Candidates Pawlenty, Huntsman Tell F & F Activists 2 Parent Involvement After Divorce Is Crucial

Candidates Pawlenty, Huntsman Tell F & F Activists 2 Parent Involvement After Divorce Is Crucial

F & F member Jeff Oligny (right, near cameras) asks popular presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty (left) about family court reform at June 12 campaign event.

 

F & F member Lorraine Corbeil (left), a grandmother, tells Pawlenty (right) 'all parents should have shared parenting.'

A contingent of Fathers and Families' Election 2012 Campaign activists attended New Hampshire GOP events over the weekend and asked presidential candidates Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman about shared parenting.

F & F member Jeff Oligny asked Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a popular presidential candidate, about family court reform. Oligny, a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, told Pawlenty:

In today's family law system, most non-custodial parents only get to spend a few days a month with their children. This is devastating for a lot of children who love both of their parents and want to spend time with them. How do you plan on fixing it?

F & F activist/NH House member Jeff Oligny (left) with Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman (right) at June 10 event.

Pawlenty replied:

[O]ne of the most significant determining factors of how children are going to do in school and more broadly in life is the degree of involvement and engagement of their parents in their lives. We want to encourage that to the fullest extent possible. And so the laws…as they relate to the relative balance between custodial and non-custodial [should reflect] that we want both parents engaged and productive…in their children's lives.

Pawlenty, who finished tied for 2nd in a recent New Hampshire GOP Straw Poll, was also questioned on the subject by F & F member Lorraine Corbeil, a grandmother. Corbeil told Pawlenty, "We feel that all parents should have shared parenting. Mothers and fathers," to which Pawlenty replied "Right," and noted "a lot of states have made some progress about that." He also explained:

I know you [have to] make sure you have the best interest of the child, first. In some cases one of the parents has some other life issues that you have to put into the equation, too.

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Pawlenty's response is reasonable–certainly we acknowledge that there are situations in which shared parenting is not appropriate, particularly if there's solid evidence that one of the parents is abusive or is unfit due to substance abuse problems, mental illness, etc.

F & F activists also took family court reform to another Republican presidential hopeful, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (pictured). At a June 10, event Oligny asked Governor Huntsman:

I think we would all agree that children value their parents probably more than anything in the world. And unfortunately, non-custodial parents in this country only get a chance to see their children a few days a month. And this is devastating for a lot of children who love and want to spend time with their family…what do you think you might be able to do about it?

Huntsman replied:

I totally agree with your assessment on the need for children to be able to bond and interact with their parents. When they're there, they do better. And when they are estranged, they do worse. There is something about a parent figure that is so critically important and indispensable in the lives of families.

I'm somewhat familiar with some cases that have played out in Utah where fathers in particular were estranged from their children. Unfortunately, caught up in the legal system, caught up in bureaucracy, we did what we could do. But I understand where you are coming from and if you have any specific solutions on how we ought to be looking at this issue, I'd love to hear them.

Pawlenty and Huntsman certainly stopped short of specifically calling for family court reform, in contrast to what Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Gary Johnson told F & F activists over the past couple weeks. However, we commend both of them for publicly recognizing the importance of two parent involvement in children lives after divorce or separation, and expressing interest in how to reform the system to promote it.

To learn more, please visit Fathers and Families' Election 2012 Campaign.

To watch videos of the various candidates' remarks, visit http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=78374271&msgid=1012426&act=YLE9&c=386094&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Ffathersandfamilies.