Posts Tagged ‘Wynne LeGrow’
Forbes willing to examine defense spending
Republican Congressman Randy Forbes‘ district encompasses many parts of Virginia with a heavy military presence. From the Fort Lee Army base to the far-reaching arms of the Navy on the coast, Forbes counts many members of the armed forces and their families among his constituents.
With that in mind, it is not a surprise that Forbes is usually a safe vote for the military in Washington. The website “On The Issues“, a non-partisan tracker of Congressional votes ranks him as someone who “favors” the expansion of the military.
But in the era of bloated budgets and huge deficits, sacred budget cows are being brought for slaughter. That includes the Defense Department which makes up almost a quarter of the federal budget and is often defended by Republicans like Forbes. Today on NBC12 First at 4, Forbes said he is committed to balancing the federal budget and that includes taking a close look at the military.
“Defense spending we need to put on the table,” he said. “But what we need to do is not do this in a closed-door session, like we’re seeing happening now.”
Forbes has been critical of the Secretary Robert Gates who is in the process of shutting down Joint Forces Command Norfolk. The installation employees thousands of people, civilian and military, in the Hampton Roads region. The decision was reached outside of the normal Base Realignment and Closure Commission process.
The incumbent said that when all the spending is brought into the light, cuts can be made that won’t impact the safety of the American people.
“The most important thing we can do with our defense spending is make sure that we’re spending our defense spending based on defense needs, not domestic wants,” he said.
Forbes opponent, Dr. Wynne LeGrow appeared on First at 4 last week. You can see his interview here.
The Republican addressed his reluctance to debate Dr. LeGrow in our interview, which you can see in its entirety below. The full transcript can be found on NBC12.com.
LeGrow wants more done on enviornment & health care
Dr. Wynne LeGrow, a retired physician from Emporia said he decided to get into the race for Congress after a growing anger with the war in Iraq. LeGrow is the Democratic nominee in Virginia’s 4th Congressional district, challenging incumbent Randy Forbes.
LeGrow, who has been frustrated because Forbes has not agreed to a debate, said Thursday on NBC12 First at 4 that his opponent is wrong on a number of issues facing the federal government.
“I mean, my opponent was against healthcare for the 9/11 survivors, so we differ on a lot of things.”
A strong proponent of environmental reforms, LeGrow said that despite the fact that Virginia has an economy reliant to a certain extent on coal technology, that clean coal is an “oxymoron”. The Democrat said that he is not “opposed” to investigating capturing carbon emissions, but said the real focus should be made on finding renewable energy options.
“We need really green energy, renewable energy, primarily. Because clean coal is far off,” he said.
To reach that goal, LeGrow believes that congressional legislation such as the so called “cap and trade” bill makes sense. He believes higher taxes on carbon emitters will lead to a cleaner Virginia.
“We can’t simply say we’re going to give everybody a cut in taxes and that’s going to solve all their problems,” He said. (A carbon tax) is one approach that I think needs to be seriously considered.”
You can see my complete interview with Dr. Wynee LeGrow below. The full transcript of the interview can be found on NBC12.com.
His opponent, Rep. Randy Forbes will be my guest Tuesday October 19th. You can see the full list of our “Meet the Candidates” series by clicking here.
Krystal Ball calls coverage of photo flap “fair”
In her first live local television interview since the revelation of suggestive photos from her past, 1st District congressional candidate Krystal Ball said that looking back, the coverage of the issue was just.
“I feel like we’ve been treated fairly,” she said. “And so now we’re ready to get back to facing constituents in this district.”
In the days following the release of the photos, Ball claimed that sexism was to blame. She was backed up by several prominent feminists and then conducted a series of largely positive national television interviews on the subject. Her final salvo was a strongly written editorial in the Huffington Post, where she claimed purveyors of the photos were basically calling her a “whore”.
Today, Ball conceded that most mainstream outlets handled the story correctly.
“The part I objected to was the initial posting of the photos and the way they were portrayed,” she said. “But we did a lot of interviews. We’ve issued a very lengthy statement and now we’re ready to get back to the issues.”
One of those issues, is her personal finances. Ball at one point described her personal financial situation as “sub-$100 thousand a year.” A second financial disclosure revealed that she and her husband had a net worth in excess of $1 million. Some of that money was used to fund her campaign. Ball said that the discrepancy was the result of the schedule of financial disclosures, but she wouldn’t say whether or not her family could still be described as one that lives off less than $100 thousand a year.
“We have a small business, successful, and we’ve been proud to make and investment ourselves in this race and that’s where we stand,” she said.
Finally Ball took to task her opponent, the Republican incumbent, Rob Wittman who at first, not agreed to a face to face debate with the Democrat. Ball claims the voters in the 1st District deserve to see how the two candidates match up.
“The lack of a willingness to debate to me speaks to sort of sense of entitlement to the seat, and we just simply want to say, ‘This isn’t your seat. This seat belongs to voters in the first district of Virginia,” said Ball.
Wittman and Ball will appear at a candidates forum Wednesday night in Williamsburg, hosted by the League of Women Voters.
Mr. Wittman will get his chance to respond to our interview when he appears on NBC12 First at 4 on Tuesday October 26th.
You can see the complete interview with Krystal Ball below. The transcript of the interview is available on NBC12.com.
Next up in our Meet the Candidates series will be Dr. Wynne LeGrow. Dr. LeGrow is the Democratic Challenger in Virginia’s 4th congressional district. You can see the full schedule here.
NBC12 First at 4 Congressional Candidate interviews (UPDATED)
Starting this Wednesday, NBC12 First at 4 will be hosting candidates running for Congress in each district in the Richmond viewing area. The interviews will include candidates from Virginia’s 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th & 7th districts.
Some of these races, such as the 5th district contest, are some of the biggest in the country and could play a major role in deciding who controls Congress for the next two years. Others, such as the 1st district, have captured national media attention because events outside of the candidate’s control. Finally, others like the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th are considered long shot contests with entrenched incumbents.
Regardless, we will give each candidate a fair shake. If you haven’t made up your mind yet we hope this informative segment will help you make your decision.
Here is the schedule that we have confirmed so far: (more to be added as time goes on)
Wednesday Oct. 13th– Krystal Ball (D-1)
Thursday Oct. 14th– Dr. Wynne Legrow (D-4)
Monday Oct. 18th– Rick Waugh (D-7)
Tuesday Oct. 19th- Randy Forbes (R-4) *
Wednesday Oct. 20th– Tom Perriello (D-5)*
Thursday Oct. 21st– Floyd Bayne (I-7)
Friday Oct. 22nd- Bobby Scott (D-3)*
Monday Oct. 25th- Chuck Smith (R-3)
Tuesday Oct. 26th- Rob Wittman (R-1)*
Wednesday Oct. 27th-Robert Hurt (R-5) (tentative)
Thursday Oct. 28th- Jeffrey Clark (I-5)
Monday Nov. 1st– Eric Cantor (R-7)*
*Denotes incumbent
Ms. Ball kicks off our candidate interviews on Wednesday. The revelation of suggestive photos of Ball have become a national media sensation. She granted the first interview on the subject to NBC12. The YouTube clip of the interview is approaching 150,000 views. Ball has or will appear on all three cable news networks, was mentioned on the Rush Limbaugh show, and authored an editorial on the subject on the Huffington Post.
We’ll follow up on our initial story in this first of a series of candidate interviews Wednesday on NBC12 First at 4.
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