Rock River resident Julie McCallister says she is running for the House District 47 because she said she is tired of fixing things after they are already broken.

“I’m tired of decisions being made without the general public’s interest in mind, without the quality of life of who’s here in Wyoming being the main motivator behind decision making –it’s not and I don’t think there’d be much argument that it is,” McCallister said. “We need turnover, we need people in there that are motivated to work as hard as they have to, to solve problems, to listen to the public and to bring ideas in from every aspect to improve things.”

McCallister, a Republican, said she plans to focus on diversifying the economy and spending.

“Wyoming needs to broaden their focus to bring in and support businesses that are going to offer more opportunities,” McCallister said.

McCallister said Wyoming’s students get a wonderful education at the University of Wyoming and then they move outside the state to find jobs.

“We need to address a need to diversify while still ensuring that the energy jobs that are so crucial to our economy, our history, the backbone of Wyoming, are as safeguarded as possible and at the same time diversifying things and supporting the businesses that are trying to diversify as much as possible,” McCallister said.

Spending is also an issue McCallister would like to address, particularly in education. McCallister said Wyoming needs to properly fund their schools without shortcomings.

McCallister said current HD 47 Rep. Jerry Paxton proposed a taxation increase to address the funding issues, which she disagrees with. McCallister said is not as simple as just increasing taxes to solve funding issues and that she thinks funding needs to be dealt with as the complex issue that it is.

If elected, McCallister said she would work to make sure she was representing the views of her district as well. She said in the past, she heard concerns from residents of HD 47 that they were not being represented properly.

“The job I am asking for is to represent them,” She said. “If I’m not listening to them, how can I do my job?”

McCallister said HD 47 constituents will probably know her from her two previous runs, which she said she learned a lot from. McCallister said she worked for UW for over 6 years doing heavy oil upgrading research. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s in Public Administration at UW as well.

She encourages constituents to reach out to her. She can be reached on her phone at 307-343-3663.

“I really can’t encourage voters enough to reach out and talk to me,” She said. “I want input from the public as much as possible.”

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