The Races: DeCesare v. Rabold, House 21
Warren County
Republican Representative Jim DeCesare is defending his seat against Democrat Charlene Rabold.
In Warren County, fiscal conservatives have a champion in Jim DeCesare, who was one of two 2007 Defenders of Economic Freedom and scored a comfortable 78% in 2008.
DeCesare has been a strong conservative leader, introducing legislation to improve transparency, working to make Kentucky a right-to-work state, opposing the indebted 2006 budget legislation and supporting other legislation that will make Kentucky a better place for growth and entrepreneurship. In 2008 he opposed tax increases and budgets with excessive spending and debt (HB 262, HB 406, HB 407). Unfortunately, he did support health care mandates before changing his vote in the record (HB 148) and he supported the double penalty on employers for employee misclassification (HB 654).
His opponent is strong in her anti-growth stances. She ridicules the need to make Kentucky a right-to-work state, and says she would support HB 382 which would muddle the prohibition against wage discrimination, opening a large door to frivolous lawsuits. Perhaps most gallingly, in a recent debate she ridiculed Jim DeCesare’s resolution honoring Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman on his death. Where DeCesare is a champion of pro-growth policy, it seems that Rabold is its enemy.
