Endorsement: Republican Ed Gillespie, governor of Virginia
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
October 25, 2017
In the race for governor of Virginia, Republican Ed Gillespie is the clear choice for a more prosperous Commonwealth.
…
Gillespie has outlined a comprehensive plan for creating jobs, cutting taxes and lifting families out of poverty. His policy plan addresses tax reform, broadband deployment, criminal justice, economic growth, energy, ethics, health care, K-12 education, addiction and recovery, outdoor recreation, public safety, infrastructure and numerous other categories.
But Gillespie also has a specific plan for Southwest Virginia, which includes expanding agriculture activities; supporting pump storage technology, including the large-scale $2 billion pump station project Dominion Energy is considering for Tazewell County; advancing industrial hemp as an option for Virginia farmers; increasing the size and scope of higher education institutions, including the University of Virginia’s College of Wise; supporting the Republican General Assembly’s 10:10:10 policy, which provides funding for school divisions experiencing population declines; hosting a “Red Carpet Tour” of Southwest Virginia to attract economic development site selection consultants and companies to the region; promoting the development of the Clinch River State Park; supporting the seven-county Spearhead Trail project, working to open insurance competition across state lines; and several other Southwest Virginia-specific proposals.
Gillespie also is promising to fight for coal in Virginia, and advances in clean-coal technology. His opponent, Democrat Ralph Northam, instead supports an Obama-era Clean Power Plan that would kill additional coal mining jobs and unnecessarily raise electricity rates for struggling families across Southwest Virginia. Northam is the current lieutenant governor in the McAuliffe administration.
Cutting taxes for all Virginians is another centerpiece of Gillespie’s campaign. His plan would cut individual income tax rates by 10 percent across the board, putting nearly $1,300 per year back into the pockets of a family of four. His tax plan would spark natural, organic economic growth to diversify the state’s economy while creating more than 50,000 new full-time private sector jobs in five years.
Gillespie also supports retaining Virginia’s Confederate statues, and would like to add additional statues of prominent Virginians. For example, Gillespie is proposing that a statue be erected of former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder, who was the nation’s first elected black governor. Northam, by comparison, wants to remove all of the state’s Confederate statues.
…
Make no mistake about it. Every vote that is cast on Nov. 7 will count. After four years of the harmful, anti-coal policies of the McAuliffe-Northam administration, change is urgently needed in Richmond. We urge all voters across Southwest Virginia, and the Commonwealth, to cast a ballot on Nov. 7 for Republican Ed Gillespie.
Read the full piece HERE.