Have breakfast with your State legislators

Having breakfast with State Legislators gave local residents an opportunity to discuss politics in an informal setting.

It was a standing room only crowd of residents and representatives at the second annual “Have Breakfast with your State Legislators.” Instead of pancakes and eggs, politics was on the menu. The event was hosted by The League of Women Voters of the Lower Cape Fear UNCW’s on campus. League President, Audrey Albrecht says “people don’t realize that they really can have a voice in the decisions that representatives make and we wanted to give them an opportunity to see that the representatives are from our area, they live right here among us and it’s possible to talk to them.”

Many people came ready to talk. Wilmington resident, Jimmy Faison even brought a list of questions and at the top of it, education. “I wanted to make certain that everything I wanted to cover would be on my list, because I’ve got a list of major concerns.”

More than a dozen State Legislators were on hand to speak one on one with residents about their concerns. Hot topics ranged from national issues like the economy, gas prices and healthcare, to more local questions on increasing teacher’s salaries, providing more safety in schools, and tackling the state of our roadways. 9th District Senator, Julia Boseman says “we are going to have to find a new governor before we can fix the problems of metal health and the department of transportation because those two areas of the state are totally messed up.”

16th District State Representative, Carolyn Justice agrees. “We just need to completely revamp the Department of Transportation and how its leadership is appointed and remove the politics from it, right now it’s pretty much political appointment.”

The breakfast was also an opportunity for newly appointed state lawmaker, Sandra Spaulding-Hughes to have a chance to hear from the residents she now serves. “This has been a great breakfast to make me aware of some of the real issues, down to earth issues that we need to take back to Raleigh as legislators to talk about.”