June 3 Republican Primary Candidate Guide: U.S. House of Representatives Alabama District 6
Will Brooke
1. What is your background?
I grew up here and attended the University of Alabama where I received degrees in business and law. I have spent my entire career in Birmingham and am a businessman. I have worked at Harbert Management Corporation for nearly 25 years and am chairman of our real estate services group and managing partner of our venture capital funds. I like solving problems and have created hundreds of jobs in the Sixth District. My wife, Maggie, and I have been married for 34 years and have three adult children. We love our state and have been active in our church and other charitable and civic activities, such as the Boys & Girls Clubs, United Way and McWane Center.
2. What is the biggest issue facing the state in the upcoming year?
Why aren’t there any construction cranes on Birmingham’s skyline? Economic development is essential to creating jobs and building a strong future for our city and state. That’s where I would focus.
3. What is the biggest issue facing Mountain Brook in the upcoming year?
This community is part of a special area, and has much in common with the other communities around us. We should work together to reduce costs, improve services and connectivity, and solve shared problems. I would work with our mayors and councils to find solutions and resources and move the ball forward.
Paul DeMarco
1. What is your background?
My wife, Jacqueline, and I live in Homewood. I am a two-term state representative of House District 46, which includes portions of Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills. I was born and raised in Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District. Jacqueline and I work here. We will raise our family here.
2. What is the biggest issue facing the state in the upcoming year?
Washington is broken. Washington’s problems threaten the future of each person in Alabama and the Sixth District. Out-of-control deficit spending, the damage done to families and employers by Obamacare and federal regulations that threaten small and big business alike must all be addressed. As your state representative, I have always worked to support our schools. I have worked with city leaders to improve infrastructure needs. That will continue when I go to Washington.
3. What is the biggest issue facing Mountain Brook in the upcoming year?
I have been proud to represent the people of Mountain Brook in the state legislature. I grew up here.
The people of Mountain Brook, like every other community, want to continue to prosper. As your congressman, I will fight to protect small businesses from overreaching regulations that threaten jobs. I will support a balanced budget amendment. I will work to repeal Obamacare. We must focus on a limited government that helps rather than hinders the people.
Chad Mathis
1. What is your background?
I’m a doctor and small business owner here in Birmingham. I’m typically asked on the campaign trail, “Why would a surgeon want to run for Congress?”, and I tell them it’s because I’m worried we are losing the American dream. I was the first in my family to graduate college and worked in the same factory as my father to pay for that education. Hard work and sacrifice enabled me to earn my version of the American dream, but that dream is no longer attainable for many Alabamians.
2/3. What is the biggest issue facing our state/Mountain Brook in the upcoming year?
For the first time in a long time, the biggest issue facing our nation is the biggest issue we face here in both Alabama and in Mountain Brook. The ill effects of Obamacare are no longer reserved to an evening newscast or the headlines of a newspaper, but in fact are something affecting our families, friends and neighbors on a daily basis. That’s why I have developed a 12-point plan to repeal and replace Obamacare with patient-centered, market-driven reforms. I hope you will join me in this fight to give healthcare back to the patient, opportunity back to small business, and help keep that American dream alive for hardworking Alabamians.
Gary Palmer
1. What is your background?
I’ve worked for small business, two major engineering companies and, for the last 24 years, led the Alabama Policy Institute, a public policy think tank ranked as Alabama’s most influential conservative group.
2. What is the biggest issue facing the state in the upcoming year?
There are two huge issues: the impact of Obamacare on businesses and continued high unemployment. Congress must repeal Obamacare and replace it with a patient-centered, market-based plan that puts people in charge of their health care decisions, establishes a national insurance pool for people who can’t get insurance or can’t afford it, and that eliminates the economic uncertainties faced by businesses.
With 1 of 6 men age 25-54 unemployed, Congress should utilize our vast God-given energy resources to create jobs and stimulate the economy. In one shale formation out West alone there are 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil — three times what the entire world has used in 100 years — and the federal government owns almost 80 percent of it. The abundance of natural gas has resulted in cheaper energy that is driving a manufacturing boom that is benefiting Alabama.
3. What is the biggest issue facing Mountain Brook in the upcoming year?
In the context of federal issues, the impact of Obamacare on Mountain Brook-based medical practices and businesses and the stagnant economy. Repeal and replace Obamacare and open up federal energy resources.
Tom Vignuelle
1. What is your background?
I come from a background of service. My father was Dr. Richard (Dick) Vigneulle. He was the executive vice president of City Federal Savings & Loan and president of Service Corporation. He later answered the call to the ministry, becoming the founding pastor of Shades Mountain Independent Church in Hoover.
I also learned from him the value of hard work and commitment. Two years after marrying my wife Ginger, we started our own business in Pelham, Royal Bedding Manufacturing, Inc., in August of 1987. Since that time, I have mastered the bedding industry and learned the challenges of owning a small business. For 26 years, I have had to balance a budget and make hard decisions on spending priorities. I also know what it’s like to face federal regulations on a daily basis. As a small business owner, it hasn’t always been easy, but the values my father instilled me has allowed us to persevere and live out the American dream. And it’s that dream that I feel is under attack and is the reason I am running.
My wife and I also own a family cattle farm in Wilsonville and are members of the Cattlemen’s Association of Alabama.
Requests for responses to candidates Scott Beason and Robert Shattuck were not received by deadline.