Unfortunately, I couldn't make the 13th District House of Delegates debate this past Thursday night (at the Manassas Holiday Inn). The debate was between one of my favorite candidates this year, firefighter/veteran/educator/u-car racerBruce Roemmelt; and the sodomy-obsessed, foaming-at-the-mouth, anti-abortion nutjob incumbent who I call "Sideshow Bob" Marshall. Luckily, my fellow RaisingKaine'r Kenton Ngo was there to witness the demolition derby by Bruce. Here are extended excerpts, courtesy of Kenton the wunderkind: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.