BREAKING POLITICAL NEWS — FIRST ON POTOMAC LOCAL NEWS
By URIAH KISER
DALE CITY, Va. — For Jeremy McPike, Virginia’s 31st House District begins and ends at fire station 10.
The district spans the area between Dale City in Prince William County and New Baltimore in Fauquier County, and a fire station 10 lies in each of the respective communities.
Now, after years of service as a volunteer firefighter in Dale City and working as the Director of General Services in Alexandria, McPike is considering a run to unseat long-serving Republican Scott Lingamfelter.
Quality of life, transportation, education, and energy are all hot-button items on his agenda.
“We’ve seen a diminished quality of life in our area and people are upset about it, and they have a right to be. Virginia’s position as the best place to do business has slipped from first to third over the years,” said McPike, a Democrat.
Funding road fixes and removing bottlenecks along Interstates 95 and 66 are also important for the future of business in the state, he said.
As Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s put forward a plan to abolish the gas tax and raise the state’s sales tax from 5 to 5.8% to meet the road funding need, McPike said it’s time the leadership in Richmond acknowledges the problem with the lack of road funding.
“I applaud Governor McDonnell for creating transportation and education funds, and that more in the state are recognizing the need for them. We know the gas tax is no longer adequate and money for roads will be gone by 2017,” said McPike.
He also urges reforms to the state’s redistricting process and allowing for an independent panel to make suggestions to the General Assembly on how to redraw voting districts in a transparent process and do away with a perceived notion of Gerrymandering. As it sits now, politicians redraw their own districts.
McPike touts his time working in local government as making him familiar with “streetlight” issues — the things that he says most constituents are concerned with.
In Prince William, he’s had experience working in the community as he oversaw the construction of the $7.5 million LEED certified, revered Dale City fire “Station 10,” which opened in 2009. It’s one of six energy efficient buildings he’s helped to construct.
A big green energy supporter, but drilling for oil off Virginia’s Atlantic coast is OK as as long as it doesn’t impede cargo and naval ships traveling in and out of Norfolk’s ports, said McPike.
And he’s fully against lifting Virginia’s ban on uranium mining.
“Fauquier has one of the largest deposits of uranium in the state. If there was a problem with the mining process or runoff, it would run right into the Occoquan River, right into our drinking water,” said McPike.
A Captain in the Dale City Volunteer Fire Department, serving his community while “running calls” with fellow volunteers is where he feels most at home — so much so he may use one of the stations as a backdrop to officially announce his candidacy.
McPike, a Dale City native, has been married to his wife, Sharon, for 12 years. He met her on a Halloween night in 1990 and said they have been best friends ever since. The couple’s three daughters, ages 4, 7, and 11-years-old are also very excited about his run but will have to adjust as their father readies for a campaign that will place him under the community microscope.
He says he’ll need to get out and door-knock, attend community events, and spearhead a grassroots campaign if he plans to unseat Lingamfelter, who also lives in Dale City and has served in the 31st District since 2002. Lingamfelter is on a crowded list of candidates to be Virginia’s next Lt. Governor.
Voters will go to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2013.
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