Diana McWilliams can’t believe it’s election time again.
McWilliams, running for a third term in eastern Brandywine Hundred’s 6th Representative District, said it feels like only yesterday that declared her first run for office at Fox Point State Park.
Now, after four years in Dover, McWilliams said she is excited about the prospects of the coming years, especially if her Democratic Party can take over the majority in the House this November. The Republican advantage has shrunk from 17 seats to only three in the last three election cycles.
“Being in the minority, it feels like you don’t have the control to get things done as quickly as we’d like to,” she said. “But we’re gaining ground and I think there’s a lot to be done.”
McWilliams, who is running unopposed, said her top priority for her next term is to reform the state’s Medicaid program. She said she’d like to see the entire program studied and made more user-friendly.
“Medicaid represents a huge portion of our budget and we have to be clearer with people about how it works and what the eligibility is,” she said.
McWilliams said she also hoped to address the state’s infant mortality rate and the disparities she said exist between whites and some minority groups.
“A lot of it is the state and providers getting the word out and making services available to those populations,” she said. “I’m hoping that’s something we can address and help improve preventive care.”
Another top agenda item, McWilliams said, is finally establishing a curbside recycling program throughout the state. She said the service being provided by the Delaware Solid Waste Authority in scattered pockets did not go far enough.
“If we’re going to be doing recycling, we should be funding it and supporting it,” McWilliams said.
She said she would support legislation similar to House Bill 159, which she said works within the framework of Delaware’s free-market trash hauler system. The bill died at the end of session on July 1.
“Short of changing how Delaware is with trash districts, which doesn’t make sense, that bill worked in our current business model while offering incentives for people to invest in what works for them in their own locality,” McWilliams said.
Locally, McWilliams said she was keenly monitoring the planned installation of a walking path along Shipley Road, which will start with a small section between Rockwood and Bringhurst Woods up to Shipley Ridge and Old Mill Lane. She said ultimately the path could extend further north, but only once community consensus has been formed about what they want there.
“This section might give the community a better idea of what they might like for the future,” she said.
McWilliams, 40, lives in Shipley Ridge with her husband Bob and four children.
