23rd District House race heats up on transportation question

Lynchburg’s House of Delegates race gained intensity Thursday night, with Del. Shannon Valentine and Republican challenger Scott Garrett disputing Valentine’s answers on a lobbying group’s questionnaire about ways to fund transportation.

Both candidates spoke force-fully during a debate sponsored by the Windsor Hills Neighborhood Association, especially when talking about comments Garrett has made about Democrat Valentine’s record.

“Delegate Valentine has twice publicly said I was misrepresenting her,” Garrett said in his opening statement of the debate.

“I will set the record straight this evening,” Garrett said, and then read part of the questionnaire where Valentine wrote, “I believe transportation is our number one unmet budget need.”

Garrett said her answers meant Valentine wants to raise taxes on gas, retail sales, auto repairs and driver’s license renewals — accusations he first made in a news release a week ago.

Valentine fired back.

“We have just spent one week of this campaign on misleading information,” she said, urging people to look at the full questionnaire on her Web site, http://shannonvalentine.net. Virginia Free, a Richmond-based group that seeks to promote business by improving transpor-tation, presented the 2008 questionnaire to candidates.

Valentine then read a statement from Virginia Free’s president, Clayton Roberts, which said, “The questionnaire does not ask candidates whether they would support a tax increase for transportation. To assert otherwise is deliberately misleading.”

Garrett distributed copies of the questionnaire to some of the roughly 100 people attending the debate. The copies contained Valentine’s answers to several of the questions, but not all of them.

Before she answered the question about Virginia’s “number one unmet budget need,” Valentine first replied to a question about the state’s “three most important issues.”

Those three top issues in 2008, she told Thursday night’s audience, were “the economy, the energy crisis, and health care.” Valentine said her constituents listed those issues on a questionnaire she mailed to them.

Valentine, who has been in the legislature since 2006, also said that when a proposed gas tax came up, she voted against increasing the gas tax.

Other questions during the debate came from the audience, written and submitted to moderator Noreen Turyn of WSET-TV.

One person asked the candidates to list the top two issues facing the 23rd House District, which includes Lynchburg and part of Amherst County. Both of them listed a single issue.

“Unrefutably, it is jobs,” Garrett said, especially in small businesses. Those owners said they need traffic coming through their doors, people willing to spend money.

“The federal government’s plan now is to send us all money. It is not sustainable,” Garrett said.

“If we can get our folks back into the workplace they will bring home resources for their families,” he said.

Valentine agreed, saying the top issue is “the economy, it is long-term growth, it is job creation.” She listed developments that have occurred in the Lynchburg area, including a workforce-training program at Central Virginia Community College that partners with the University of Virginia to help students earn engineering degrees.

That program continues to improve, she said, adding that a Center for Advanced Engineering and Research is being developed in New London.

Another audience member asked Valentine and Garrett what their greatest achievements have been in their current elected positions.

Valentine cited Lynchburg’s second daily passenger train, which went into service to Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1. She started working on it in 2006, she said, and “I never thought we were going to get the train this soon.”

Garrett, a member of Lynchburg City Council, cited his opposition to pay cuts for city employees. The cuts, proposed in March, “sent the wrong message at the wrong time,” Garrett said, adding that he was the only council member who opposed the cuts from the beginning and persuaded other members to restore the pay cuts if money could be found in the city budget.

“I had fully studied the budget, and I understood where we had some resources to be able to do that,” Garrett said, “and by golly, we did. I believe city employees appreciate what we did.”

Upcoming forums in the 23rd House District race:

Thursday, Oct. 15

Candidates forum held by Delta Kappa Gamma sorority at 6:45 p.m. at Forest Road United Methodist Church, 2805 Old Forest Road

Friday, Oct. 16

Candidates forum held by the Lynchburg Kiwanis Club, noon at the Presbyterian Home Campus, reached off of V.E.S. Road

Monday, Oct. 19
Candidates forum held by the League of Women Voters of Lynchburg, 7 p.m. at the city Public Library, 2311 Memorial Ave.