Gov. Robert Ehrlich?s new running mate, Disabilities Secretary Kristen Cox, generally agrees with the governor on a range of issues, as the governor and members of his staff discovered Monday in discussions about her joining the ticket.
“It was made clear to me you can have your own views,” Cox told The Examiner, but ultimately the governor is in charge and sets policy.
She also said she used the session on Monday to explore “what is going to mean as far as my family is concerned.” Running for lieutenant governor “was not part of my life plan.”
On abortion, Cox said she is personally opposes it, but it is “the law of the land” and “I?m not going to impact” that. Ehrlich generally favors abortion rights with some limitations.
On the increase in the state minimum wage, which Ehrlich vetoed, she said her time on Capitol Hill as a lobbyist for the National Federation of the Blind helped convince her that “it is a feel good issue” and “has a negative impact” on people with disabilities or more limited skills.
On the so-called Wal-Mart bill that requires any company that does not spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health care benefits to pay a special tax, Cox said, “I have not looked at it in detail.”
“Philosophically, it sends a horrible message to the business community,” she said, one of the factors Ehrlich cited in opposing the measure that was enacted despite his veto. Cox said she disagreed with the BGE rate bill passed in last week?s special session, as did the governor, who vetoed it.
“It was a scapegoat bill,” she said. “I think politics really motivated this.”
She noted that Ehrlich had doubled the funding for energy assistance for low-income people in his budget. Cox was aware that her selection partially reflected Ehrlich?s loss of support among women, as it was found in polling.
“I know the numbers,” she said. And she thinks it?s important to have a woman?s perspective.
“Diversity is a healthy way to develop public policy,” Cox said.
