Thursday night at the Manassas Holiday Inn, the Prince William Committee of 100 sponsored a debate for the 13th and 50th House of Delegates districts.

The debate began with 50th District incumbent Del. Harry Parrish and Democratic challenger Donald Shuemaker. In Parrish’s opening statement, he said that “Republicans are the party of new ideas and accomplishment.” I wondered whether that applied to the extremist wing of the party.

Immigration was the topic of the first question posed to Delegate Parrish. Parrish answered that “Immigration is a major problem we are addressing,” citing housing overcrowding and jobs. Shuemaker called for housing “one family could actually afford”, which helps immigrants due to the fact that low-paying jobs won’t give a family the means to pay for a mortgage, forcing multiple families together and overcrowding homes.

Shuemaker, asked about transportation, advocated “different strategies” including telework and telecommuting, and mentioning that he biked to work. Parrish focused on public-private partnerships.

Shuemaker is a former sixth grade teacher, alluding to his experience as a teacher when answering questions about gangs, and of course, education, advocating intervening with students in elementary school before they become gang members, telling a story of one of his 13-year-old students expelled for gang recruiting. Candidate Shuemaker decried teacher pay, saying that he would have to take a $3-5,000 pay cut to go back into teaching, calling the fact that many teachers come from outside of Virginia and then leave for their home states for better pay an “abdication of our leadership.” Shuemaker also called for counties to have the same taxation powers as cities, citing hgh property taxes as a reason to diversify the county tax base.

Parrish countered with his support of the Dillon Rule, the protocol which hamstrings localities and forces them to ask “Mother, may I?” before the General Assembly, as opposed to home rule, which the vast majority of states have switched to, which gives localities more control over themselves. “The Dillon Rule,” he said, “is something there to protect we the citizens from local governments.”

The candidates were given an oppurtunity to ask a question of their opponent. Delegate Parrish asked Shuemaker whether he had gotten anything from his stint nine years ago, as a high school senior, as Delegate Parrish’s legislative intern. Shuemaker answered in the affirmative.

The 13th District debate between Delegate Bob Marshall and Democratic challenger Dr. Bruce Roemmelt followed next. The room was packed with a large contingent of Bruce supporters, looking to unseat one of Virginia’s most extremist delegates.

Roemmelt labeled himself in the opening statement as the Transportation Candidate, saying that “The development is way ahead of the infrastructure.”

The first question was on the unprecedented constitutional amendment to restrict the right to marry to heterosexuals. Marshall’s answer shocked many in the room, and sent me shaking my head, hysterically declaring that “counterfeit marraiges” would destroy society and eliminate civilization, stopping just short of screaming the apocalypse had arrived (”If you don’t have this [marriage], you won’t have society.”) He then instigated murmurs in the crowd by saying that homosexuals did not deserve this “real right”, citing race-separate water fountains as being different than equal rights for gays.

Race and homosexuality? Give me a break. Everyone deserves equal rights, whehter they be born gay or straight. End of story. Marshall was also beyond logic when asked about abortion, asserting that abortion is “more unsafe [now] than when abortion was illegal.” What?

Roemmelt emphasized that instead on focusing on social issues to satisfy extremist causes, we should focus on issues that matter, like transportation and education, calling Marshall’s ideas “too extreme.” Roemmelt discussed his plan to implement commuter parking lots close to I-66, instead of the current system of lots placed farther from the highway, and bus rapid transit. Marshall advocated building the Tri-County Parkway.

Roemmelt, when asked about health care, cited his career as a firefighter, telling of what were called “frequent fliers”–uninsured people whose health care had to consist of emergency room calls. Shuemaker mentioned earlier in the evening that his employer did not provide health insurance, and that he was one of Virginia’s 1 million uninsured.

On education, which Roemmelt earned a doctorate in with his thesis on distance-learning, vouchers were discussed. Roemmelt asserted that “public education should be funded by the public”, while Marshall pushed school vouchers, saying that the G.I. bill was a school voucher that helped soldiers coming home. What? The G.I. bill didn’t hurt public education funding, like vouchers would. Marshall decried the budget reform (which, as Roemmelt reminded the crowd, eliminated the state’s marriage penalty) passed under Governor Warner, which pumped an extra $1.5 billion in education. Roemmelt countered by asking Delegate Marshall which classrooms he would take the resources out of, which classrooms will have their computers taken away, which teachers would have their salaries cut.

Overall, Bob Marshall showed some of his extremist social agenda as Bruce showed new hope for the 13th District. While I may be a little biased, with my Roemmelt for Delegate sticker on my chest and all, after it was all over I went up, introduced myself, and shook hands with the extremist himself.

Ah, politics.