Tom Gallagher - Florida Baptist Witness

Tom Gallagher

Aug 16, 2006

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2006 Primary

Tom Gallagher (R)

GALLAGHER

Why do you want to be governor?

2006 Primary Election
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Tom Gallagher
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I have a lot of experience in our state. And this state has certainly been the state opportunity for me. I came down to go to the University of Miami and afterwards I went to New York and worked and spent my time in the military. ... And so I came down and went into business down there with a friend of mine and then started my own business. And so, Florida’s really been the state of opportunity for me personally and with well over a thousand a people a day moving in, it’s been the state of opportunity for a lot of people. And I’m blessed to have seven-year-old and I want to make sure that this state is the state of opportunity when he’s out to get to get his first job, and for his kids, too. We’re at a place now that it’s extremely important on how we move this state forward – whether we continue what I think is a fantastic job that Jeb Bush has done in regards to education and our economy and so many areas and our state’s fiscal strength that I’m concerned about how we continue moving forward and I want to make sure we move in the right direction.

Let me ask you some spiritual-related questions. What is your personal religious faith?

I’m Roman Catholic. [According to his spokesman, Mr. Gallagher regularly attends Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Tallahassee.] My wife’s pastor – he’s a good friend of mine, actually, he’s just a great guy, Randy Ray, I don’t know if you know him from North Florida Baptist – and so we’ve become great friends, his wife and Laura and I. I don’t do it every Sunday, but quite a few Sundays I’ll go to early Mass and when my wife and son are heading out to church, sometimes I’ll say, hey, do you want me to go with you, and they’ll say, yeah, you’re always welcome, and I’ll go to their service. Usually, it’s when he’s on a sermon I really should hear but I didn’t know it was going to be one I should hear, so it usually works out pretty well.

How does that impact the way you view your responsibilities as a public official? How does your faith impact what you do as a public official?

I think that one’s faith, if they are a true believer in Jesus Christ as their Savior, affects everything you do. And whether you are a Baptist, as my wife is, or Catholic, as I am, if you are a Christian believer you have certain values that come with that that are pretty-well spelled-out in the Bible and pretty-well gives you the way you should conduct your life. I’m not perfect, but I certainly try to conduct myself in a way that I would be looked on as being a practicing Christian.

Someday all of have to give an account before God.

Yes we do.

Are you certain in your own heart that at some point in time when you come to that point of accounting that you’ll spend eternity with God in Heaven?

I am totally unworthy of going to Heaven. And I believe that if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ coming to earth and giving up His life and by that earning those of us that believe the ability to go to Heaven, there’d be no chance. And so, I don’t think that I can earn my way into it. Nor do I deserve it if I did everything right.

So, one day, if you stand before God and He says to you, “Why should I let you into my Heaven?” What you would say in response?

I would say that I have been a believer and Your Son with Your advice and direction gave His life and gave us direction on earth and – He’s my ticket and so You need to let me in.

What role do you think people of faith should play in politics and government?

I certainly think they ought to exercise their right to vote, if they’re not working for government. Certainly in a democracy, there’s nothing more important than exercising your right and studying who the candidates are and be sure you’re voting for a candidate that has your values and will operate in office in a way that would be one that you would be proud to have voted for and proud to have represent you.

Do you civil rights protections on the basis of sexual preference?

No, I think that we should allow people to be basically free to do what they want to do, but I personally think that homosexuality – if that’s where you’re coming from – is a sin and I condemn the sin, I try to give the sinner the benefit of the doubt.

But you do not support civil rights protections?

Not specifically for that, no.

Do you support a repeal of the ban on homosexuals adopting in the state of Florida?

I do not.

Why?

Because I think it’s extremely important that every child that the state ends up being involved with, the one thing that is important for every child to have is love and the state doesn’t do a very good job of providing that. And I think it’s extremely important that those kids that end up in adopted families that that family is made up of a man and a woman.

So, not just that homosexuals should not be able to adopt, but that an intact, nuclear family should only adopt children?

That would be my preference. Now, I know that sometimes that’s not always possible, but that certainly should be our goal. Our goal should be adoptions for a loving family of a husband and wife.

