Delegate Richard Anderson, R-Prince William County, was first elected to the Virginia House of Delegates in 2009. He serves the 51st district, which includes a vast amount of Prince William County. He is running up against Democrat, Reed Heddleston for reelection this fall.
Anderson says that Prince William County deserves a candidate that is going to represent and address their needs in the General Assembly.
Anderson is no stranger to the political scene in Virginia. He served for the U.S. Air Force for 30 years and received his education at Virginia universities. He has served two terms as a Delegate for the 51st House District.
Recent Legislation
Anderson says he is pleased with the changes he helped influence in the last legislative session. He proposed the driving-while-texting bill after he was approached by three Prince William County sisters who lost their brother to a texting driver.
He also is responsible for helping to initiate the “Virginia Values Veterans” program, focused on reducing veteran unemployment in Virginia by bringing in 4,000 increased job opportunities to the state.
Transportation
Anderson says that his opponent, Heddleston, is not politically in sync with the Prince William voters.
“He has called himself a progressive and moderate Democrat but in reality he is at the very left edge of the political spectrum,” he says.
Further, Anderson says he’s concerned Heddleston’s choices will end up hurting businesses and families rather than help them.
Anderson refers to the transportation reform package signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell last winter. Heddleston supported the legislation, but Anderson did not.
“I voted against the bill, as did most of the Prince William County delegation, because I had heard from literally several thousand people over the last four years, and they were not ready for any sort of tax increase in a down economy,” Anderson says.
“I do not subscribe to the premise that the way we will work our way out of these problems centers on tax increases,” Anderson says.
“I think it’s crucial though that even though it passed, we have to make sure that those monies are focused toward one final goal, and that is the relief of traffic congestion as much as humanly possible,” he says. “It’s all about quality of life.”
Education
Anderson says he devotes a lot of time to public education and school-related events. He says one important topic that needs to be addressed is class sizes.
“I think we’ve got to address the issue of student to teacher ratios in Prince William classrooms. The numbers are at 32-24 (students) and I have been in some classrooms as high as 36,” says Anderson. “The dialogue has to center around: how we do this? I’m not in favor of doing that with a tax increase.”
Anderson also says it is imperative that the state needs to come up of more effective ways to evaluate student and school performance. Gov. Bob McDonnell recently signed off on legislation that will use a performance rating system to assign schools a letter based on test scores and measures of the school’s improvement over time. Anderson did not vote for this method.
“I thought it was an overly simplistic method for evaluating schools,” says Anderson.
Obamacare
Anderson says the new health care expansion is going to be tremendous cost increase for individuals, families and businesses, despite what it’s promoting.
“There are so many private employers who are dropping insurance policies, dropping coverage on their employees, consequently, they’re going to be in a worse place than they were before Obamacare,” says Anderson. “I have a daughter who was formerly working a large number of hours and was pushed back to 29 hours of work so that (her employer) would remain below that threshold, so I am concerned about that.”
Anderson says that it is important that congress study the new healthcare law and work to reform and fix its shortfalls.
Jobs
Anderson says Virginia thrives as a small business state, despite Virginia’s fluctuation on a number of major ranking lists, for example, the Forbes Best States for Business list.
“In the ebb and flow of state performance among the 50 states, you’re going to see Virginia up and then down,” says Anderson. “But there is one fundamental reality, and that is that we stay up there nudged right at the top.”
Virginia has held its AAA bond rating for over 70 years and Anderson says only a handful of states have achieved that ranking.
“By the measured of any yardstick, Virginia is a good place to live, work, retire, raise a family, get an education and invest.”
Atif M. Qarni, a Democrat running for the 13th district seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, says that the main goal of his campaign is to improve the lives of the families within his district. Qarni resides in Dale City with his wife, Fatima and his two sons, Zane and Saber. He is running up against Republican Delegate Robert G. “Bob” Marshall, who is currently serving his 11th term.
Education
As an eighth-grade math teacher at Beville Middle School in Prince William County, Qarni says education is a top priority on his agenda.
“We need to really restore the budget levels to where they were in 2009 and before,” says Qarni. “As a teacher, I have seen resources being cut from our (public) schools first-hand. The state funding and county funding have been significantly reduced.”
Qarni says reducing class sizes and raising teacher salaries are two important solutions to tacking the issues facing education in Virginia.
