Corbett Kroehler for Congress, FL8

Background:

I have been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, one of only 12 candidates they will endorse nationwide in the 2008 cycle.

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I was born in Pennsylvania Amish country. My parents were both public school music teachers. Several members of my extended family were teachers as well as preachers, sailors and soldiers.

I spent my formative years in northern New England and it was that time in rural Maine and Vermont which gave me the strong environmental ethic I carry today.

I moved to Florida in 1987 and am a life member of the Sierra Club as well as the immediate-past chair of the Sierra Club of Central Florida. In that capacity, I had to command a wide range of environmental issues but I specialized in matters of energy and global warming.

I am a member of more than 20 other environmental and progressive organizations, including DFA, of which I am a trustee of long standing.

Goals:

We need to Make Central Florida Ours Again! We also need to bring our troops home from Iraq immediately with no residual force. If the sprawling embassy there is not safe with a standard contingent of Marines, then we should not use the facility until it is.

As for protecting our natural environment, during my time as a leader in the Sierra Club of Central Florida, I represented the club at many important public events. At the Solar World Congress in 2005 and the International Solar Cities Congress in 2006, I learned that changes in sea level caused by global warming can be measured by pounds of carbon which our economy dumps into the atmosphere and the situation is dire. Even though Florida's eighth congressional district is fully inland, it will be affected greatly in the very near future by rising seas. The only way to correct the problem with the speed and urgency it demands is through the United States Congress.

If elected, I will work swiftly to pass legislation necessary to put America and the world on the correct path to reverse global warming and create millions of green collar jobs here at home in the process. I also will not settle for healthcare reform which does not cover every single American regardless of preexisting condition. HR676 is a good example of how to achieve just that.

We also need to provide a living wage standard for every American and a national minimum wage for teachers, with a bare minimum rate of $40,000 per year, adjusted upward for inflation and local expense differential.

We must reform our public education system and that begins with replacing No Child Left Behind with a system which holds schools, students and teachers accountable for achievement but also promotes inspiration and rewards ingenuity.

My other top priority will be homelessness. I realize that some conservatives take the principle of personal responsibility to such an extreme that they believe that all street people either are there by choice or don't know how to integrate into society. They are wrong and the beginning of the conversation with those conservatives is to remind them that a majority of America's homeless population are veterans of our military. Once the conversation begins, then, we can have a meaningful dialog about affordable housing and reforms in our mental healthcare system.

Issues:

1) Violent and juvenile crime are of great concern to my community and constituents. A living wage and universal healthcare would go a long way toward resolving the problems.

2) A national minimum wage for public school teachers also is a top priority for Central Florida because many of our schools have been rated "Dropout Factories" by the United States Department of Education. That is an outrage!

3) Global warming is the greatest threat facing the United States in general and Florida's economy in particular. Tourism is the top of our economy and if we lose our beaches and weather, then we lose our tourism.

Grassroots Support:

I have designed my campaign from the ground up to be people-centric. It is the core of my candidacy and will remain so if I am elected. If DFA and other PACs on a select list of organizations wish to campaign for me and recommend that their members contribute or work on my behalf by electioneering, I will welcome their assistance.

It is for this reason that I attended the DFA Training Academy in Tampa during the summer of 2007. I have a core group of supporters in Central Florida who also have been trained in the DFA model and I already have begun to implement it.

DFA Values:

A system of government which does not serve all of its members equally is a failure. That principle is at the core of the progressive movement and is the essence of the republic which our Founding Fathers gave us. It was the underpinning of President Lincoln's policies and in the closing stanza of his Gettysburg Address. As a progressive, I oppose discrimination in every form, striving instead to have universal civil rights. I support universal healthcare, civil unions for gay couples, full and proper reproductive care for women and girls, a national minimum wage which is measured against inflation and the consumer price index, an energy and transportation structure which keeps both affordable and accessible for all Americans while reducing pollution and electoral transparency.

As for fiscal policy, long-term deficits and earmarks in the budgeting process are wrong. Short-term stimulus packages can be beneficial if used prudently but they should not be applied lightly. What's more, while we must be prepared to take action in national emergencies, the federal government must operate within its means. Our current system of taxation is regressive, plain and simple, burdening the largest portion of our population in favor of the wealthy. We should replace our income tax system with a national flat tax which is based on carbon pricing and consumption.