Transcripts For CSPAN Virginia Gubernatorial Debate 20171014

Cleaning. My name is paul johnson. Carmen foreman of the roanoke times. She covers state politics for the university of virginia. She will be asking questions of the candidates, and i will be keeping track of the time. Together, we will work to cover as much ground as possible tonight while providing candidates an opportunity to discuss some of the issues especially affecting southwest virginia and the commonwealth today. We have made every possible effort tonight to ensure the fairness of these questions and the exchanges so central to our democracy. Let me state on the record the ground rules we have agreed to in an effort to advance this conversation. The question seated beside me will ask each candidate a question and an order set by coin toss. We will also have candidate to candidate questions and opening and closing remarks. When the candidates time has expired, i will ask him to yield the floor. Candidates should speak during the designated time and refrain from interrupting each other. Now, let us begin and welcome our first candidate, democrat Ralph Northam. Thank you, sir. [applause] now let us welcome our other candidate, republican ed gillespie. [applause] now please get the cheering out of your system because i will ask the audience not to applaud until the end of the debate. We will have twominute opening remarks from each candidate. The order was previously decided by coin toss. Mr. Northam, you are up first. Mr. Northam thank you. Good evening. Its great to be at university of virginia wise. Thank you for hosting this. Thanks to carmen and paul for being our moderators. It is great to be back in rural virginia. I am the product of public schools. I attended Virginia Military institute and eastern virginia medical school. I served or eight years in the United States army taking care of Wounded Soldiers during desert storm. We have worked very hard over the last four years building the new virginia economy, bringing in over 215,000 new jobs to virginia. Our Unemployment Rate has gone from 5. 4 to three point 8 . I believe in investing and virginians because when we do, there is no other state that can beat us. My opponent is a d. C. Lobbyist. He believes in giving tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the working class, which will put a 1. 4 billion hole in our budget. As a doctor, i have a plan to resuscitate rural virginia. Its time to get the paddles out and shop rural virginia back to life its time to get the paddles out and shock rural virginia back to life. I want to ensure our kids have access to a Public Education system so they can betray and for 21stcentury jobs. I want to make sure we build ecosystems that support startups and Small Businesses. I want to expand i81 and bring amtrak out to rural virginia in the southwest. I want to make sure we talk about expanding the university of virginia wise right here, bringing in more talent, more graduate courses so we can bring new business to rural virginia, and finally, no individual, no family should be one medical illness away from financial demise. It should not matter what zip code you live in. That should not dictate if you have access to health care cannot. I look over tonight to sharing my ideas on how we take virginia to the next level and how tomorrow happens right here in rural virginia. Thank you so much. Mr. Gillespie, you have two minutes. Mr. Gillespie thank you. And thank you to uva wise for hosting us this evening. Its great to be back at this great college. Ralph, its good to be back with you again. I want to talk about the stakes of this election and the choices before you because the stakes could not be higher in the choices could not be more clear. Our Economic Growth has been stuck for six straight years. Our Economic Growth rate lester last year in the commonwealth 50 0. 6 , making us 39 out of states. Unfortunately, that was not an aberration. For six straight years, our growth rate has been below the national gdp rate. We were 44th in the country in wage growth last year. When it comes to wages and Economic Growth and job creation , virginia should be first in the country, and we can be with the right policies, but those are not the policies we have in place and have had in place for the last four years. During the Lieutenant Governors time as Lieutenant Governor, virginia hit the bottom 10 states and growth. I know my policies will make life better for all virginians and ensure the next generation can do better than the generation that came before us. That is important to me. I and the son of an immigrant. My father came to this country as a child because his father found work in america. I was able to work my way through college. I was first generation on either side of my family and was eventually able to become counselor to the president of the United States of america, from immigrant janitor to west wing of the white house to in two generations time. I want to make sure that that of upward mobility is available to future virginians, and my policies will do that. The Lieutenant Governor, i appreciate his service to our commonwealth, but his policies will take us in the wrong direction. Higher taxes and higher electric bills and fewer jobs is not where we need to go in virginia. We need to unleash Economic Growth and my policies will benefit all virginians and in southwest virginia in particular with my plan for this commonwealth. You, mr. Gillespie. Its time to ask the first question. You will have 90 seconds to answer the question, and then mr. Gillespie have 90 seconds to respond, and then you will have 60 seconds to respond to mr. Gillespie. The first question. Mr. Northam, k12 schools are in crisis mode with few Job Opportunities and more families moving out of the area. The schools are having to make do with less. As governor, what would you do in the short run to aid these struggling districts, and in the longterm, what would you do to reduce the disparity between rural and urban schools across the commonwealth . Thank you for that question, and you just said exactly what is going on. When people leave these communities, there are less children, and theres less funding for our public schools. We need to make sure we understand that there is power in every child and that every child should be able to reach the american dream, and the way we do that and we have made a lot of great progress in the commonwealth of virginia, but the first thing is to bring jobs into rural virginia. When you bring jobs and allow families to come here and work and raise their families, then that helps the economy, and it certainly helps with the public schools. We have a plan here in wise to expand the university of virginia wise to bring higher level talent into this area. Talent attracts talent, and with that will come the opportunity for grants, for research opportunities, and for business opportunities, so school is important. One of the first places to start we are under paying our teachers right here in the commonwealth of virginia. Plus 75 hundred dollars less than the national average. If we are going to not only recruit but also retain teachers, we have to make sure we put our money where our mouth is and make sure k12 Public Education is a top priority. At the high school level, we