Related to that issue, there have been efforts to repeal the adoption ban using the argument that homosexuals are permitted to act as foster parents in this state and some suggest that there is an inconsistency in the law in that. If you believe that homosexuals should not be able to adopt, should the law be changed so that homosexuals should not be able to serve as foster parents?

I think what’s happened is that we haven’t done the job that we need to do to recruit foster parents, good foster parents. And that’s why I will expand upon the one-church, one-child, and bring in the faith-based community to be more active in recruiting foster parents for the 40-50,000 kids that we have that are in the state’s care. At the same time, we have probably 35 percent more kids taken from their natural parents than other states and we need to look at that and find out why that's happening. I think it sometimes happens because there's one bad news article about some child that should have been taken and wasn't, so all of the sudden they overreact and start taking kids that maybe shouldn't be taken. I think that our system would be much better off if each one of these children that is taken gets a guardian ad litem to represent them as a child. Because obviously the state has its attitude of why they took the child, the natural parents have their thoughts and then there's a poor judge that gets ten minutes hear the case and is supposed to work between them and the child, of course, has no say. And they need a say and they need to have an advocate that only - that doesn't represent the state, doesn't represent the family, represents that child and can basically give the judge their thoughts and their observations. If we can take the months and months - that 30 or 40 months that kids are on average in foster care and cut that down, either cut it down by back to the parents or to an adoptive family our state would be much better off and we'd be much better off because the kids would be much better off and that's really what counts. And I think having that guardian ad litem involvement would make a big difference in that.

But should homosexuals be prevented from serving as foster parents?

If we could get enough good foster parents, my preference would be to not have any homosexuals be foster parents.

As a preference, but not as a matter of law?

If the law came to me I'd sign it that did that. I'm not sure that I think that's the best influence on.

I'm only pressing the point because it has become such a matter of great controversy in the debate over lifting the ban on homosexuals to adopt.

Yeah, if they can do it here, why can't they do it there?

The homosexual lobby constantly points to the foster system as an example of the fact if homosexuals can serve as foster parents, why can't they serve as adoptive parents?

Well, I'd prefer that we didn't have homosexuals serving as foster parents.

Do you support the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment?

Absolutely. My wife and I were one of the first people to sign it. We met early on as a couple with leaders from the Baptist convention about the process that they were looking at going through and talked about how we could help and get the signatures necessary.

Apart from the public policy questions related to abortion - I want to set aside public policy for the moment - is abortion a moral evil?

Yes.

Why?

I believe that conception is the beginning of life. And from that day on, taking that life is murder. So, it's way beyond a law, to me it is the law and it's a law that's a lot higher than I am and higher than government is. It's God's law and we should respect that.

Some states have started to press the limits of public policy limitations on abortion, most notably South Dakota passed legislation that banned virtually all abortions with the explicit intention of challenging the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit the underlying issues of Roe v. Wade. Should Florida do the same thing?

I think that we've got a test case and that's a good thing. If a bill like that would come to me I would sign it. And then we'd have more test cases. But I think it's a good thing to have it go up to the Supreme Court and test. And, as I say, I would sign it if it came to me. I would not - I think we have a test case working and I wouldn't create another test case. But I would certainly sign it if it came to me.

I look at what's happening with abortions in this state - the Catholic Conference says that last year there were about 94,000 abortions, that's about a third of every pregnancy ends up in abortion. I don't care who you are, you've got to think that's just too many. I think that it's important that we do something about it that isn't going to take forever. And that's why I've been in favor of the 24-hour waiting period and give that woman a chance before a doctor's going to perform that abortion to really look at the alternatives and keep the child or give it up to a loving family for adoption.

What's you view of Gov. Bush's efforts on behalf of Terri Schiavo?

I supported them. I felt that what he did was the right thing. I think that's a very sad case, almost no matter how you look at it. I think that we all learned a lesson of the importance of having a living will from it. But as an elected official and someone with responsibility, I will always err on the side of life.

So, you're not persuaded by the fact that seemingly public opinion polls indicate that most of the public did not support what the governor did?

