Bunch, Goins file for 82nd District State Rep. seat

Current 82nd District State Representative Regina Bunch will finish her husband’s unexpired term this year, and she has filed for re-election seeking a full term of her own. But she won’t be without opposition.

Both Bunch, a special education instructor with the Whitley County School System, and convenience store owner James Larry Goins filed this week as candidates for the job.

Bunch took over as 82nd District State Representative following an uncontested special election in December. She is wife of former Stat Rep. Dewayne Bunch who was forced to resign from the position after suffering a brain injury while breaking up a fight between two teenage students at Whitley County High School last April. Bunch was a teacher at the school. He had defeated long-time State Rep. Charles Siler for the job in a Primary Election in 2010.

"I had a lot of people from home, particularly from Williamsburg, call and ask me to run," Bunch said. "I appreciate the opportunity to take Dewayne’s seat."

Bunch said she is uncertain how long she would like to serve in the post. Ideally, she would like to be there until her husband’s health improves then step down so he could run for his old seat.

During her short stint in office, Bunch said she has just been working with officials to identify local needs and use her position to help with them. She was disappointed with a House Bill 1, a redistricting plan that, while changing her district little, seemed to make changes aimed at taking other representatives out of their current districts and force them to run against each another in the upcoming election.

"I found it very frustrating," Bunch said. "The politics should be taken out of it."

Other issues of importance, Bunch said, are a measure that would make psuedoephedrine, the active ingredient in many over-the-counter sinus decongenstants, available by prescription only as a way to control production of methamphetamine. She also wants to looking into abuse of state aid programs and will be co-sponsoring a bill that would permit teachers to carry pepper spray that could be used to break up incidents such as the one that led to her husband’s injury.
Also filing this week for the position is local storeowner James Larry Goins.

Goins, 64, filed paperwork Monday indication his intention to be placed on the ballot. Both he and Bunch are Republicans.
Goins, from Williamsburg, is owner of Goins’ Market on Hwy. 92E. He ran for the job in 2008 and is making his second foray into politics.

"People have been asking me to get back into it," Goins said. "I’ve probably had about two or three dozen people wanting me to run so I decided it was the right thing to do."

Goins is a Vietnam War veteran who served with the U.S. Army’s First Infantry Div. from 1968-69. He is also a graduate of the University of the Cumberlands with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education. He worked for 21 years as a manager for Banker’s Life Insurance and has owned Goins Market for the past seven years. He also owns rental property in the area.

"I’d like to get more money from the state coming back into this area and try to get some jobs around here," Goins said. "It’s hard to have a specific plan because you have to be in Frankfort and see what the county officials need. I just plan on doing what the people has asked me to do and put a good foot forward and listen to the people and do what is best for them."

"I just want a better Whitley County."