| Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny 10th District Democratic Congressional candidate Jeff Barnett, right, answers questions during a debate with Independent candidate Bill Redpath at Ashburn Library Aug. 23. |
Tenth Congressional District candidates took part in a hearty debate in Ashburn on Aug. 23, and it showed the candidates clearly disagree on transportation, healthcare and education.
The debate – before about 50 people at the Ashburn Library – between Democrat Jeff Barnett and Libertarian Bill Redpath was the first of the political season for the district.
Incumbent Republican Frank Wolf declined to appear, although organizers with the Loudoun County Tea Party kept an empty chair for him at the table.
Wolf met with 200 members of the Northern Virginia Tea Party last week in Herndon.
The candidates differed the most on transportation, an issue that’s plagued Northern Virginia for decades and has increasingly grown worse in Loudoun County with an uptick in the population.
Barnett said there isn’t enough being done on a federal level through partnerships with state and local governments and public and private organizations to solve the problem.
Officials, he said, simply are widening and lengthening the existing infrastructures rather than building for the future.
“Our parents overbuilt our transportation infrastructure so we would have something to grow into,” Barnett said.
Redpath, repeating a familiar Libertarian line, suggested transportation issues should be addressed solely by state and local governments.
However, he said he believes the best way to solve the area’s transportation woes is to increase road capacity and implement congestion pricing, a system of charging drivers to use certain road networks at peak times.
“More countries around the world are using congestion pricing to solve transportation problems and I think it needs to be adopted,” Redpath said.
Redpath’s belief that the federal government should have no role in transportation extends to healthcare and education.
The candidate said more should be done to get rid of a third-party payer system.
“We need to have people be responsible for their own medical care to get to where it’s like auto insurance where people take care of the routine things and they have catastrophic insurance to pay for the large expenditures,” Redpath said.
Barnett said he supports the new federal healthcare reform law because it gives catastrophic insurance to 32 million Americans and eliminates companies’ ability to cancel or deny policies on sick individuals or those with preexisting conditions.
“… People can move from job to job. They can start businesses without fear of not being able to be insured again,” he said.
The health care measure, Barnett said, also puts Americans on the right path to cut overall healthcare costs.
Redpath said the federal government also should stay out of education.
Education is not addressed in the U.S. Constitution, he said, and Washington politicians are using a “top down, one-size-fits-all” solution on the issue.
State and local governments, Redpath said, should do more to implement trial-and-error experiments to see what education programs work best.
In contrast, Barnett believes more should be done on a federal level to increase education programs.
“We need to build a system in our nation of lifetime education,” he said. “We are in a world where we’re going to have to continually retrain and reeducate to thrive.”
Candidates for the 10th Congressional District are expected to attend further debates in the fall in advance of the Nov. 2 mid-term congressional elections.
| Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Beverly Denny James DiMaria, a Tea Party member in the 10th District who lives in Fairfax, asks a question during a debate between Democratic candidate Jeff Barnett and Independent Bill Redpath at Ashburn Library Aug. 23. |
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As far as I am concerned, Frank Wolf has done a great job for his constituents, and deserves to be reelected. His efforts have occurred, over time, when his party was in the minority, then in the majority, and back to the minority. Having said all of that, I hope one will forget that it was the Republican effort that almost got us into another depression, with the Bush White House, none thinking economic idiots, running the show. So, I will be voting for Frank Wolf, but that does not mean I forgive the Republicans for what they did, and the damage they caused.
Barnett, a tax and spend Liberal. If want that, vote for him. I’m still looking for that Summer of Recovery…... Looks like they another “intimate” crowd, of 50 people. Will be watching this reporter plug the Dem party as we move towards November
Milt, you want unsustainable? How about Frannie/Freddie and mortgages for everyone!
Don’t worry your pretty little head about people being able to repay those mortages. Income? don’t worry if you only make 35k, we can get you a cute little McMansion in Loudoun. Bad credit rating? No problem. Down payment? Nah, don’t need any skin in the game. Just walk away if it gets to be too much.
Democrats collapsed the housing market. Thank Barney Frank and Chris Dodd for this mess.
If you blame the Democrats for the collapse of the US economy you must not understand much in this world.
Reagan started constructing the house of cards with supply side economics. The model he established is just plain unsustainable. Obama certainly isn’t fixing it, but he didn’t create it either. Those who say so are either blind partisans or just plain stupid.
As a 30 year veteran of Congress, I think its fair to say Frank Wolf shares the blame for the ongoing collapse of America and the middle class.
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Well, I’m an old-timer here. I actually interned in Gilbert Gude’s office one summer! He was technically a Republican but, in hindsight, I see he was one of the original looney-tunes. He would have loved global warming! Thanks for reminding me of old times! LOL.
You are right about about Wolf. I’ve heard many, many similar stories about his attendance to constituent interests. The man cares. I’m so glad we are now in Virginia with Wolf instead of still stuck in Mont. Co. with the Gude-clone, Chris Van Hollen.
