Wagner Outlines Platform During Loudoun Stop (Leesburg Today)

By Alex Bahr

Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor Jody Wagner stopped by Leisure World in Leesburg Tuesday to kick off a daylong trip through Loudoun as part of her campaign.

Speaking to more than two dozen residents in the active adult retirement community’s Washington Ballroom, Wagner laid out the three major platforms of her campaign: economic development, education and transportation.

Wagner called the recent rise in unemployment rates across the state “a function of the global recession, that I think resulted from some of the failed policies of the last eight years” of the federal government, and stressed the importance of brining jobs back to Virginia.

To do so, she proposed creating a fund for “21st century businesses,” such as those in the biotechnology, aerospace engineering, and green energy fields that would create high paying jobs with benefits and “put Virginia at the forefront of new technology and new investments.”

Her plans for economic development extend into the realm of education, where she advocated the creation of new programs to train students and young adults for high tech careers in the science and engineering fields, and stressed the importance of early childhood education in these areas.

“If you’re excited about science when you’re in fifth grade, then there is a much better chance you will be excited about science in the 12th grade when you’re deciding what you’re going to do,” Wagner said.

She also stressed the importance of providing more career training opportunities for the two-thirds of Virginia high school graduates who will not complete a four year college degree program, noting many jobs that are in high demand, such as plumbers and welders, provide many opportunities without requiring a college degree.

Calling the subject of transportation “the one nobody really wants to talk about but we all realize is out there,” Wagner said “transportation will be the downfall of this state if we don’t deal with it.”

She noted it is very difficult to get employers or manufactures to place their businesses in areas where it is hard to get employees to work and goods distributed, adding that heavy congestion has a high impact on the standards of living for working parents who spend hours stuck in traffic each day.

Wagner called for a dual method approach to fixing Virginia’s transportation: improving existing roadways, and an increased focus on public transportation, both in the form of high speed railways linking northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads as well as urban public transportation in existing cities.

Wagner is an attorney from Virginia Beach who served as Treasure of the Commonwealth under Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Secretary of Finance during the Gov. Tim Kaine’s administration.

Her Loudoun tour schedule also included attendance at this morning’s Loudoun Chamber of Commerce breakfast, a tour of HHMI’s Janelia Farm Medical Research Facility in Ashburn and a visit to the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter in Leesburg.

The tour will culminate with a public meet-and-greet session tonight at the Mediterranean Breeze restaurant in Ashburn. The event, hosted by the Loudoun County Democratic Committee, begins at 7 p.m. The restaurant is located at 20693 Ashburn Road in old Ashburn.

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