Joe Preston (South Carolina)
Joe Preston (Democratic Party) ran for election to the South Carolina House of Representatives to represent District 112. He lost in the general election on November 6, 2018.
In addition to running as a Democratic Party candidate, Preston cross-filed to also run with the Working Families Party in 2018.[1]
Elections
2018
General election
General election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112
Incumbent Mike Sottile defeated Joe Preston in the general election for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mike Sottile (R) | 57.3 | 12,210 |
 | Joe Preston (D) | 42.6 | 9,084 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 13 | ||
| Total votes: 21,307 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112
Joe Preston advanced from the Democratic primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | ||
| ✔ | | Joe Preston |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112
Incumbent Mike Sottile defeated Jason Clouse in the Republican primary for South Carolina House of Representatives District 112 on June 12, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mike Sottile | 77.4 | 2,914 |
| Jason Clouse | 22.6 | 850 | ||
| Total votes: 3,764 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign themes
2018
Ballotpedia survey responses
- See also: Ballotpedia's candidate surveys
Joe Preston participated in Ballotpedia's candidate survey on April 10, 2018. The survey questions appear in bold, and Joe Preston's responses follow below.[2]
What would be your top three priorities, if elected?
| “ | 1) Our state currently ranks 48th out of 50 in education. We need to decouple funding of education from a volatile revenue source such as the state sales tax (Act 388), find a more stable revenue source, and get lawmakers and educators working together to increase positive outcomes in our education system. It is time for our legislators to work with our educators in tandem to solve the delicate issues surrounding educational infrastructure, curriculum standards, teacher retention, and finally teacher salaries. There also needs to be a focus on vocational and technical education programs at the pre-college level for those students who aren‚Äôt strong academically and will likely be transitioning to the workforce straight out of secondary education, while not having our post-secondary institutions shoulder the entire burden of this type of educational experience. 2) The South Carolina statehouse is the prima facie example for corruption in government. There are state solicitor and FBI investigations running concurrently in regards to corruption while in office, with 3 legislators having already resigned and pleaded guilty, and another currently awaiting trial. This level of corruption is also the result of a more than 30 year single-party stranglehold on majorities in each of the houses of the General Assembly and the Governor‚Äôs mansion. There needs to be wholesale change to the ethics and reporting system such as mandatory auditing of all lawmakers, campaigns, and candidates on an annual basis, increase in the frequency random audits are conducted, and ethics investigations that are free from political bias and interference. Linked to the issue of corruption is radical and strategic redistricting, also called Gerrymandering. If our politicians are allowed to choose their voters rather than the inverse, it creates a culture where we have lifelong politicians, from both parties, holding onto seats, competition becomes non-existent, and the voters are truly left without proper representation. I am one who will push for the creation of a non-partisan independent citizens redistricting commission based on the California model which has been touted as a success by both sides of the political spectrum. |
” |
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about? Why?
| “ | I take a holistic approach to all areas of public policy and see each as interconnected with the other rather than each being mutually exclusive. For example, having increased positive outcomes in the education and a more educated citizenry leads to increases in the number of people able to obtain good, quality, high paying jobs. Therefore, increased education funding should be seen as investiture in the economy. Further, increases in the utilization of renewable energies such as solar and geothermal for use in government owned and operated facilities decreases the variation in seasonal energy spending due to weather and climate. If we are decreasing the amount of variable expenditure and transitioning to more stable methods of spending tax dollars, there is significant cost savings that may be passed back to the average taxpayer or utilized in other areas of the budget. All while having the added benefit of lowering the carbon footprint of the government and preserving the environment. All things are interconnected and should be treated as such. There is one area that I give special attention and that is the municipal employee. Whether one is a Law enforcement officer, firefighter, teacher, EMS provider, Public Works employee, etc. These civil servants carry out the day to day operations that keep us safe, respond to our emergencies, teach our children, maintain our roads, etc. Our civil servant are the unsung heroes that keep our civilization civilized, and all too often their contributions go unrecognized. I was fortunate enough to count myself among their ranks for 13 years, and have seen first-hand the sacrifices they make on a daily basis for the residents of their community. As a state legislator, I will advocate for across the board increases in pay, fully funding pensions as the contractual obligation which they are, and ensuring they receive the funding for the equipment they need to do their jobs safely and effectively while providing the taxpayer their best return on investment.Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; invalid names, e.g. too many[4]
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” |
Ballotpedia also asked the candidate a series of optional questions. Joe Preston answered the following:
What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?
| “ | Pragmatism. I believe I have a unique understanding that good law has to be practical, and the means to pass successful legislation also lies in realism as to what does or does not have the eventual potential of making is past the floor of the lower house. Honesty. I am known for my honesty. I am of the opinion that too often in our current political reality that people all too often only hear things that reinforce their own cognitive biases, feeding into the confirmation bias. This occurs regardless of partisan or political ideology. It has a home with both the left and right. I am someone who will call balls and strikes not as I see them, but as the facts say they are. No more, no less. It is what the people of my district deserve and what we really need injected into todays political climate. Parlaying off of honesty is integrity. I will do what I say I'm going to do, and conversely not do the things I say I will not do. There is no changing course midstream or changing the rules in the middle of the game.[4] | ” |
| “ | I believe the ultimate responsibility of any legislator elected to office is one of trust and frugality. We intend to be custodians of the hardworking taxpayers dollar. They have a fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayer. As legislators we need to do the most amount of good with the least amount of money possible.[4] | ” |
| “ | Once I exit office, I would like to be thought of as a "horse whisperer" of politicians.[4] | ” |
| “ | The first historical major event I remember is the space shuttle Challenger disaster. I was 6 years old and in first grade at the time. I remember this event because the entire school watched on a "wheelie cart" television placed at the end of the main hallway due to the fact this was to be the first "teacher in space" and the school was excited to be showing this event.[4] | ” |
| “ | My very first job was working at the local McDonalds. I worked there during my junior and senior years of high school. I was employed here just under 2 years. For some backstory on this job, on my 16th birthday, rather than have the usual party, friends over, or cake and presents, my father decided that it was time for me to go find a job. So, we drove around the city adjacent to the farm town I grew up in and filled applications at approximately 10 different locations. The local McDonalds was the first to call for an interview, and I was hired on the spot.[4] | ” |
| “ | The State of South Carolina will face 2 major challenges over the next decade. The first is the major population boom we are seeing at both the coastline and at the opposite end of the state at the foothills of the blue ridge mountains. Balancing this growth and the need for housing and infrastructure with the natural resources and natural beauty of the area is going to be a major challenge. Second is climate change. Living on a sea island in South Carolina, we see the effects of climate change up close. We now see flooding during storms, when previously, we would see none.[4] | ” |
| “ | Should the opportunity present itself in the future to attain another office, I would likely entertain the notion. The voters ultimately make that choice however, not I.[4] | ” |
See also
- State legislative elections, 2018
- South Carolina House of Representatives elections, 2018
- South Carolina House of Representatives
External links
- Search Google News for this topic
- Campaign website
- Campaign Facebook page
- Campaign Twitter feed
- South Carolina House of Representatives
Footnotes
- ↑ South Carolina Election Commission, "2018 List of Candidates," accessed October 29, 2018
- ↑ Note: The candidate's answers have been reproduced here verbatim without edits or corrections by Ballotpedia.
- ↑ Ballotpedia's candidate survey, "Joe Preston's responses," April 10, 2018
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
