Welcome to the Fromhold
for 49th Web Presentation!

I am a candidate for the House of Representatives in the 49th Legislative District. My wife Marlene and I have lived in this community for almost thirty years. We raised our daughters here, both of whom graduated from the public school system and from Washington State University. I want to help maintain the quality of life that we, as a community, are so fortunate to enjoy. Equally as important, I want to help maintain the economic prosperity that has benefited our community. A positive business climate contributes to both quality of life and economic prosperity, primarily by growing good, family wage jobs. One of our economic challenges is the lack of an adequate transportation infrastructure. In my recent position as president of the Clark County Chamber of Commerce I have worked with the Southwest Washington legislative delegation to insure that funding be provided to address such critical needs as the construction of the 192nd Avenue Interchange. As a legislator I will work with our delegation to help continue to meet our growing transportation demands.

We need to enhance our focus on education and work force development. I will work from the legislative level to help school districts insure that all students are able to meet the new standards that are called for in the education reform effort our schools are engaged in. I believe that work force development strategies employed by the school districts after the award of the Certificate of Mastery in the 10th grade are critical. I will work to help districts provide a wide range of work force opportunities for students in our high schools. In addition, it is important to our students that we insure there is a seamless relationship between high schools, community colleges, and other public and private vocational and technical schools, as well as apprenticeship programs within the trades. I will also work to support the construction of the Clark College building on the Washington State University Vancouver campus. Strengthening the seamless connection between our community colleges and the branch campuses will benefit our higher education students.

I am also concerned about affordable health care for our families and our senior citizens. We need to bring more insurance providers back into our state to help provide affordable insurance rates. There is certainly more that needs to be done at the state level and I am working to learn more about this growing, critical issue. Affordable childcare challenges all families where both parents work. I started the Southwest Washington Childcare Consortium as a public/private partnership between the school districts and the business community. This was, and still is, only one example of affordable childcare resources our community needs. This is an area that I care a great deal about and will work to help address this important parental concern in the future.