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  • JAMES COBURN | THE EDMOND SUN Edmond Democrat Tom Guild announces his candidacy for Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District at his Oklahoma City offices on Thursday.

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February 2, 2012

Guild makes 5th District run official

James Coburn The Edmond Sun

OKLAHOMA CITY — Claiming that many people have lost faith in government, Edmond Democrat Tom Guild officially announced his candidacy for the 5th Congressional District of Oklahoma. The middle class and the working poor are under attack, Guild said Thursday at his Oklahoma City campaign office.

Oklahoma deserves better representation, he said. The 5th District office is currently held by Congressman James Lankford, R-Edmond, who said he plans to file for re-election in April. No other Democrats have announced their candidacy for the 5th District.

“We were disgusted when the U.S. House, with the unanimous support of House Republicans, voted in April 2011 to end traditional Medicare and turn it into a voucher system,” Guild said. “We were shaken as we have witnessed the many attacks on Social Security, led by out-of-touch members of Congress calling for the privatization of Social Security.”

Social Security is a safety net for older Americans, Guild said. Medicare has secured health care for seniors who otherwise worry about not being able to afford the surging costs in the private sector, he said.

Oklahoma City Democrat Gene Hunt said Guild is well qualified to serve in Congress. Guild taught political science and legal studies for 27 years at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, where he was given the title of professor emeritus by the board of regents. For three years, he taught in the Master of Business program at Oklahoma City University’s Meinders School of Business before his retirement in 2009.

Guild supporter Ed Bolt said dissatisfaction with the current Congress is a unifying factor for more than 90 percent of Americans.

“They are seen as ineffective, unable or unwilling to reach a consensus to move our country forward,” said Bolt, a Democrat from Shawnee.

Americans cringed when many in Congress supported the flood of anonymous Super PAC money from wealthy donors, said Guild, who favors transparency with public disclosure.

“They are beholden to big money interests over the needs of the American public,” Bolt said.

A group of ideological partisans held the economy hostage in July and August in a fight over whether to raise the debt ceiling, Guild said. As a result, the U.S. credit rating was downgraded for the first time in history.

“This intransigence negatively affected millions of Americans’ retirement accounts,” Guild said. “This intransigence led to a series of near misses in avoiding a shut-down of the national government in 2011.”

House Republicans overwhelmingly oppose repealing the George W. Bush tax cuts for singles with annual incomes above $200,000 and couples with annual incomes above $250,000, Guild continued.

“Repealing these tax cuts and going back to the rates that were in effect during the Clinton presidency would cut the national budget deficit by approximately $700-$800 billion over the next 10 years,” Guild said.

And, while President Barack Obama just signed a bill to freeze congressional pay without a raise this year, Guild said he favors reducing the annual salary of House and Senate lawmakers to $100,000. Members of Congress currently earn an annual base pay of $174,000.

Cuts in education need to be avoided, Guild said. Public education is a great equalizer in creating good paying jobs and careers that families need to achieve the American Dream, he said.

“Support for public education will do more to create good careers for our citizens than anything else we can do,” Guild said.

The official filing period for candidates is set for April 11-13, according to the Oklahoma State Election Board. The statewide primary will be June 26, with a runoff primary election on Aug. 28. The general statewide election will be Nov. 6.



TO LEARN MORE about Tom Guild’s campaign for the Congressional 5th District of Oklahoma, visit his website at www.guildforcongress.com.

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