"Some of the things that I will accomplish will be to monitor and be alert to any moves to shift more education fund burden over onto the property tax," said Goodwin. "That causes some pain in this district."
Another objective of Goodwin's is to promote business and economic opportunity within the district. One thing that he believes will help - that he hopes they have made some progress in - is broadband Internet access, the lack of which has long been an issue for some businesses in the area.
In addition, Goodwin sai he recognized that school choice was another issue that was important to constituents. Goodwin said he is pleased with the progress that has been made through the creation of the Mountain Towns RED - which will affect Flood Brook School - and believes that it will help maintain school choice.
Another objective of Goodwin's - one that he and Dunbar share - is trying to keep young people in the state. At best, Goodwin said some of the state's youth attend UVM before deciding to leave the state.
As for Dunbar, he said he wanted to further examine how education funds were being allocated if he were to be elected as state representative as it was something that affects
"It translates to how affordable a home is for a new family and how people, particularly elderly people, can't afford to stay in their homes once they've stopped working or retired," said Dunbar. "So, it's really important for me to get to the bottom of all those expenditures because I want to encourage people to retire here and I want to encourage young families to live here and be able to afford to live here."
Dunbar also said he wanted to create more early childhood education, daycare and infant toddler programs for young families and single parents.
If elected Dunbar said he would work hard to secure the necessary funds for roads and bridges to improve and maintain the region's infrastructure. Like Goodwin, the economy of the district was an area that Dunbar said he wanted to focus on if elected.
"I am also very concerned with our general economic status and I want to work regionally to increase the economy of this district," Dunbar said. "I want to do that largely by working with, and taking advantage of, our unique opportunity to have three counties making up this district, six senators and one representative. So, there's seven people in a way that are speaking for this community in Montpelier and I, as an Independent, want to make sure I can bring together all of those six senators to work together to support any of the bills or ideas that I present to the senate floor."
In addition, Dunbar said agriculture - an interest of his as he is the co-owner of Anjali Farm in Londonderry - and small businesses would be another focus of his. If elected, he said he wanted to try to help local farmers and ensure that small businesses function and exist in the district.
In the primaries, Dunbar received 104 votes overall - seven from the Republican Party, four from the Progressive Party and 93 from the Democratic Party - and earned the Democratic nomination.
Dunbar had until Sept. 10 to decide whether or not he wanted to accept the nomination from the Democratic Party, but notified the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's office last Friday that he would remain as an Indepent candidate on the ballot for the Nov. 6 election, according to an e-mail from his campaign.
Dunbar received far more votes in the primaries than Goodwin - who received 23 votes from the Democratic Party and 18 from the Republican Party. However, since they are both running as Independents, neither one technically had a primary contest to compete in and both will be on the November general election ballot. Unlike Goodwin, Dunbar said that he began asking voters to write him in as a candidate as the primaries drew near. The reason for that, he said, was to get an idea of how many people would vote for him.
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