Family members seek delegate seat
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The Inter-Mountain photo by Brooke Binns
Clayton Moore, left, and his father, Lonnie Moore, visit the Barbour County Clerk's Office to receive information about filing for the West Virginia House of Delegates race later this year.
PHILIPPI -- Voters in the 47th district of the West Virginia House of Delegates will see an interesting race between family members in the upcoming election.
Lonnie Moore Sr. and his son, Clayton Moore, have each filed to run for delegate in the 47th district, running with opposing party affiliations.
Clayton Moore, a registered Democrat candidate, said although he and his father are not part of the same party, they have many similarities.
"What the citizens are going to see is that we're not that far off as far as politics, but there are some key issues we disagree on," Clayton Moore said.
Lonnie Moore echoed his son, saying they both hope voters will choose who will best represent them and take care of their needs, regardless of their party affiliation. He also joked, saying the two have not started feuding yet and do not plan to let the race get between them.
"We need to focus on the counties we represent -- which are Barbour and part of Tucker County -- we need to represent those counties and make sure the people in those counties are being taken care of and not being left out in the cold," Lonnie Moore said.
On the issues, Clayton Moore expressed his support of higher pay for teachers and providing better opportunity for recycling.
"I believe it's a necessity to give school teachers a higher pay raise. I believe that the money has to be there first because when you're competing with $10,000 across the state border, where are you going to go? You'll end up going across the border to another state to make better money," he said. "I believe in some instances you do have to raise taxes in order to balance things out."
He added he is in favor of providing greater opportunity for recycling in the Barbour and Tucker areas, which are included the 47th district, with the possibility of a recycling center to benefit people in communities from both counties.
Lonnie Moore said he would encourage home schooling, low taxes for businesses and higher pay for teachers based on merit.
"We have to have more freedom for entrepreneurs and less tax -- you can't tax business to death," he said. "I think that the money that is used to go into the local board of education's budget for each student -- the federal government gives so much money for each student -- that should be given to the place where the students are being home schooled, that money should go there so they also have funding."