Turner files for 6th District seat

Sam Turner

Gregory S. "Sam" Turner, a United Airlines Pilot living in Salisbury, will be lying in wait during the primary season.

Turner is the lone Democrat who has filed for the 6th District House seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, a Republican. Turner will face the Republican emerging from the May 4 GOP primary in the Nov. 2 general election.

Coble faces challenges from five other Republicans. The 6th District takes in Alamance, Randolph and Moore counties and significant parts of Rowan, Davidson and Guilford counties.

Turner is new to politics and used to be a Republican.

"I've come to believe the only chance for solutions is the Democratic Party," he said. "The Democratic Party is the party of the worker, and supporting the American worker is the patriotic thing to do."

Turner acknowledges that his campaign resources will be limited in 2010, and he expects to run mostly a Web-based campaign, hoping to gain name recognition and position himself for future elections.

"I'm in it for the long haul," he said.

If he were to win the congressional race, Turner said his airline would give him time off through its voluntary furlough program.

Turner said he's running for Congress out of frustration.

"We have a leadership, budget and trade deficit," he said. "We have very serious issues that need to be dealt with such as off-shoring jobs, reigning in Wall Street and lobbying reform."

Turner, 48, lives on Wake Drive in Salisbury. He earned a degree in operations engineering at N.C. State University in 1984 and a master's degree in international business from Webster University in 1996.

He describes himself as a nationalist and sees Republicans as belonging to "the party of the multi-nationalist corporate and Wall Street elite.

"These corporations have no allegiance to the American public," Turner says. "We have to address the failures of free trade, Wall Street and Congress."

Turner says Coble is a prime example of the lack of leadership in Congress.

"Howard still calls textiles, furniture and tobacco 'traditional bread-and-butter industries' of our district," Turner said. "Those industries have laid off 72 percent, 43 percent and 38 percent of their employees between 1990-2006.

"He has no idea his unabashed support of free trade has caused this destruction. We have to attack the trade deficit by becoming more aggressive with other countries over trade."

Turner also calls for reigning in Wall Street by bringing back regulations previously repealed by Congress."People don't realize, but the financial industry has been bailed out eight times since 1980," he said. "He added that Wall Street has managed "to privatize their profits and socialize their risk."

Wall Street also has spent $5.1 billion on campaign contributions and lobbying over the past decade, which comes out to about $1 million per congressman, Turner added.

Turner has 13 years of experience in the Air Force and an additional 10 years in the Air Force Reserve.

He is a former member of the Cooleemee Historic Association board and a former member of the River Park task force in Cooleemee. He belongs to Cooleemee VFW Post 1119.

Turner is married to the former Joan O'Connell. He has three daughters.

The GOP candidates in the May 4 primary include Coble, James Taylor of Pinehurst, Jeff Phillips of Greensboro, Jon Mangin of Stokesdale, Cathy Brewer Hinson of High Point and Billy Yow of Greensboro.