Bern Ewert, a former Roanoke city manager, is one of two Democrats seeking his party's nod to run against incumbent Virgil Goode for the 5th Congressional District seat in the U. S. House of Representatives. Al Weed, who Goode defeated in 2004, is also seeking the Democrat's nomination.Ewert was Roanoke's city manager from 1978 to 1985. According to material provided by his campaign, he oversaw the redevelopment of the city's downtown. The City Market was renovated, along with two million square feet of existing downtown building space. The city attracted $200 million in private investment in its downtown. Ewert, during a visit to the Bulletin last week, said the city also attracted 5,000 new jobs during that time.
He said he also oversaw a drop in the city's real estate tax rate. He said the city's tax rate was $1.60 per $100 in assessed value when he was hired.
"We got down to less than $1.30," he said.
At the same time, Ewert said he expanded the city's police and fire departments and improved street maintenance. He said he also got the city's retirement fund on an actuarially sound basis. The city has its own retirement system and was contributing 7 percent of payroll. Ewert raised that to 13 percent.
Ewert has also worked as Prince William County's county administrator, a post he held from 1997 to 2000. During Ewert's watch, according to his campaign literature, that county created an economic development department which brought in more than $650 million in high tech investment. He also presided over a drop in the county's tax on computer equipment and peripherals, lowing it from $3.70 per $100 of assessed value to $1.25. This helped bring AOL to that county and induced other businesses to bring high tech jobs there.
And, some differences between him an ol' Virgil:
He said he would like to see earmarks, attached to any House bill, subjected to a vote separate from the vote for the bill, itself."That puts it in the light of day and makes them go on record , if that's what they are going to do," he said.
He would like to see action to reduce the influence of special interests on elected officials. One is public financing of election campaigns. Rather than candidates raising money to pay for their general election campaigns, Ewert would like to see the government foot the bill. Another idea would be to bar congressmen from raising money through Political Action Committees and passing the money on to other congressman.
A third idea to blunt the influence of special interests would be to bar congressmen from accepting trips from special interests. Any trip that a congressman takes, that isn't government funded, should be paid for out of his own pocket, he said.
Taking a shot at the incumbent, Ewert said Goode has hurt the middle class by voting for tax cuts that benefited the top 1 percent of taxpayers and loading future generations with debt. He said the cuts aren't helping the economy, either.
Regarding "earmarks," recall that the entire Goode-MZM scandal revolves around the earmark Goode secured for guilty bribery specialist Mitch Wade. Sounds like Ewert is targeting Goode's weakness on ethics. However, I think that Goode's lack of judgment is his greatest vulnerability, so some contrast on that point would be helpful for his challengers.
Anyway, check out Bruce Ewert's website.