Issues

Change is coming to Richmond. I will bring to the state capital a new brand of leadership that focuses on our common priorities, solves problems in intelligent ways, avoids divisiveness and partisanship, and fosters unity, good government, freedom, opportunity, and prosperity. Mine is a strong voice backed by great ideas. None of the small-minded partisanship and status-quo mentality of my opponent, a 35-year incumbent who has been a Richmond insider since before I was born. It’s time for a new leader who is invested in the future of Northern Virginia and is willing to fight for it. Please read through these issue summaries, with an open mind and optimism that we can get things done with the right leadership.

Transportation infrastructure is supposed to be a major priority of our state government. So why is traffic such a mess? Because Richmond wastes taxpayer money on non-priorities and gives Northern Virginia short shrift in transportation infrastructure spending. We need to focus our budget on our top priorities, free up funds and set the stage for a long-term transportation strategy. We need institutional change, modernizing the early-20th-century bureaucracy and instituting sensible metrics for allocation of funds. Northern Virginia State Senators and Delegates should go to Richmond unified in the goal of bringing about such institutional change, which is the only way to bring about enduring fairness. My opponent has been in the General Assembly since before I was born, and the deterioration of traffic over the course of a generation proves: Dick Saslaw has failed Northern Virginia miserably on transportation spending. Before I called him out on it, his website’s discussion of Transportation was a mere three sentences long and read like a homework assignment of a student who didn’t do the reading. It shouldn’t take 35 years in office to finally “understand[] that Northern Virginia’s transportation problems have become simply unbearable.” They didn’t just “become” unbearable; that required incompetence on the part of our representatives in Richmond. Even worse, Dick Saslaw isn’t even honest about his record, saying whatever he thinks an audience wants to hear. His current (as of 11/5/11) website text says,

Northern Virginians know how congested our roadways are, and that’s why Senator Saslaw has continued to support vital projects like Rail to Dulles and HOT Lanes on I-495, I-395, and I-95.

Yet, at a North Springfield candidates debate,

When a member of the audience complained that the beltway HOT lanes will create more traffic congestion on side roads, Saslaw said, “I’ve never been a proponent of HOT lanes.”

Which is it? You can’t have it both ways. We need representatives who have principles and are honest to their constituents.

The transfer of 7,000 Defense Department workers to the Mark Center off Seminary Road, part of the Pentagon’s Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program, is set to cause huge traffic problems along the I-395 corridor. The Mark Center has been in the works for over five years. Yet no one in a position of leadership, Republican or Democrat, at any level of government, challenged the failure to accommodate thousands of additional cars at rush hour along an already-crowded major artery? Everyone agrees this is a train wreck of government incompetence, yet no one is being held accountable. There is a total vacuum of leadership. State and local “leaders” have known for five years this was coming, and they did nothing. The most powerful member of the State Senate, my opponent, Dick Saslaw did nothing. His only response has been that no one could stop the Pentagon’s decision to locate at the Mark Center. But that misses the point. Even after that decision was made, we had years to prepare for the traffic impact. Yet nothing was done. Let’s elect a leader who is responsive to his constituents and aware of developments that will have local and regional impacts.

Local Control

Empowering parents through local control of public schools is the default rule of good government. But our state government in Richmond trampled over that rule a quarter-century ago, mandating all public schools throughout the state start the academic year after Labor Day. Virginia is the only state with such a silly law. And my opponent supports it. He has repeatedly thwarted attempts to repeal the law, calling parents’ desires for their own children “hogwash.” Democrats and Republicans alike have introduced bills to weaken the law, but my opponent has those bills killed in committee. The law should be repealed, and it will be repealed if I am elected. Full stop, end of story. I will create and lead a unified bipartisan front of Northern Virginia Senators and Delegates, Republicans and Democrats alike. No one is asking Richmond to mandate an earlier start. We just want Richmond to stop telling us what to do with our public school system, one of the best in the nation. And we need to retire Saslaw to do it. As a graduate of Fairfax County Public Schools, I have some personal experience with this issue. First, AP courses, of which I took about a dozen, are sometimes incomplete by the time of the test. Second, summer camps often start before the FCPS school year ends. I was late to the Research Science Institute in 1993 for that reason, and I have heard of similar complaints from parents. E.g., the West Point Summer Leaders Seminar is already over by the time FCPS gets out. And the academic year ends later now than it did when I was in high school. Let’s get a State Senator who believes in good government and will stand up for Northern Virginia.

Virginia has an archaic tax system with a hodge-podge of antiquated levies, rising rates, industry-specific carve-outs, interest-group payoffs, countless subsidies, and more. Our tax system is the exact opposite of good government and the rule of law, and is the result of decades of interest-group politicking and uncontrolled spending by both parties. I propose totally overhauling Virginia’s tax scheme, replacing it with a system designed for long-term prosperity and transparency. No more loopholes. No more group favoritism. No more carve-outs and subsidies. No more inefficient, cost-hiding social and industrial policies enacted through the tax system. Just a simpler, fairer, more robust system, friendly and transparent to all, with a broad base and low, stable rates, sufficient to fund our most important priorities. My opponent has repeatedly proposed tax increases and spending increases while opposing audits and fiscal restraint. Even Tim Kaine opposed Saslaw’s tax increase proposal in 2008, yet Saslaw keeps proposing the same “solution” of increasing the tax burden on working families. Let’s elect a leader who understands sound economic policy and can make intelligent decisions regarding the state budget. Let’s elect a leader who isn’t beholden to corporate campaign contributors and special interest lobbyists in Richmond. Let’s elect a leader who is principled regarding good government and who works to protect the public fisc and taxpayer money.