desirable places for businesses to relocate and to grow is to continue offering a well educated workforce, not by having a third world tax rate.

There is no doubt that North Carolina is facing serious budget difficulties.  However, when hard choices have to be made, the absolute last thing we should be doing is to starve the very thing that made us great, education!

As a member of the North Carolina Legislature, Duane will fight to maintain a woman’s Constitutional right to choose.

The current legislature has been among the most aggressive in history in its attempt to intrude into the doctor patient relationship. Their legislation creates several new hurdles to overcome before the doctor can help. It requires every doctor to force a woman to sit where she can directly view an ultrasound of the fetus, while he describes it!

In addition to a new 24 hour waiting period, the law further forces this legislature’s right wing ideology on the woman by requiring the doctors to talk to the women about public assistance programs for the poor and to inform them that should she change her mind after all this pressure, the father will be responsible for child support.

And then, after forcing the woman to listen to government mandated speech, the law says she has to wait and think about what he told her for at least four more hours before the doctor can begin.

The new law is also intended to scare every doctor who provides abortions. If doctors don’t comply correctly, they can be sued by the woman seeking the abortion, the man who impregnated her, the woman’s other family members, or even other doctors!

Doctors already provide thorough informed consent based on their Hippocratic Oath. They should not be forced to become mouthpieces for politicians. Most importantly, we have to stop this legislature’s erosion of a woman’s right to choose!

The new Voter ID bill is a solution for a problem that does not exist. Incidents of voter fraud in North Carolina are extremely few and far between.

The result of requiring photo identification will be to prevent thousands of North Carolinians from exercising their Constitutional right to vote.

South Carolina’s Supreme Court has already struck down similar legislation based on studies that show it will result in a 20% reduction in minority voting.

Requiring photo identification will also drastically reduce the votes of the elderly, who are less likely to still possess drivers’ licenses.

This legislature has further attempted to disenfranchise voters by shrinking early voting periods and eliminating same day voting.

As a member of the North Carolina Legislature, Duane will work to ensure that more, not fewer citizens are afforded the ability to vote.