David BurchFormer Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Regiment Lt Col David Burch has thrown his hat in the ring for Constituency 27 on behalf of the Progressive Labour Party. He is running for the seat vacated by Government’s 2007 winner, Elvin James.If successful in the general election, it will mark Lt Col Burch’s first occasion to serve as an MP.The 58-year-old Southampton resident has a lengthy career with the Progressive Labour Party, having become Government Senate Leader in 2001, and most recently serving as National Security Minister. Lt Col Burch stepped down from both positions in April of last year, acknowledging personal disagreements that swayed his decision, but remaining staunchly loyalty to the Party.“The Colonel” has never shied from controversy, and is subject to be respected or reviled for it.A graduate of the UK’s Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst — arguably the UK’s best-known officer training academy — Lt Col Burch’s Bermuda Regiment career spanned 20 years. Retiring from the Regiment in 1997, he became a high profile figure in the PLP Government from its outset, as a Senator and Chief of Staff under Premier Dame Jennifer Smith.He became Housing Minister in 2002, and later headed the Bermuda Housing Corporation, as well as being appointed Chairman of the West End Development Board.Hailed as a straight talker by Premier Paula Cox, Lt Col Burch has cited crime and the economy as key constituency concerns. At a meeting between PLP candidates and Warwick residents earlier this year, he told the community: “What you can count on is, what I say, I mean — and what I mean, I say.”Lt Col Burch ran unsuccessfully as a PLP candidate for Smiths South in 1998. He campaigned in Hamilton South in 2003 but lost to the United Bermuda Party’s Maxwell Burgess, and in the PLP primaries leading to the 2007 election he lost to Stanley Lowe, in his bid to run as a Southampton East candidate.He is currently engaged in business, and was unavailable overseas at the time of this article.Wayne ScottThe 45-year-old Warwick resident grew up on Spice Hill Road and now lives near Constituency 27 on Ord Road, but has lived in the US and worked extensively in Florida in particular.A businessman who has worked in “IT and telecommunications for the last 25 years”, he’s spent the last year in a new job as general manager of BHL Express Bermuda.Mr Scott was Chief Technology Officer at Logic Communications at the time he decided to run as a candidate in Warwick North Central — back then, for the United Bermuda Party. He lost to the PLP’s Elvin James in 2007.“I’ve gone from hanging out on walls to being a company CEO,” Mr Scott described himself. “I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum.”Asked what ranked top of peoples’ concerns in Warwick, Mr Scott replied: “The economy, without question, but crime as well. They’re closely connected.”He was speaking 24 hours after two men had been wounded in a shooting incident at nearby Khyber Heights Lane.“I’d just been up around Khyber Pass talking to young people earlier that night, ironically enough,” he said. “Rampant crime and no jobs — that’s what’s hitting our young people.”Mr Scott added: “I had a good upbringing and I went to the Bermuda Institute, but I had my wayward ways. I can relate.”A married man, he has two daughters with his wife Kym, Mr Scott said he was comfortable and very much at home throughout Constituency 27.“I’ve had a successful career and been in many leadership roles over the last decade and a half, but I still identify with who I am and where I’m from. I find it odd, how you could truly help a community if you don’t know it.”He said: “People are concerned about the economy, about how they can’t afford to live, and crime. Our Government has talked a really good game, but they haven’t adequately addressed it. I got into politics because I wanted to make a difference.”