“My average class size this past school year (2012-2013) was 34 kids,” Qarni says. “You can only imagine 34 eighth graders in a class room. It’s not fair to the kids. They’re not getting the full attention that they deserve.”
Regarding teacher salaries, Qarni says that in order to retain qualified teachers, Virginia needs to offer a better pay for its teachers, specifically, “where the cost of living is very high but the teacher salaries are not very competitive.”
Transportation
Qarni’s other priorities include traffic reduction and improving job formation.
“I would like to help people spend less time on the roads and more time with their families,” says Qarni.
He says it’s important to monitor the new transportation funds that were generated from the transportation reform bill last winter in order to ensure they are being utilized properly.
“[Transportation reform funds] don’t necessarily only have to be applied to spending on roads,” says Qarni. “We can also pump in that money into mass transit. We can pump in that money to creating parking facilities [and] we can encourage the use of satellite locations.”
Additionally, Qarni says the funds can be used to encourage people work remotely and utilize their Real Estate.
Jobs
When it comes to job creation in Virginia, Qarni says more can be done to serve the individual talents of those entering the workforce. He says that if you look at Virginia, many graduates are likely to leave and take their talents to other states.
“We need to have these individuals start their businesses here in Virginia or work for existing companies here in Virginia, and retain the talents here,” Qarni says. “I really believe that this is where job growth and economic growth tie together, retaining the talents that future generations have.”
In the future, Qarni says he hopes that his sons will choose to attend universities, work and develop their own careers in Virginia.
Medicare
With health care reform gradually expanding into Virginia, significant changes are expected to be made to Medicaid and Medicare. The Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, has received a large amount of press and mixed reactions in recent months.
“One of the issues with Medicare is that we have a fragmented health system in Virginia,” Qarni said. “With that expansion coming, the communication between the pharmacies and hospitals can become really efficient, which can really save money that can be applied to more health care needs.”
He adds: “If applied properly, Obamacare will be beneficial for the state.”
Military
As a former sergeant for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves, Qarni says he knows what it takes to serve as a combat veteran. Qarni joined the Marine Corps in 1996 and served for eight years. Qarni says the Military teaches many skills that are beneficial to the workforce and Virginia should continue to build upon being a military job center.
“We need to look out for those veterans that have fought for our freedom,” says Qarni.
Along with these issues, Qarni campaign has also focused on women’s health and reducing gun violence. He has recently received an endorsement from the Virginia Chapter of the National Organization of Women (NOW) and NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia.
“The 13th District deserves a Delegate who will focus on solving problems, not on an extreme social agenda,” said Sen. Mark Herring. “That’s why I am proud to support Atif Qarni. I know Atif will put his energy and his experience to work to do what’s right for the people of Prince William County and the people of Virginia.”
Meet Richard Cabellos, a Democrat running against Delegate Jackson Miller, R-Manassas, for the 50th seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. Cabellos lives in Manassas with his wife of five years, Yolanda, and their 3-year-old son, Cruz. He is currently working as the director of the Southgate Community Center in Reston, where he oversees youth leadership and volunteer programs, facilitates job-training programs for adults, and helps to conduct ESL classes, among other programs.
“My current job is so rewarding. I work with children as well as adults every day in a very diverse community,” says Cabellos.
Cabellos hopes to use his experience as a community leader and apply it towards his campaign. Cabellos says that he feels his opponent, Miller, has his own agenda. On issues such as education funding, transportation and women’s rights, Cabellos says Miller illustrates the stark contrast between the two candidates.
Education
“We definitely need to invest more in our schools and pay our teachers a fair salary,” Cabellos says. “I definitely would have done something different instead of voting and supporting taking away almost $620 million dollars from education,” says Cabellos. “I feel we need to invest more in education. My opponent has voted against education [funding].”
Further, Cabellos says it is important to consider early childhood education.
“Studies have shown that when children have access to quality early education, they have a better chance to do better in school and have a better opportunity in college,” he said.
“We need to invest more in what we take away from public education.”
Transportation
Cabellos supports the recent transportation reform package that was adopted July 1, though he says more still needs to be done to fix transportation issues in the Northern Virginia area.
“We have a lot of cars on the road, so I think public transportation should be looked at as one of the options,” he says. “We can also look at having a metro extended to Prince William County. I think that’s an option that a lot of people in this area and in my district would love.”
