Republican Reeves files for Senate District 12
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on March 14, 2008 1:54 PM
For Nena Reeves, candidate for the Republican nomination for state Senate District 12, of all the problems facing Raleigh, the one at the root is the need to change the capital's culture and attitude.
"We need to restore confidence in our state government," she said. "We've seen too many stories about influence peddling and the General Assembly representing special interests instead of our interests.
"People, I think, are very disappointed. There doesn't seem to be enough people with common sense and real world experience."
Fortunately, she believes that she can help change that.
Coming to the race with a background in business after founding and running the statewide company Health Services Personnel Inc. for 15 years before selling it in 2005, she explained that she has the background to bring a needed perspective to Raleigh.
"I know firsthand what it takes," she said. "It's time we get government off the backs of the working people."
Doing that, though, will take a massive reform effort.
"Our system of government is broken. We don't need new taxes. We need to retool and restructure our government so that we can be more efficient with the taxpayers' money, eliminate the wasteful spending and take care of our most pressing needs first," Ms. Reeves said.
Included in those is education, where she believes academic standards need to be raised, test scores need to be improved and the dropout rate needs to decrease.
However, until she's in office and can learn more about the state's education system and situation, she's not sure what exactly the best way is to fix those problems.
"I think we need to work with the parents, the teachers and the schools," she said. "We've got to work together to keep our children in school."
She also thinks the state's taxing system needs to be reworked.
"We need to look at our entire tax code," she said. "Ours is a very antiquated system.
"We need to look at how we can benefit our businesses, but also how can we put more money in our taxpayers' pockets."
And that, she explained, is her motivation -- to improve the quality of life for North Carolina residents.
"I've been considering this for a very long time," she said. "I have always wanted to be a public servant and this seems to be the perfect time.
"I have always been someone who believes we should give back to our community. I have five children and I want to make sure they have the best possible future to live, work and play in North Carolina."
And, the 48-year-old Clayton resident added, that means not only representing Johnston County, but also the portion of Wayne County included in what she described as a very diverse district.
"My goal is to represent all of the constituents in my district," she said. "I want to represent everyone from the farmers, to the business people, to the working families.
"It's very important to me that we represent everyone."
She will be running for the Republican nomination on May 6 against fellow Johnston County resident David Rouzer.