Cornel Rasor

BIOGRAPHY:

Cornel Rasor is a retail store owner who grew up in Bonner County on his parent's cattle ranch. He graduated from Sandpoint High School and attended two years of college as a veterinary science major at the University of Idaho.

He and his wife Kim have three children and 16 grandchildren.

He has managed the Army Surplus store in Sandpoint for 41 years and has owned it for the past two years.

He can be reached via email at cornelrasor@hotmail.com and online at cornelforidaho.com.

ANSWERS:

1. Since this is a legislative office, theoretically the first hundred days would be more than the session. So the first 10 days would be consumed with settling into committee assignments and getting to know house rules and the application of Masons parliamentary procedure.  I would also be considering and submitting potential legislation for routing slips. This would be followed by committee work and navigating the methodology of shepherding proposed legislation through the committee and floor processes.  Much time would be spent in research, contact with constituents, caucusing, etc. 

2. Protection of children-both prevention of their murder as pre-born children, and protection of their ability to stay children and not be assaulted with major changes that should only be undertaken by an adult. Protection of the right to self-defense. Serious consideration of methods to continue with what seems to be a welcome form of “zero-based budgeting” and apply tools in that respect. 

3. Legislation protecting unborn children.  Legislation preventing the dismembering of young children.  Committed attendance at JFAC and advice and commiseration with those who understand economics and their application to the Idaho budgeting process. 

4. No for a multitude of reasons. It does not restore a primary but rather creates a “jungle primary” and implements Ranked Choice Voting, a complex computer algorithm-controlled system that reduces transparency, muddles the ability to audit, and introduces a voter-discouraging system that promises to reduce voter participation. Our current generations-old system works very well and is not broken. There is nothing to fix. 

5. Not so much a “health care crisis” as a Medicaid spending crisis. 

6. There are many medical issues in this race including property tax issues which seem to be older residents out of their homes.  This will take a concerted effort in a combination of things including a possible increase in the homeowner's exemption coupled with reductions in spending and looking at new methods of funding state and county infrastructure with something other than taxes. 

7. I believe in this era of instant communication and news saturation, there do not appear to be any issues that are not receiving appropriate attention. 

8. Continued communication coupled with a respect for all points of view.  A willingness to meet with any of the voters in my district or any other district for that matter over coffee, on the phone, through town halls, and any other medium of connecting.  I will always resort first to individual communication without slander or vilification. 

9. As I said in my questionnaire for the primary, this is a complex issue that I would not be able to adequately answer in less than several thousand words or more. But a good start would be a careful and thoughtful deregulation of the real estate market so that the permitting and regulation process would become far easier to navigate and far less expensive and far less restrictive. See of paper on this at https://fee.org/articles/how-deregulating-real-estate-markets-can-solve-america-s-shortage-of-affordable-housing.

10. Town halls, emails, phone communication, meet and greets, continued funding of one of the functions of Idaho public television which covers legislative committees and the legislative session. 

11. No desire to control others. Those who seek to control others are the least suitable for public office. Public office in the thesaurus of politics is next to the words “public servant”. One should enter public service with an intent to protect the rights of others no matter whether they agree with you or not. 

12. Are you willing to look at this responsibility as a service to your neighbors, friends and even opposers? My answer would be yes. 

13. My background in government service, and voluntarism coupled with my detestation for those who want to control others will render me by God’s grace, a willing servant to all of the citizens of District 1. I will protect the rights to free speech, self-defense, expectation of privacy, right to a jury trial, and all of the other rights that are specified in the Bill of Rights and in the Idaho Constitution without consideration of who I am protecting. I will work to see that bad legislation is removed, and good legislation, that is legislation that follows the proper role of government, is good for all that it will serve is implemented.