Mark Dudenhefer won both Prince William and Stafford counties in his Primary bid to be the Republican nominee for the Virginia House of Delegates seat in the second district.
Dudenhefer easily beat opponent Republican Tim Ciampaglio in Stafford by nearly 20 points. In Prince William, it was 13 points. It’s a better showing for Dudenehfer who two years ago lost Prince William County by 32 points to Democrat Micheal Futrell.
But Tuesday’s election was a primary, and now Dudenhefer must look ahead to November’s General Election. Right now, it’s unclear which Democrat he will face in the race after current candidate Rod Hall told party leaders he will drop out of the race.
That could make way for Futrell to step up once again and run for the seat after his loss on Tuesday to Jeremy McPike, a Democrat who won the nomination to for the 29th district Senate seat in Prince William County to replace the long-serving Chuck Colgan.
Futrell on Monday told Potomac Local he was focused on Tuesday’s Primary Election and did not want to make any predictions for what would happen afterward.
Still, Dudenehfer plans to campaign on a key issue — one he’s talked about since he was first elected to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors 10 years ago: Transportation.
“We’re never going to stop talking about transportation,” said Dudenhefer, who lost his daughter in a crash on a winding two-lane road in Stafford prior to his election to the board of supervisors.
The retired Marine colonel was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2013. During that time, he worked with Stafford officials — namely Cord Sterling, who was on the Commonwealth Transportation Board at the time — to secure funding for a massive, new highway interchange at Courthouse Road in Stafford. When you’re looking at a map of the old project, think Springfiled Interchange, Jr.
While out of office, Dudenhefer was critical of Futrell and Gov. Terry McAulliffe while money that had been allocated for the project was placed in a lockbox and the project under review by the Commonwealth Transportation Board — a governing body in Richmond on which Cord Sterling no sits.
With less funding available, the project has been scaled down. But Dudenhefer pledges to fight to restore it, as well as focus on other area roads. During his first term in the General Assembly, he also pushed for a study to extend Metro to Prince William County. He was also supportive of then Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s successful effort to raise state sales taxes to garner more money for transportation projects.
Jobs will also be a key issue for the Republican.
“We’ve managed to stay above the real bottom of the recession, but we can very easily see some declines in employment in our area if the defense department continues to cut back the number of jobs,” said Dudenhefer.
Diversifying the region’s workforce away from its sharp focus on federal government jobs will be key to job growth in the area, he said.
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