Jeff Phillips speaks at a candidate forum on Monday. (photo by Cheryl Daniels)Jeff Phillips, the candidate for congress, comes across as a family man, a businessman and a limited government guy aligned with the Tea Party movement. And he is all those things.
But I knew him first, long before there was any talk of him running for political office, as a buttoned-down Christian dedicated to serving Greensboro’s homeless people. Phillips has been a reliable volunteer with the Salvation Army Nightwatch program.
One night a two or three years ago, I rode in the van as Phillips drove. We would stop in parking lots, near wooded encampments, at Urban Ministry and hand meals out the backdoor. We had blankets and toiletry bags, if I remember correctly. We would visit with people at each stop, and then before we left everyone would join hands and someone — often Phillips — would lead the group in prayer.
I didn’t know Phillips before that night. I don’t think either of us made much of an impression on the other. I might not have thought about him again if he hadn’t filed to run for Congress.
A Greensboro financial advisor, Phillips is running in a crowded field of challengers seeking to unseat 13-term incumbent Howard Coble in North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District.
When we met for lunch today at Jimmy John’s sandwich shop on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro today we naturally talked a bit about outreach to the homeless and policies designed to lift people out of poverty.
“I could not do this or any other endeavor and overlook people in my community, and if given an opportunity I would do that all over the 6th District,” Phillips said. “The reality of our communities requires all of us stepping up a little more for people who are hurting.”
I asked Phillips whether he, as a fiscal conservative, would support an investment of public funding into programs such as Section 8 housing vouchers and unemployment insurance that keep people from becoming homeless and help homeless people get off the street.
“I don’t have all the answers,” he responded. “I’m not opposed to our federal government providing some resources for appropriate situations, for job training opportunities and transitional shelter. I want to stress that these are transitional points.”
Of course, Phillips’ individual outreach efforts are wholly consistent with conservative political values.
“I believe the churches should play a major role to step up and commit to offering a bridge, for lack of a better word, to more normalcy,” he said. “Some people choose to live outside, and we have to respect that. The Bible says, ‘The poor will be with us always.’ That’s true in our community and in our nation. But we can do better."
Phillips said his focus from the beginning of the campaign on jobs and the economy sets him apart from his opponents, although he said that they have begun to talk more about those issues in recent weeks.
“The primary reason I’m in this is I’m in the financial services industry,” Phillips said. “For 24 years, I’ve been sitting across the table from people who are A, elderly people trying to figure out how to invest their money; B, people who have lost their jobs much sooner than they thought they would and are having to spend down their assets; C, businesses trying to keep their doors open and maintain payroll; D, I have two daughters in college. One graduates next month. Neither one is looking to this area for job opportunities. Why? Jobs are few and far between. That sets the stage as to why I’m so sensitive about jobs.”
Phillips said the other candidates have focused more on their opposition to the healthcare reform legislation signed into law by President Obama, the national debt and constitutional liberty. Those are issues that Phillips cares about, but he said he simply prioritizes jobs first.
That gets to why Phillips is the best candidate to represent the 6th District, he said.
“I’m more confident than ever that I’m the candidate that is most educationally and experientially qualified in the economic and employment landscape,” Phillips said. “I look at leading and lagging indicators every day: construction data, GDP, interest rates, inflation and employment data. My clients have depended on me to do this.”
Phillips favors reducing taxes and regulations to prod economic growth.
“Over two thirds of American workers are employed by small and medium-sized businesses,” he said. “I believe they’re the lifeblood of the economy. Their needs have been overlooked too long. They need tax incentives, they need tax credits, and they need easier access to loans. They definitely don’t need tax increases, either to income or capital gains. They definitely don’t need healthcare mandates.”
Which gets to Phillips’ opposition to the healthcare reform legislation.
“The desire for healthcare reform transcends party,” he said. “I think everybody would agree that healthcare costs too much. Everybody would agree that children with no healthcare needs to be addressed. People with preexisting conditions need not lose insurance. Cost is a big deal to me. Who is going to pay for that? They’re talking about taking a half trillion out of Medicare. You can’t take a half trillion out of an already struggling system. Care will be negatively affected. The second part, some would say, will be paid for by the rich. You don’t increase taxes and mandate penalties on the very people who are most likely to create jobs.”
Making job creation a priority will help address other challenges, Phillips said, such as healthcare, maintaining Social Security as the baby boom generation moves into retirement and paying down the national debt.
“It is a significant step in stabilizing these key areas of concern,” he said.
Triad Elections ’10
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