By Steve Huffman
Salisbury Post
Dr. Ada Fisher announced this week that she plans to seek the 77th N.C. House District seat currently held by Lorene Coates.
“I’m excited about running,” Fisher said. “My commitment to helping people remains high.”
Her plans are a switch from a week ago when Fisher said she told fellow Rowan County Republican leaders that she’d be making another bid for the 12th Congressional District, opposing Mel Watt once again.
Fisher said her plans changed because of family needs that require her to remain in North Carolina.
“There’s no need for me running for office where, when I win, I’d be distracted,” she said. “I believe in taking care of my family. When I realized what was going on at home, I thought, ‘I need to rethink this.’ ”
Fisher is well-known in Rowan County’s political circles.
She’s a former member of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education who ran against Watt in both 2004 and 2006, losing by wide margins both times.
Fisher also ran for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Salisbury native Elizabeth Dole.
Fisher is a retired physician, who worked at the Hefner VA Medical Center and elsewhere.
Reached by phone Wednesday evening, Fisher gave a long list of tasks ó everything from working to keep the city of Salisbury’s Lincoln Park pool open to implementing a GED program for the county’s inmates ó she hopes to complete if elected to the State House.
Fisher said one issue she’d like to take on as a state representative is to work to provide better mental health programs for North Carolinians.
She said a shooting spree like the one witnessed last year at Virginia Tech isn’t beyond the realm of possibilities in virtually any part of the country.
“A lot of people are losing it for a lot of different reasons,” Fisher said. “We don’t have any way to help.”
She said she’d also like to work to lower the state’s unemployment rate. Fisher wondered why calls from state residents seeking answers to questions about Medicaid are answered by people in India.
“Here’s a state where people need jobs,” Fisher said.
She said she wonders how Salisbury’s leaders could in one breath talk about efforts to curb gang violence and in the next talk about closing Lincoln Park pool, a facility that primarily serves minorities.
Fisher said money from Community Development Block Grants should be used to keep the pool open.
She also noted that Rowan County should look to implement a program similar to that started by Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes where non-violent criminal offenders must earn their GEDs as part of their sentencing.
“What a concept,” Fisher said.
She said North Carolina’s politicians need to work to protect the state’s water, noting that politicians from Georgia and Florida have each tried to drain our lakes and rivers.
Fighting those efforts requires a concerted effort of North Carolina’s leaders, Fisher said.
“We’ve got to cut beyond partisan politics,” she said.
The filing period for state races opens Feb. 11. Fisher said she plans to file as soon as possible.
Contacted at home Wednesday night, Coates said she hadn’t heard that she’d be challenged by Fisher. Coates said she plans to seek re-election.
“That’s fine,” she said when told that Fisher planned to seek her seat. “Let her run.”
Contact Steve Huffman at 704-797-4222 or shuffman@salisburypost.com.