Jackson faces GOP challenger — a gas tax critic — in Senate District 27 rematch

Dyer County Commissioner Dr. Brandon Dodds, who lost to Sen. Ed Jackson in the 2014 Republican primary, tells the Dyersburg State Gazette he will try again in 2018.

In 2014, Jackson won the primary 11,136 votes to Dodds’ 7,763. He won Dyer and Lake counties and lost by only about 100 votes in Lauderdale. But Dodds’ was trounced by a margin of more than 5,000 votes in Madison County, Jackson’s home and by far the most populous in the district.

The 800-word announcement article is GOP generic – he’s for improving education, against federal government overreach, wants to expand economic development, etc. – doubtless in line with Jackson’s stance on things with one notable exception: Dodds wants to repeal the gas tax increase approved this year. Jackson voted for it.

Raised on a farm in rural Dyer County and son to a lifelong educator, Dodds, a 41-year-old conservative Republican and owner of Dodds Eyecare on Main Street in Newbern, says he understands the needs of the citizens in District 27 and is a proponent of less government regulation in state affairs.

…“I would like to repeal the gas tax,” stated Dodds. “The projected projects for that money is marked for certain counties and we [Dyer] are not one of those counties. There is a $2 billion excess in state funds and they still decided to increase gas taxes. When farmers take grain to the grainery, or anything else, they are having to pay more money, which means they will have to charge more for their products. … The end result is that the grocery stores will be raising prices because it’s costing them more to receive their products, so the sales tax decrease is misleading in the long term. … Again, we should be lessening the tax burden. We didn’t have to raise taxes for infrastructure.”