I don't believe that values that can be or should be created by public opinion polls. I think that if that's how you set your values, you don't have any. You're blowing in the wind. I think it's important that every one of us - not just those of us who are elected officials and have responsibility over public policy - but I think that it's important that all of us, whatever we do, have values and stand by those values. That's an important part of being a human being, and certainly a Christian.

Is there something wrong with Florida's statutes when a severely brain-damaged woman who's not in the process of dying can be starved and dehydrated to death by her husband with the assistance of the courts?

Well, I don't know. I've never looked at it. I think there's a shortfall in all of us not having a living will. I will say that. And I am disappointed if the law allows a person to interpret what somebody wants as changing their mind. Either Terri's decision was continue life at all costs, whatever it takes, or don't do any extraordinary means. That's the decision I should have and she should have and everyone should have. When you can't communicate that, to me, I think it should be you err on the side of life.

But should food and water be defined as extraordinary care?

I sure don't think it's extraordinary. It's the basics. And I think that's what made this case such a sad case. Is that we're dealing with taking a life by starvation. And I don't know how anybody can be comfortable with that.

There's a movement in both political parties in this state to adopt the embryonic stem cell funding agenda that has gotten some support throughout the United States. In the recent legislative session there was movement on the part of certain Republican leaders in the legislature to start to support that and there were suggestions that the next legislative session there's going some further movement on that. What's your view on state funding of embryonic stem cell research?

I don't look at it as a partisan issue. I think that it's an issue that people have their beliefs and I can tell you since you've asked what mine are - my belief is that life begins at conception and an embryo is a life and we should not sacrifice living embryos for research. I have a moral problem with that.

Of course that is permitted already. All we're talking about is state funding.

I have a moral problem with doing it to start with. So, therefore, I would not want to see public dollars that come from people that think like I do and others used for that type of research.

Do you think there's too much or about the right about or too little state-sponsored gambling in Florida?

I think that - I was against Amendment 4 that expanded gambling in Florida and I stood with Gov. Bush and Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings and Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson and myself and signed a mailing that went out from the Republican Party telling people that we were - you know, to vote against Amendment 4. There was another statewide official that didn't.

So, your answer would be there's too much?

I don't want to see any expanded gambling in Florida.

There are some who want to close down Miami-Dade's options to bring that back to voters - there was an effort in the Legislature to do that that went nowhere. Would you support that?

I supported repealing the constitutional amendment that went on the ballot and got passed. If I had my way, I'd take it out of Broward, too. And the idea of saying that education is going to be benefiting from gambling, you know I think that everybody that looks at the lottery says, okay, well did it all go to education, they always ask, and I say, oh yes, it all went to education, cause that was what the requirement was. They just took away the funding that was going to education and put it somewhere else. Actually, they put it in Medicaid. I know exactly what they did with it. It's always a false promise. Just like gambling itself is a false promise.

Sometimes doing what is right is more important than being popular. When I announced my support for the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment, I didn't have a lot of support for my position. But I felt it was the right thing to do. I feel the same way about expanded gambling. As governor, I will do my part as a leader to oppose expanded gambling, including seeking a repeal of the slots amendment in Broward.

Why should Florida Baptists care about this primary election?

This is a very important election. This state I think has been under great stewardship with Gov. Bush. He's done - I think he's set-up a goal of values in his decision-making. I think he has done a great job in increasing the learning of our students in our K-12 system, and we have quite a bit more to do there. He has, by cutting taxes and managing our state in a good, frugal manner has allowed both our economy to be the strongest in the nation and our state finances - we've got a AAA bond rating, first time ever, and that saves the taxpayers about hundred million dollars over the next ten years. He's done a lot of this with very strong, in many cases gutsy, leadership. To move and stay in that same direction it's going to take somebody that also has the values and the strength to carry-out what needs to continue happening in this state for it to be successful and for people to have the opportunities that many of them moved here for. I think as we go through this campaign a lot of people are going to start asking those questions as to where are the candidates in regards to these important issues? Do they have the experience and the strength to carry these issues forward? That's why it's so important.

Related Coverage:

2006 Primary

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