The Commentator previously invited candidates for State Senate and House of Delegates to participate in video interviews. No candidate responded, but Republican House of Delegate candidate Robert Karnes agreed to provide a "candidate introduction" for our blog. Karnes is a candidate to represent the 44th House of Delegates District, which includes and is predominantly comprised of Webster County. Here is his introduction:
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| Republican Candidate Robert Karnes |
"I would like to thank you for the opportunity to introduce myself to some of your readers. I grew up in Nitro, WV. We were generally pretty poor, however both of my parents believed the key to success was hard work, thrift and diligence. At 10 years old my first job was inserting section “B” into section ”A” of the Kanawha Valley Leader, a weekly paper. Like other kids in those days my brothers and I would also earn extra money by dragging a lawn mower around town and cutting grass. When I was 15 and 16 I worked with my brother hanging drywall in Central Florida during the summers. I worked as a lifeguard for a few years and I worked at Disney World. I even tried college for a year. I spent one semester each at WVU and WV Tech.
When I was 21 I started working for FSIS, a communications company. FSIS is a family business initially started by my father in 1986. When I started work at FSIS my brother and I were the only employees. Our primary operations area was Florida. During the next several years we gradually expanded our operations to cover all of the US. As with most start-ups we made very little money and usually that meant less than minimum wage. For me it also meant driving 1 1/2 million miles over a twenty year period. As we expanded our service area and customer base we began to make a little profit.
In 1996 I started another business, ARK DataLink, which dealt in satellite hardware. At its peak we were one of the top 100 DISH Network dealers. I achieved this by building an online store before many people had become familiar with the Internet. After operating ARK DataLink profitably for about five years I decided a return to FSIS offered more opportunity for future growth.
A few years later, in 2004, I was asked to assume control of FSIS. We are still a small business with 10 employees. We provide WAN services across North America. We are Cisco and Microsoft partners.
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| House of Delegates District 44 |
In 1991 I met my wife Amy. She worked as a service and project coordinator for one of our clients and over a period of time our interest in each other expanded beyond our professional relationship. After several months of completely outrageous long distance bills we decided it would be cheaper to get married and raise a family. We have been married for 18 years and have 8 children, 5 boys and 3 girls. Our youngest was born the 16th of October this year.
It was the bleak future faced by my children that impelled me to get involved in politics and seek election to the House of Delegates. This is my first time seeking office. I don’t believe we should tolerate career politicians.
I have lived in several states and at one time or another I have worked in every state. For many West Virginians, traveling outside our borders to find work has become normal. While I would never discourage anybody’s kids, including my own, from going out and seeing the rest of the country, it should never be forced on them because of a lack of opportunities here in West Virginia.
From 1900 to 1950, West Virginia was one of the fastest growing states in the nation. It is only the high taxes and over regulation grown up over the last 60 years that has made it so difficult to create and keep jobs here in West Virginia. As a result of these taxes and regulations we have lost 150,000 residents since 1950. During this time the US population more than doubled. Only the 1970’s offered any kind of growth and only because the Arab oil embargo made our coal a hot commodity.
We can change this multi-generational recession.
The solution to our employment problem is as simple as crafting an environment that encourages businesses to move here or stay here. That means lower taxes and a careful re-examination of our regulatory environment. We should keep only what is necessary and scrap the rest. This is a much broader problem than Webster County or the 44th district and it will require a much broader solution.
I can’t emphasize enough; Webster County cannot “grow it alone.” We will not experience significant growth until West Virginia does. As your delegate I will consistently vote to improve the business climate across West Virginia in order to encourage job growth in our state and in the 44th district.
Additionally, I will work to improve our schools by removing as much of the red-tape coming out of Charleston as possible. I oppose school consolidation (including the recently proposed closing of Diana) and I think it is imperative we work to restore and revitalize as many of our small community schools as possible. I want to see our local school boards, teachers and parents setting the priorities for our schools. I believe in local government as strongly as I believe in limited government.
My opponent is a career politician who has presented no ideas on how we can improve Webster County or West Virginia. In fact he has generally refused to answer questions. Hiding instead behind a “no promises” position. This makes it difficult to compare the two of us. So I will simply reiterate what I believe are some critical ideas if we want a better future for our children.
West Virginia is one of the highest taxed states in the nation and it has without doubt contributed to our unemployment problems. We need tax cuts.
We know regulations are hurting our coal, timber and agriculture industries. We need to review and simplify our regulatory environment.
I believe we should introduce a proper appeals process into our legal system. Our state Supreme Court has an overcrowded docket that makes reasonable review of questionable verdicts unlikely.
Our school systems are failing our children. We need to return control of our schools to the parents, teachers and local school boards. Our schools worked before Charleston began to dictate everything from curricula to discipline (none). I believe our failing school system leaves many of our youth without hope for a bright future which leads to drug use and other crime. We can fix this.
We are currently in a shrinking economy with cities and counties chasing a dwindling business population. With too many workers and too few jobs, wages in WV are far below the national average. Implementing some of these solutions can turn this around and instead of sniping neighboring counties for endangered jobs we can create an environment where jobs are chasing workers and wages rise as demand increases.
I have been endorsed by National Rifle Association, WV Farm Bureau, WV Family Foundation, West Virginians for Life, Patriot Coal, National Federation of Independent Business and others. These are folks like you and I that are working to protect our liberties and create a growing West Virginia where everybody has a chance to prosper.
Thanks again for your blog space and time."
Robert Karnes
304-619-6534
More information about Karnes can be found at his website:
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