Dixon to seek another term
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 26, 2015 1:46 PM
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N.C. Rep. Jimmy Dixon
District 4 state Rep. Jimmy Dixon of Mount Olive has announced he will seek a fourth term.
"I have discussed it with my wife and my family, and we believe that this will be a good thing for us as well as for District 4," Dixon, a Republican, said. "We have had some good success over the last five years, and I believe we can be productive going forward.
"We have laid the groundwork for some good things for Wayne County and Duplin County. I want to be up there for another session to see if I can't improve conditions for eastern North Carolina."
The candidate filing period for the 2016 primary and general election begins at noon on Tuesday, Dec. 1, and ends at noon on Monday, Dec. 21.
The 2016 statewide primary, including the presidential preference primary, is Tuesday, March 15.
When Dixon first ran in 2010, the district was made up of Duplin and Onslow counties.
Redistricting in 2012 resulted in the current configuration of Wayne and Duplin counties.
"With redistricting we were fortunate and instrumental in getting a more centralized district relative to agriculture and other things by shifting it to two-thirds of Duplin and two-thirds of Wayne County," he said.
A farmer known for his witty folkisms, Dixon, 70, is chairman of the Agriculture Committee and the Appropriations, Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee and the Agriculture and Forestry Awareness Study Commission.
He is vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee and a member of the Education - K-12, Elections, Environment, Insurance and Regulatory Reform committees and the Environmental Review Commission.
"Agriculture is the largest industry in North Carolina," Dixon said. "Duplin and Wayne counties are, in many incidences first and second in many areas of agricultural production.
"So with the regulatory environment the way it is, and since the real work of the General Assembly is done in committee, it is in my opinion a valuable asset to have the chairmanship of the Agriculture Committee."
The Property Protection Act is one of the pieces of legislation that Dixon is most proud of.
The legislation has been attempted in the state for the past 15 years, he said.
"It relates to the unscrupulous practice of gaining access to employers' facilities for the purposes of either videotaping or otherwise recording things that could be very harmful when taken out of context," Dixon said.
The livestock industry has experienced such cases from PETA and the Humane Society and other organizations, he said.
They did so to gain "improper access" for "sensationalizing" a few seconds in attempt to try to get people to believe what happened is the standard procedure for livestock producers, he said.
The law "very narrowly addresses that," including "severe penalties," while continuing to provide protection for whistleblowers, he said.
Dixon said he was disappointed when Gov. Pat McCrory vetoed the bill. Legislators overrode the veto.
The farm bill is another major piece of legislation that Dixon said he worked to get through the House.
"It helps us in many aspects of agriculture do a better job by reduced regulations," Dixon said.
Going forward, Dixon said the state needs to remain diligent where agriculture is concerned.
Dixon said he also wants to remain in the House to work on kindergarten to 12th grade education -- an issue that he calls a "great, great challenge."
That includes all aspects of k-12 education from curriculum to the way the state assesses performance to teacher compensation, he said.
Dixon said he wants to "re-empower" classroom teachers.
"I want to diminish the bureaucracy," he said. "I want to help implement policies that are going to focus DPI (Department of Public Instruction) on the challenge of educating our children and get DPI out of the political arena.
"The great challenge is what are we going to do about k-12 education? You can cut it or slice it any way you want to, but our future lies with k-12 education."
Every child can learn and should have the opportunity to do so, he said.
K-12 education is moral as well as an economic issue and is the "only answer" to the future stability of the children coming out of school, he said.
That is particularly true because the home environment for a "lot of our children" is less than satisfactory, Dixon said.
"We can say parents should do a better job, but we can't stop there," he said. "We have got to do a better job in helping these kids become productive citizens rather than training them to go on the dole."