The campaign finance reports for the three Democratic primary candidates in Virginia’s 29th Senate district – Jeremy McPike, Delegate Michael Futrell and Atif Qarni – show that the race is going to be very competitive.

“What these numbers show is, is that we are looking at a competitive race for this Democratic nomination,” said Stephen Farnsworth, professor and director at the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington.

According to the State Board of Elections website, McPike reported $50,000, Qarni reported $35,743 and Futrell reported $31,716 for this first quarter.

“All three [candidates] have shown an ability to raise roughly comparable amounts of money, which will enable them to spend roughly comparable amounts of money – yard signs, and flyers,” said Farnsworth.

Farnsworth stated that while money is typically very important in political races in Virginia, given that the race is a primary, and all three candidates have raised similar amounts – money is not the most important factor right now.

“The turn out in primaries is very, very low in Virginia. As a result, you have to spend a significant amount of energy to convince people to support you – and then after that – you have to spend a significant amount of money after spending [a lot] of energy, to get them to turn out. So it’s a doubly difficult task to win in a primary…Fundraising will intensify in the weeks ahead as more people start to think about the primaries,” said Farnsworth.

All three candidates will be taking part in a primary debate, hosted by Potomac Local, on May 18.

[ngg_images gallery_ids=”384″ display_type=”ds-nextgen_royalslider”]

There’s a little piece of Manassas in electronic devices around the globe.

Buddy Nicoson, a site director at Micron Technology, said that parts created on-site in their Manassas plant are used for devices and cars around the world.

“Chances are that your [mobile] device has a component in it now that’s made in Manassas. On average, there are three Micron parts in every car made globally,” said Nicoson.

Micron hosted First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday to speak about the administration’s Joining Forces initiative for hiring veterans.

Micron is one of the companies that have taken part in the initiative, which just celebrated its 4-year anniversary.

Following the drawdown in the Middle East, the Obama administration saw a huge uptick in unemployment for United States veterans.

“The year that we launched [Joining Forces] the unemployment rate for our 9/11 generation of veterans was more than 12%. And for our younger veterans – it was far worse…and so we knew we had a crisis on our hands,” Obama said.

According to Obama, President Obama challenged the private sector to hire 100,000 veterans and military spouses in 2011.

As of right now, private companies have hired more than 850,000 veterans and their families since Joining Forces was formed, said Obama.

“That number comes on top of the hiring that we’ve done on the Federal government. This is an amazing accomplishment, and I am really so grateful to everyone across this country who made it possible…we should all take a moment to sit back, and feel good about what we’ve achieved together – but we should only sit back for a moment because we know there’s so much work left to do,” Obama commented.

Tamika Carroll, a Micron employee and Army veteran, struggled to find employment after leaving the military.

“When I transitioned from the Army, I wasn’t sure of my job prospects…after seven months of applying for positions, I finally found Micron. I was actually looking for the mall. And there was a huge sign out that [said] ‘We’re hiring’ and I thought ‘good because I need to be hired’…the leadership and technical skills I learned in the Army are tangible skills you can’t learn elsewhere. And I’m able to use those skills here,” Carroll said.

There are several companies across the United States, including local companies such as the Northern Virginia Technology Council – with their Veterans Employment Initiative – and Dominion Power, which have taken on the administration’s challenged to increase the amount of veteran, hires they make.

[ngg_images gallery_ids=”383″ display_type=”ds-nextgen_royalslider”]

McAuliffe makes official rebranding of George Mason University Prince William Campus 

Governor Terry McAuliffe was on site at the George Mason University campus in Prince William to launch the Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research and to announce the campus’ new name.

The institute, which is a 75,000 square foot space that has room for more than 100 researchers and scientists, is all a part of the university’s decision to focus their Prince William Campus on the sciences and technology. 

“We’re here to officially cut the ribbon on our new institute for advanced biomedical research…We are renaming this campus, it’s no longer the Prince William George Mason University Campus – we are now renaming it the George Mason University Science and Technology Campus,” said McAuliffe. 

Researchers have already begun their work, according to George Mason University president Angel Cabrera – working on Lyme disease tests and human genome sequencing.

Cabrera stated at the ribbon cutting that the changes to the university are aimed at changing Virginia’s economy.

“The governor ran for office on a campaign on jobs – on innovation, on rebuilding the economy. And when he talked about jobs and innovation, we actually listened…it is about transforming the economy in Virginia, it’s about turning this region into one of the most innovative places – that is constantly attracting the best talent around the world,” Cabrera said. 

McAuliffe stated that Virginia is falling behind in the area of biosciences, and expressed concerns about the regional economy relying to heavily on Department of Defense and federal related jobs, which are subject to frequent cuts and sequestration over the past few years. 

“I talk a lot about building that new Virginia economy – we have to do it…it’s all about science and technology. It’s all about biosciences…and we have lagged behind in biosciences. I went to a big bioscience conference in Las Vegas last year… and they listed the top 25 states in America for biosciences. We were not on that list folks…we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the bioscience space,” said McAuliffe.

Following the ceremony, McAuliffe also attended the VA BIO 2015 THRIVE conference on bioscience in Fairfax.