Daily News

Jeff Barnhart and Linda Johnson both support ethics reform

GAIL SMITH-ARRANTS

gsmith-arrants@charlotteobserver.com

Republican state legislators Jeff Barnhart and Linda Johnson have essentially wrapped up re-election to their seats in the N.C. House.

They face no challengers in next week’s Republican primary, and no challengers from other parties in the November election.

So Barnhart and Johnson will be representing Cabarrus County for the next two years. With the short legislative session starting soon, we wanted to see where they stand. Here are their edited responses on a few local and statewide issues.

State funding for North Carolina Research Campus

• Johnson: "We would no longer have to pay for travel to the West Coast for use of certain lab equipment … because they would now have a campus area here in Kannapolis."The other savings is the universities would not have to buy the equipment. … Much of the public money will be money that’s already spent on education."

• Barnhart: "I believe what they’re looking for is funding for the universities that are going to be in the public-private partnership. … We just have to make sure the universities have funding to do the research projects. That’s my understanding."

Ethics reform and gift ban for lobbyists

• Johnson: "Ethics was addressed in the General Assembly this year, but it was only a feel-good deal. … It addressed any gift of $10.

"Ten dollars is not the ethics problem we’re having. … Something needs to be done about major contributions from individuals and business influence in the General Assembly. We certainly want to get rid of the issue of blank checks."

• Barnhart: "Do I support tightening up the rules? Absolutely. I’m on that (Ethics) committee, and it’s a very difficult technical situation. (more…)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 4:33 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.