BY MEGAN ASHLEY FINK

NATCHEZ — A former longtime Democratic senator and the Republican senator who took his District 37 State Senate seat four years ago will square off again in Tuesday’s general election.

Democrat Bob Dearing and Republican Melanie Sojourner — both Natchez natives — disagree on several current issues facing the state.

,The candidates’ views on the issues are presented here in alphabetical order.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Bob Dearing

Bob Dearing, who served 32 years as senator before losing his seat to Sojourner in the 2011 election, considers himself a moderate Democrat. A former teacher, coach and elementary principal in Natchez-Adams School District, Dearing currently works as an Aflac insurance representative.

Elected officials around the state have faced increasing pressure to weigh in on the removal of the state flag from local government buildings and university campuses.

In 2001, 60 percent of Mississippians voted to keep the state flag, but the debate was recently sparked again following the racially motivated murders of nine members of a black Charleston, S.C., church in June.

The removal of the state flag from the campuses of the University of Mississippi, University of Southern Mississippi and others is the latest development in the flag controversy.

Dearing said he supports the faculty and administration’s right to remove the flag.

“I think that the universities’ decision was made by the proper authorities there on campus,” Dearing said. “I support the decision of the university staff.”

Dearing does not, however, see the flag issue coming up in the state Legislature any time soon.

“Eventually, the people of Mississippi will get an initiative going to remove the state flag and replace it with another symbol, but that’s down the road,” he said.

Initiative 42, a constitutional amendment that will be on the ballot Tuesday, has been part of the statewide discussion on education reform. Though Dearing said he supports Initiative 42, Dearing said he doesn’t expect it to pass because of the public confusion caused by the alternative option on the ballot.

Dearing said that the initiative would only pass if 40 percent of people who vote for governor also vote for the measure.

“Initiative 42 is very confusing,” he said. “For the first time in the history of the Legislature, they thought it wise to put an alternative (on the ballot). That’s never been done before. I think it was done to confuse people, and it worked.”

Dearing predicts that most voters will simply skip over the vote on 42 because of the confusion, and the initiative will fail to pass due to a lack of votes.

Dearing said that his stance on public education distinguishes him from his opponent, who he said does not share his commitment to K-12 education funding.

“My strong support for education, both at the K-12 level and the junior college and senior college level reaches out to everyone,” Dearing said. “For example, in 2014 and 2015, my opponent voted against the bond bills for our community colleges and senior colleges.”

Dearing said the region’s higher education institutions need the bond money for repairs to buildings as well as new construction projects.

“Please send me back to the senate where I can use my experience,” Dearing said. “You can trust my judgment.”

Dearing said he especially hopes the numbers at the polls will be significant. He said, “I hope we have a wonderful turnout. “

Melanie Sojourner

Republican Melanie Sojourner, is the incumbent District 37 senator. She is in the agriculture industry and cattle business, working in communications and marketing.

When it comes to the state flag, Sojourner said she does not support its removal from public places.

“I am one of two legislators that have spoken out about that issue,” she said. “Those are taxpayer funded institutes … as long as it’s our state flag, those universities should have to respect it.”

Sojourner also said that she would not support a legislative move to change the flag.

“It is my job as a legislator to develop sound public policy, and that cannot be done based on emotion.”

Sojourner said that to remove a flag because of its secondary use as a hate symbol would empower the hate groups that changed its meaning.

“That flag was originally just a soldiers’ battle flag,” she said. “I realize that it was hijacked by a group that used it for hatred and despicable purposes. We’re allowing a group that has hatred in their hearts to take a symbol that has one meaning and change it into something else.”

As far as Initiative 42, Sojourner said that measure would do more harm than good.

“(Initiative 42) is attempting to rewrite our constitution,” she said. It is attempting to say that access to public education is a constitutional right that you’re entitled to. I don’t necessarily know that I believe that,” Sojourner said.

Initiative 42 would put power over education funding in the hands of the courts, Sojourner said.

“Education is something that should be decided by the people,” Sojourner said. “And in the hands of the Legislature is where it needs to stay.”

Sojourner said that the Department of Education, given more funding and the power to control how it is spent, would “spend it on administration, and not on children and teachers.”

“I am one of only a few senators to vote against two bond bills,” Sojourner said.

She said the bond bills included cash payments to private businesses, and she voted against the bond bills in order to avoid those payments.

“They don’t allow [senators] to vote against individual bond projects,” Sojourner said. “It’s not responsible to give tens of millions to private companies. If I had a chance to vote for those individual college projects, I would have every time. My challenger has never not supported a bond bill, no matter what’s in it.”

Sojourner said it has been an honor to serve as senator the past four years.

“It would be an honor to continue,” she said. “I think we’re going in the right direction with our economy. I want the opportunity to continue in that direction.”