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Durrette
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“That’s why your (Mr. Baliles’) answer” to such problems, he told an enthusiastic audience, “is a new agency, a new program, more money.”
Mr. Durrette continued: “The problem is there’s too much government already; we don’t need any more.”
Instead, he insisted, the answer lies in “building a liaison” between state and local governments to make more efficient use of existing personnel and resources.
Such an approach would work especially well if applied to education, he said in referring to Virginia’s often criticized community college system. Mr. Durrette also said merit pay for teachers is essential to maintaining and strengthening the public school system.
He said the state must reward hard work “so they (teachers) can stay in that profession and make a comfortable living at it.” He also called for a “strong” teacher certification program, improvement in the quality of classroom textbooks and a concerted effort to reduce the secondary level dropout rate.
Additionally, Mr. Durrette said he hopes to make “discipline the hallmark of every classroom.”
He also reitereated his support for Virginia’s right to work law and criticized his opponent for being lax in enforcing it.
In far more subdued terms, Mr. Chichester told the crowd if elected he plans to be a full-time lieutenant governor who would not go into 10 months of hibernation after the annual General Assembly session ends.
As president of the state Senate, Mr. Chichester said he would take an active role in shepherding through legislation and forcibly speak in behalf of Durrette’s administration initiatives.
But Mr. Chichester, who heads his family’s insurance business, suggested his greatest contribution to a Durrette administration would involve promoting Virginia as a state where industry and commerce would thrive.
“I want to bring the new business and job opportunities” to the state, he said. “I want to have that opportunity to turn (Virginia’s economy) around.”
A state sentator from Stafford, Mr. Chichester said he welcomes the opportunity to serve as “the governor’s ambassador” to corporate America and to travel the country “to say the good things about Virginia.”
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