Politics & Government

Job Creation Is Key In the 52nd House District

Incumbent Luke Torian and Republican candidate Cleveland Anderson discussed a range of topics from transportation to leadership skills.

In the  between incumbent Luke Torian (D-52) and challenger Clevelan Anderson last night in Lake Ridge, the topics of job creation and transportation drew heavy attention.

The debate, sponsored by the Prince William Committee of 100, drew a live audience of more than 200 people, the largest local event that moderator and former television journalist Matt Brock had moderated in recent history.

Incumbent Del. Luke Torian, a Democrat, is the pastor of Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries.

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His Republican challenger, Cleveland Anderson, is the owner of Vincent and Vincent hair salon, a Realtor and managing partner of Liberty Village Professional Center in Dumfries.

Anderson considers himself a job creator. A big supporter of Gov. Bob McDonnell, Anderson said no one creates jobs better than the governor and he would work in harmony with him to create more. Anderson supports McDonnell’s out-of-country economic development trips to Asia and France. 

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Torian said that he polled voters and found that job creation and employment is the top concern.

“I will certainly take that initiative back to the General Assembly,” he said.

Torian said he supported changes to the governor’s Opportunity Fund that reduced the number of new employees a company had to create to benefit from the incentives, from 50 employees down to 25. He also supported adding more money to the fund. Both changes will entice more companies to Virginia, he said. He stressed that these companies should hire local Virginians, not out-of-state workers.

Anderson said more jobs are necessary because they will increase revenue and lessen the burden of real estate taxes.

“If you’re not going to bring jobs here because they don’t have Prince William County employees or Virginians, I think that’s quite ridiculous,” Anderson said to Torian.

Torian replied that it makes no sense to incentivize a company that doesn’t employee local residents.

Both Anderson and Torian believe that there may not be a better way to conduct redistricting, a process that is often marred in politics and gerrymandering.

“Nothing can be totally fair, but you make it as fair as possible,” Anderson said.

Torian said the General Assembly created a group of state residents that provided input on the process, but politics will always interfere with the process.

Torian said he supports making it easier for people to use absentee voting, but Anderson does not because he believes if people didn’t have to make an effort to vote at the polls, they wouldn’t vote at all.

“If one wants to vote early, let us provide our citizens the opportunity to vote,” Torian said.

Transportation is a hot topic in the 52nd District, which covers almost 40,000 voters in Prince William County. State lawmakers have failed for decades at making major positive impacts on the transportation problems because of the partisan bickering over increasing taxes to create a new, dedicated funding stream instead of using the dwindling 17.5-cent gasoline tax that has remained the same since 1986.

Torian said the Omnibus transportation bill that recently passed recognizes that the state needs more resources to fix the transportation quagmire.

Anderson said High Occupancy Toll lanes are already coming and there isn’t anything state lawmakers can do about it. He said extending Metro would take a decade to finish and there would be massive cost overruns. Anderson said motorists could still use the HOV-3 lanes for free.

Torian asked Anderson if he supports HOT lanes, but Anderson did not directly answer his question.

“They are working on the HOT lanes right now,” he said.

Anderson asked Torian why he did not support House Bill 907 that lets police officers file reports to school administrators on juvenile students charged with adult misdemeanor or felony crimes, including terms of detention release, court dates and disposition orders. Torian said he has voted on thousands of bills and he cannot remember specifically the reasoning for his vote on every bill, but he believes he voted against this bill because he thought it was inappropriate based on the discussions lawmakers were having at the time.

The two candidates ended their debate talking about leadership.

Anderson said he would serve the residents of the 52nd District around the clock and indicated that Torian does not dedicate himself full time to the needs of the district.

“A leader leads by serving and I carry my leadership skills with me 24/7,” Anderson said.

Torian took offense to the statement. He said his church started with a budget of $450,000 and now it is at $5 million. The church once had no full-time employees and now it has 21 employees with benefits.

“I know a little bit about leadership,” he said. “A true leader will tell you whether he supports HOT lanes or not. I do not support HOT lanes.

Cleveland Anderson’s website

Luke Torian’s website

Articles about Cleveland Anderson:

InsideNova

PotomacLocal

 

Articles about Luke Torian:

Potomac Local

 

Correction: Del. Luke Torian has voted on thousands of bills while serving in the General Assembly. An earlier version of this story had an incorrect estimate of the numbr of bills.


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