Rep. Ted Davis, Jr. (R-New Hanover) House District 19 “All I know is that we’re doing something” –Rep. Ted Davis, in response to the Senate’s unwillingness to take up his GenX bill. (WRAL, 1/10/18) Ted Davis Jr., a descendent of one of New Hanover’s wealthiest families, followed an uneventful legal career with an unremarkable tenure as county commissioner. Davis switched affiliation to Republican for political expedi ence in order to run for public office. He was elected to the legislature in 2012 and has largely been a cog in the Raleigh political machine. As such, he failed to deliver anything of note for the Wilmington area, like the return of meaningful film incentives. Davis’ s time in the state House is probably most exemplified by his tenure as Chair of the House Select Committee on River Quality set up to “res pond” to the GenX crisis. In a role meant to give Davis a chance to shine , he has so far doled out taxpayer money to political cronies of Republican leadership and allowed a trade association lobbyist for Chemours , the company responsible for dumping GenX in our drinking water, to write three budget provisions that let the polluter off the hook. Rep. Ted Davis, Jr. Meanwhile Cape Fear Public Utility Authority customers are seeing their bills go up to pay for GenX cleanup and taxpayers are stuck with the bill for more “study” of the problem. Davis ’s inept handling of GenX is just the latest example of his failure to provide meaningful service to the people of his district as he plays follow- the- leader in Raleigh. Davis went along with the Raleigh Republican leaderships’ agenda to hand out more tax breaks to big out of state companies while our public schools remain underfunded. He failed to raise teacher salaries, which remain well below the national average. Davis served on the committee that failed to correct legislative districts ruled illegal racial gerrymanders, continuing the recent Republican tradition of denying voting rights to African-Americans. While on the county commission Davis blocked funds for health insurance that covered contraceptives but has been more than happy in the legislature to provide millions in taxpayer funding for so-called Crisis Pregnancy Centers. These fake clinics claim to provide health services House District 19 despite not being required to have medical professionals on site. They have been documented to give false and misleading information to people seeking care. Read on for more information about Davis. Instead of swiftly responding to the GenX crisis with funding for DEQ, Davis allowed Chemours lobbyists to write key budget provisions that let them off the hook and made preventing future water crises more difficult. • Davis failed to fund meaningful solutions to the GenX crisis and failed to push his bill across the finish line • Davis voted for the 2017 budget that cut DEQs budget for clean water programs and the 2018 budget that included provisions written by Chemours lobbyists that will limit future monitoring and study of contaminants in our water • Rates have gone up for Cape Fear Public Utility Authority customers to pay for GenX cleanup Davis supported the Republican agenda that placed tax breaks for out of state corporations ahead of raising teacher pay to the national average. • Out of state corporations have received $3.5 billion in tax cuts from Republican budgets • Teacher pay is still nearly $10,000 below the national average and teachers are forced to pay $500 to $1,000 out of pocket annually for classroom supplies not covered by Republican budgets • Schools are the second largest employer in New Hanover County, but Davis has repeatedly reinforced the idea that teachers are paid enough Davis served on the committee that failed to fix legislative districts ruled unconstitutional racial gerrymanders • The 2011 maps were ruled unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. They packed African- American voters into districts, diluting their vote in others • Lawmakers failed to comply with the courts orders to correct the racial gerrymanders and Davis gave the green light to maps that the court ruled failed to correct problems. As a county commissioner, Davis blocked coverage for contraceptives, but as a lawmaker found it appropriate to spend millions of taxpayer dollars to fund fake pregnancy clinics • Davis: “If these young women were responsible people and didn’t have the sex to begin with, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”’ • Davis voted for Republican budgets that allocated millions to crisis pregnancy centers and pro-life organizations. Davis’s inept handling of GenX is just the latest example of his failure to provide meaningful service to the people of his district GenX, a chemical compound discharged into the Cape Fear River with unknown health risks and showed high levels in Wilmington after a study by an NC State professor. GenX replaced older manufacturing chemicals seen as unsafe but was largely understudied and had no health recommendations. “GenX is the trade name of perfluoro-2-propoxypropanoic acid, used to make Teflon, Gore-Tex, fast food wrappers and other products. It was meant to replace older chemicals also in the “perfluorinated” family used in manufacturing. Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has established health advisories for these older chemicals, such as PFOA, which has been known to cause cancer in animal tests, the agency has no such recommendations for the largely unstudied GenX. Despite the focus on GenX since June 2017, the compound has a long history in Wilmington-area water, where it has been discharged for years by the chemical company DuPont – and its spin-off Chemours – out of the Fayetteville Works facility.” (WRAL, 8/17/17) The state began testing for GenX in June 2017 and Chemours stopped dumping the chemical. “State environmental officials began testing locations along the Cape Fear River for concentrations of GenX on June 19, 2017, and have continued to sample the water to track the contaminant. After the chemical company Chemours agreed to stop dumping GenX into the river June 20, concentrations dropped drastically, in most cases below the 140 parts per trillion public health standard set by the Department of Health and Human Services.” (WRAL, 8/31/17) Davis served as senior chairman of the House Special Select Committee on River Water Quality, but repeatedly voted with his party for bills that harm the environment and reduce the budget for environmental monitoring. Davis serves as senior chairman of the House Special Select Committee on River Water Quality. Reps. Holly Grange and Frank Iler serve as co-chairmen. Members include Reps. Bill Brisson, Jimmy Dixon, Elmer Floyd, Pricey Harrison, Larry D. Hall, Pat McElraft, Chuck McGrady, Bob Muller, Bob Steinburg, Scott Stone, and Larry Yarborough. (NCGA, Retrieved 12/6/17) Under Republican control, both DEQ and DHHS have faced massive budget cuts leaving the departments without adequate funding to study emerging contaminants like GenX. Since 2013 DEQ has been forced to eliminate about 70 positions. “DEQ’s release said the department has seen the elimination of about 70 permitting, compliance or enforcement positions since 2013. We have deployed our experts to address the immediate concerns in the Lower Cape Fear region, Regan said in a statement, but because of cuts over the last few years, long-term solutions will take more resources than our department currently has. Under the proposal, the department would add four engineers, three environmental specialists, two environmental senior specialists, two hydrologists, two program consultants, a business technology analyst and two chemists. Those positions, a spokesman said, would serve two purposes. On one hand, they would address emerging contaminants such as GenX, which can go unregulated for decades before the federal government sets standards. On the other, they would help address a backlog of major wastewater permits that has risen from 14 percent in 2010 to 42 percent a category that includes Chemours, who has been legally operating under a permit that expired in October.” (Wilmington Star-News, 8/9/17) Davis voted for the 2017 budget, which ordered DEQ to cut $1.8 million over the next two years. “Just days after North Carolina environmental regulators began looking into a potentially hazardous pollutant in one of the state’s biggest rivers, state lawmakers cut their funding. In the new budget they passed June 22, legislators ordered the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality to cut $1.8 million over the next two years. It was just the latest in a decade of cuts to state regulators. While exact budget comparisons are difficult because of shifting agency responsibilities, money directed to environmental regulation has dropped by millions of dollars over the last decade, even as the state budget has grown significantly. Dozens of environmental protection jobs have disappeared, in specialties ranging from the coast to rivers and air pollution. And a months-long backlog of paperwork mean more companies are able to operate under outdated permits, without recent oversight.” (News & Observer, 9/22/17) Davis voted for H56, the “junk drawer of environmental bills,” where lawmakers added $435,000 for GenX research to the bill that repealed the Outer Banks plastic bag ban and reduced county authority over landfills. Republican legislators tied funding to monitor GenX to a repeal of the coastal ban on plastic bags. “Republican legislators tied new funding Wednesday to monitor GenX in the Cape Fear River to a long-discussed repeal of North Carolina's coastal ban on plastic bags. The two issues got sewn together in legislation that emerged in the early evening. House Bill 56 also includes provisions to create a new storm damage mitigation fund for the coast, as well as language that takes away some county authority to dictate that garbage collected within county borders also be dumped there.