My father died in combat in 1945. My Mother (like most others ) later married a war vet. My Father’s hard earned GI benefits went unused. As a sole surviving son I wrote my Congressman (Gilbert Gude, Md.)to see if a law could be passed to remedy this situation so that the benefits could be used by survivors like myself. I got a very cold letter back telling me ” No legislation is planned on this issue.” End of inquiry.
Since I have been in Va. I have found that Rep. Frank R. Wolf responds to each and every letter. He has opened doors within Federal agencies
that I would have been unable to penetrate on my own. Further the people that I spoke with treated my issues seriously and directly.
Losing this kind of influence to inexperienced candidates will cost us dearly. First term Representatives may talk the talk, but the reality is they won’t have the clout to walk the walk. It takes decades to get the kind of stature Frank Wolf has in the here and now. We’d be fools to change the status quo.
There’s no such thing as a moderate Democrat. Bart Stupak and many other “Blue Dogs” proved that when they lacked the backbone to stand up to Pelosi/Obama over health care even when it was clear the public did not want it.
Democrat=progressive which has just about destroyed this country’s economy.
For several years, Frank Wolf has been a Ranking Member of the House Appropriatons Committee. This means that Congressman Wolf has had the power to either block or put forward every spending House Bill proposed in Congress without any plan whatsoever to pay for it. Mr. Wolf has fully approved the spending and increase in funding for two - undeclared by Congress - wars, the bank and Wall Street bailouts, tax cuts for the rich, and President Bush’s prescription drug program, all of which has lead to an almost $1.2 trillion additional US budget deficit before President Obama ever took office. It’s time to end Frank Wolf’s rubber stamp on spending and increased funding without a realistic payback plan to help balance our country’s budget and fiscal crises. That’s why I’m supporting and voting for Jeff Barnett, a more moderate and sensible alternative.
Plus you have to ask how well does Barnett know the district. Per an earlier story and info on his web site, he intends to WALK the district http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/candidate_to_walk_10th_congressional_district/
Now, I DROVE from Berryville to Purcellville today and, let me tell you, that’s a LONG walk—uphill, over the mountain. And there is very little shoulder along most of it.
Wonder if he knows that once you get past Leesburg there are not many curbs and sidewalks. As a native New Englander, northern educated, McLean resident and Booz Allen employee, I doubt he knows much about cows and apple orchards.
I’ve said it before—both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for the mess we’re in. But I truly believe Republicans, rather than Democrats, have learned a lesson about reigning in spending.
Secondly, I’ve never had a direct issue to deal with Wolf but I’ve heard many stories about his “fly on the wall” type of representation. By that I mean he has quietly attended to constituent issues. Example, my friend’s son had a medical issue with his service discharge. He had been going round and round until Wolf was contacted for intervention. Within a few days, the issue was cleared up in a positive light.
That’s the kind of representative Frank Wolf is: one who listens to and helps the people he represents. Isn’t that what he is supposed to do?
He’s not a grandstand kind of guy.
And, I’m certainly not voting for a high-tax liberal who will reelect Nancy Pelosi. Her values are way out of line with mine.
I’d like to know why Frank Wolf thought that voting for deficits between 80-92 and 00-08 were OK, but now he is suddenly a champion of balanced budgets after 30 years in Congress. You know, besides the fact that it is politically convenient now.
I am not saying to vote for either of these two other guys, but why Frank Wolf again? Come on. Why can’t the GOP demand better? This guy is nothing but a fly-on the wall in Congress, staying under the radar for 30 freaking years. He clearly has no strong convictions or personal platform as he has apparently reversed his voting history for the last 30 years for the 2010 election.
Eric Cantor has been in there for one term and has a leadership position which I am sure pays off for his district. Frank just shuffles to and from his office and hopes no one notices. Stop nominating a bum versus what losers the impotent Democrats put up in this district. Every two years, I am assured of having to choose between the lesser of two evils. At least nominate someone with a spine. Instead we get old 30 year “veteran” Frank, ready to spend another 2 years as a lapdog to the GOP leadership.
If you read our history, men who spent this many years in the public service are usually remembered as statesmen, who attempted to better this country, often at the expense of what not have been the most politically “safe” decision. 30 years, and all you can see about Frank Wolf is that he followed the leader and voted the party line. Great. Thanks for your “service” Frank.
great. stop us from building job centers in Loudoun, then charge us because we have to drive east. Newspeak: congestion pricing.
Uh oh, 50 people—that’s up from the ten who showed up a week or so ago. That could mean 25 votes for each of them. Wolf better watch out. LOL
Plus I can’t wait to see this guy WALK up and over the mountain from Berryville to Purcellville on his “walk through the district”!!
I’m thinking he doesn’t know the terrain of the district very well.
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