Alabama House District 48

Jim Carns

Party: Republican

Age: 77

Residence:  Mountain Brook

Political experience: Alabama House of Representative, 1990-2006; Jefferson County commissioner, 2006-2010; Alabama House of Representatives, 2011-present; co-chaired 18-member Jefferson County Legislative Delegation – elected by peers three of his four legislative terms; chairman of the House Republican Caucus as minority leader; was chairman of the Industrial Development and Economic Growth; member, Rules and Ways and Means committees; member, Association of County Commissioners of Alabama and the National Conference of Republican County Officials

Professional experience:  Owner, American Medal Technology, 1993-2004

Education:  B.S.in Engineering, University of Alabama, 1962

Civic experience:  Elder, Briarwood Presbyterian Church

Main issues:  School safety, economic development and transportation top the Carns agenda.

“The largest part of our budget is education, and I have to focus on that every year … and an extra focus right now is on safety in education because that is going to be the biggest thing we’re going to take up when we go into session in 2019 and that is going be getting these resource officers into as many schools as we can as quickly as we can,” he said.

Existing businesses are the focus of his economic development platform. “… I’ve always been pushing for economic development and for Alabama to be more user friendly to existing businesses that are here and can expand if they want to, as well as offering incentive programs to get large new businesses coming in. … Also roads and transportation is going to be a really big issue.”

Top contributors:  Automobile Dealers Association of Alabama Inc. Auto PAC, $5,000; Alabama Forestry PAC, $5,000; Progress PAC, $5,000; Southern Strategy Group PAC, $3,000;

Campaign issue: www.jimcarns.com