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Borne offers Perry Hall a pro-life alternative

Pro-life Republican candidate Craig Borne has got a stiff challenge in his run for State Senate in the Perry Hall area of Baltimore County.

His opponent, District 8 State Sen. Katherine Klausmeier, a Democrat, has held the office for 12 years in a district in which Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.

But, says Borne, “I’ve always looked at obstacles and barriers as a challenge.”

For him, those words are no idle cliché.

At the age of 15, Borne lost the sight in his left eye.  When he was 21, as the result of a hereditary eye disease, he became blind in his remaining eye.

A college student at the time, Craig had planned to be a chiropractor.

“When I lost my sight, I had to switch gears and rethink my goals,” Borne told a group of seniors at Oak Crest Village September 5.

Craig had enjoyed teaching Sunday school for years.  He decided to become a teacher and graduated with a degree in literature and a minor in education.

In 1998 he began work as a sixth grade Language Arts teacher at Parkville Middle School, becoming the first blind teacher in Baltimore County.

While holding down his full-time teaching position, Borne enrolled at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

He earned his law degree in 3 ½ years, graduating magna cum laude in 2005.  He was admitted to the Maryland State Bar that same year and is currently a disabilities attorney for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

In his uphill battle against an entrenched, pro-abortion incumbent, the 33-year-old Republican has been going door-to-door in his district, talking to both Democrats and Republicans.

“We’ve knocked on about 5,000 doors so far,” he said.

Klausmeier “has always painted herself as a moderate to conservative,” he noted.  “But she has been a rubber stamp for [Senate President] Mike Miller.

“I differ with her on fiscally conservative issues and on abortion issues.”

Klausmeier has received a 100 percent approval rating from Planned Parenthood of Maryland.

She voted for embryonic stem cell research and in favor of partial-birth abortion, both of which Borne opposes.

During this year’s Senate debate on the bill to fund embryonic stem cell research, said Borne, “Her quote from the floor was, ‘Donating an embryo is just like donating a kidney – I don’t see what the big deal is.’”

A Senate filibuster led by Senate Minority Leader Andy Harris to stop passage of the bill failed when Democratic Sen. Roy Dyson, who had joined the filibuster, broke ranks under pressure from Mike Miller, said Borne.

“If we had had one more [pro-life] senator, we could have stopped the bill,” he asserted.

“What is the goal?  The goal is to have someone in the State Senate to help people like Andy Harris and [conservative State Senator] Alex Mooney.”

The first-time candidate is one of several State Senate candidates receiving financial support from the state GOP, which has targeted certain districts for victory in November.

Their aim is to add five Republican members to the Senate, giving Gov. Robert Ehrlich a veto-proof chamber if he is re-elected in November.

After his talk at Oak Crest, Borne, who was accompanied by his wife Jean and children, Jessica, 6, and Christopher, 4, talked election strategy with a small group of seniors.

The residents agreed to phone registered Republicans at Oak Crest, asking them to vote for Borne in the September 12 primary, and follow up by distributing Borne flyers.

Borne was endorsed by the Maryland Republican Assembly in July because of his support for pro-life values, Second Amendment rights, and his belief in less taxes and smaller government.

He has signed the Maryland Taxpayers’ Association pledge not to raise taxes if he is elected to the State Senate.

On the hot-button issue of illegal immigration, Borne said that he would oppose giving in-state tuition and drivers’ licenses to illegals.

In contrast, he noted, “Klausmeier voted to allow illegal immigrants to sit on state juries.”

He added, “When people ask me, ‘How can you be a senator and be blind?’, I tell them that most of the senators we have now are blind.

“I also say, ‘I may be blind, but I haven’t lost my vision.’ ”