After two months of relative rest, Wes Allen told the Pike County Republican Women Wednesday that it was time for his campaign to get back in gear.

“If you’ve still got signs from the primary, it’s time to get those back out,” Allen told the group at the Troy Country Club. “It’s all about turnout. Touch the people that you’re closest to in civic groups, coffee class, Sunday schools, offices – make sure they understand how important elections are.”

Allen, currently the probate judge of Pike County, defeated Troy Council President Marcus Paramore in the Republican Primary on June 5 to secure the Republican nomination in the race for the District 89 seat in the Alabama House of Representatives. He will now face Joel Williams, a local attorney who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination, in the general election on Tuesday, November 6.

Allen focused primarily on his pitch to enter the legislature and work to keep “unelected bureaucrats” from creating red tape he said can be harmful to citizens.

“Sometimes the unelected bureaucrats in Montgomery have the authority to go out and write rules that sometimes make it harder on the everyday citizen,” Allen said. “I’ve seen some things in the tag department that we would like to look at.”

Allen said he has no specific plans to address some of the major issues facing the legislature such as prison reform and Medicaid, but said he wanted to take a conservative approach and represent the will of the taxpayers.

“The government is not here to be served by the taxpayer, the government is meant to serve the taxpayers,” Allen said.

Allen said his record in his role as probate judge points to how he would serve in the legislature.

“We expanded services in that office at no additional tax burden on the county,” Allen said. “The only way to renew a tag before we came in was to come into the office. Now you can renew it online and there’s a satellite office in Brundidge.”

Under Allen, the office also digitized records dating back to 1970s and have made them available online, which Allen said is a major update for the convenience of the county.