Cabellos says it is important to listen to the voters when deciding what areas of transportation need to be looked at.
“Talking to voters in my district, (transportation) is a main issue for them. It’s part of everyday life,” he says. “We can always think about more roads but also smarter construction.”
Jobs
Cabello’s parents came as immigrants to the U.S. over 50 years ago looking for new opportunities and eventually became small business owners. Cabellos says that growing up in a small business family inspired his desire to improve his community.
“I know that if my mom and dad didn’t get the opportunity to get loans and be able to afford to have a business in the area and bring in jobs, I wouldn’t be here today,” says Cabellos. “There has to be more infrastructure and investment in small businesses, because that’s what brings jobs to the state.”
Cabellos also says that having nondiscriminatory policies, job-training programs for those entering the workforce and creating more jobs locally will help drive business expansion and job creation.
“We need to be inclusive and invite commuting to businesses. We want to make sure the environment is conducive for businesses, first of all.”
Medicaid Expansion
As a proponent of Medicaid expansion, Cabellos says the new changes will benefit low-income families that would not be able to afford healthcare without it.
“We have a positive opportunity to make sure we get thousands of Virginians coverage. It’s a great opportunity for [Virginia] and I definitely support the expansion of it.”
Women’s rights
“I feel that government should not be in the business of telling a woman what she can or cannot do with her body,” says Cabellos.
“I would like to bring a new perspective to Richmond, says Cabellos. “Not just in representing my district but I also want to represent the Commonwealth as a whole.”
William “Eric” Herr is a candidate for the Hartwood District of the Stafford County School Board. He currently lives in Stafford with his wife of 30 years, Lisa, and works for the Department of Defense as an engineer and technology development program manager. He says he made the decision to run for the school board because he would like to see positive changes for schools and his district.
“I didn’t like some of the decisions that were coming out of the board and some of the strategies and some of the relationships between the Board of Supervisors and the school board,” says Herr. He says he will focus a large part of his campaign toward improving those relationships and conditions for teachers and students.
“I think the greatest challenge is that we’ve taken the focus away from the actual learning and teaching in the classroom,” says Herr. “There are many activities now that are not directly related to learning and teaching and I think we have to minimize and eliminate some of those activities.”
Herr says his goals consist of three main components: putting more trust into our teachers, focusing more on teaching and learning and adjust the compensation scale to attract more quality teachers.
“I’ve talked to a ton of teachers, hundreds of parents and I listen to what their priorities are and what their concerns are to get the most accurate picture of what’s going on.”
Herr also hopes to change the way schools are funded using an “inside-out” approach.
“The way we fund our school right now in Stafford is we fund the headquarters first and then that money trickles down to the classrooms,” he says. “My focus will be on funding the classrooms first.”
Herr says the starting pay in Stafford is one of the lowest, despite having one of the highest salaries for teachers in the region.
“Our starting pay is tied with the last in the region,” says Herr. “I think we need to raise that up so we can attract great teachers so they can become a part of the community and then promote our leaders from within a pool of great teachers.”
In reference to legislation signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell last spring that assigns an A to F grading system to rate a school’s performance, Herr says it is fair that schools are graded the same way students are.
“There can be no secrets and no information held back from the parents about how our schools our doing, just like they deserve to know how their children are doing,” says Herr. “I want to see all of our schools in Stafford get A’s, but whatever grade we get, I don’t think that’s the main issue.”
“The issue is making sure our schools are set up to best teach our students and then measure that performance and report that performance of the schools back to the parents.”
Herr says he will make a good candidate for the Hartwood seat of the Stafford County School Board because of his experience as a leader through the military and as a project manager.
“I understand how to develop a team and reach common goals and I think teamwork between the school board and board of supervisors is critical,” says Herr. “I think we need to be willing to listen and then synthesize the results into an accessible course of action.”
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QUANTICO, Va. – A gloomy day took a favorable turn for those participating in the first Snakehead Fishing Tournament at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Shawn Mahood, a Stafford County resident, says he caught a snakehead that he estimates to be 8 or 9 pounds – and it wasn’t giving up without a fight.
“It’s just the biggest, baddest thing out there so that’s what you want to catch,” said Mahood. “It was very feisty. I actually thought he was going to break my line.”