have brought in more vocational and Technical Training and we are revising our sols making childreno longer teach how did it multiple choice tests but to think creatively. Schools and health care are two areas that will be Top Priorities of mine in the next four years. Thank you. Mr. Gillespie, you have 90 seconds. We need to adjust the population of crime, that is obviously affecting the schools. We came up with the 101010 plan to help address this. We have overcrowding and we have schools where we have population decline. We need to address both those challenges. We need to attract teachers to hard to staff schools. We need student loan forgiveness for the teachers. My k12 Education Plan does that. If you go to my website, you will see that plan. One of the reasons we have a relation decline is because of the economic numbers i was just talking about. We will not increase jobs in southwest virginia by doing what the Lieutenant Governor wants to do, impose an obama style plan on virginia. The administration in washington , d c the Trump Administration has repealed the plan and that Lieutenant Governor wants to impose one. That will result in layoffs miners and factory workers. When you drive up the cost of production, you enough with lid off factory workers as well as laid off miners. We have already shed too many good manufacturing and mining jobs in the commonwealth. It hits the poorest of virginians the hardest. They get hit hardest by hire higher electric bills. This is a clear choice. We will have a clean power plants, Carbon Emissions imposed on virginia. That will drive up prices for our electric bills or i will oppose it. Higher electric bills or lower ones, a clear choice on the november 7. Question was about k12 education. I appreciate you saying you will compensate our teachers, but your economic plan, a tax cut for the wealthy at the expense of the working class, puts a whole of 1. 4 billion in our budget. I do not know how you will pay our teachers more at the same time put a hole in our budget. One of the things that is important to me as a parent and neurologist is Early Childhood education. We just opened up 13,000 more slots this year and the commonwealth of virginia, and a lot of them in rural genia, to prek education. A lot of them in rural virginia. There is a tremendous learning potential to our children before they ever get to kindergarten. If one family has the need to send their family to prek and another one dozens, that is what starts the gap between the haves and havenots. I have always been ready and very interested in funding k12 , andtion as well as prek that is what i will do for the next four years. As you mentioned earlier, earlier today president Donald Trumps administration announced plans to roll back the clean power plants. A Clear Division between you and your opponent is how you view Energy Future and commonwealth between coal and the nobles. What would your policies be, particularly in terms of subsidies, either directly or indirectly through the tax , system . I will touch on that in a second, but let me point out the Lieutenant Governor is wrong in terms of the tax plan. It is a tax cut for all virginians and it would not cut a dime. We will still increase running increased spending by 2 million based on the projections for revenue. If the revenue doesnt come in, we face in the taxcut at a slower rate. So we protect education, transportation, and public safety. He does not oppose the tax cuts for the rich, he opposes them because they are tax cuts. Lets stay on point. I needed to respond. I am for all of the above. But truly for all of the above including domestic production. I support the pipelines. I know we can implement them in an environmentally sensitive manner. Protecting the private property rights, as well. I know we can do the pump Storage Technology and Hydro Storage Pump Technology that would be good for southwest virginia. I am supportive of that, and i support the reinstatement of the coal tax credit. It was unfortunate that the tax cut was eliminated for political purposes that i think were wrong. We also need to do more in terms of fostering renewables. My plan for energy would do all of those things, but i am not looking to drive more miners out of work and to drive electric bills up. That is a clear choice. Higher electric bills or Lower Electric bills. That is a clear choice on november 7. His policies will dry up the price in virginia. I have had a lot of discussion with coal miners, and coal is important to the economy in southwest virginia. I understand that. The demand for steamrelated coal are not what they used to be. The demands for others are very the demands for metallurgical coal are actually very good. I would do whatever i can to support the coal industry in southwest virginia. At the same time, we have a great opportunity, as you said, to use all of the above, and we made great progress with Renewable Energy, wind and solar. One thing i talked about earlier tonight and i will continue to expand on is bringing more talent to the university of virginia wise right here. Graduate school level teachers, students, and with this comes the ability to have research and developments. With that comes grant opportunities. With that comes business opportunities. We have a great opportunity to really push forward with Renewable Energy to use solar, to use wind in addition to call coal and hydroelectricity, which we use in the southwest, in addition to natural gas and nuclear power. It is all of the above, but we have a great chance to move forward with Renewable Energy. It is a winwin. If we can bring people to southwest that will study that, study the production of energy, the storage of energy, that will create jobs and at the same time loomis toward cleaner energy and a cleaner environment. Thank you. Third question goes to mr. Northam. Last week, the United States Supreme Court heard world oral arguments involving the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. This stems from wisconsin, where a lower court claimed the states of district maps were unconstitutional. Will you propose an independent third Party Approach to redistricting, similar to the highly successful system in iowa . This is something that is very important to me. I served in the senate for six years. I was on the Election Committee. My opponent is actually the architect of gerrymandering throughout this country. We have two contrasting approaches to redistricting. Let me tell you a quick story when i ran for Virginia Senate ran against an eightyear incumbent. There were 100 delegate races that here. There were 40 senate races. Out of 140 races, there were only 17 competitive ones. That is not a democracy. That means we as a people should be choosing our representatives rather than politicians choosing their voters. That is the way the system is now. It is called gerrymandering and it needs to stop. I have told anybody willing to listen and i hope youre listening tonight i will not sign a map in 2021. We draw our lines every 10 years. I will not sign a map unless it is drawn fairly and i do support a nonpartisan redistricting commission. That is very important, but as i said earlier, it is time the People Choose their representatives rather than politicians choosing their voters. That is not what democracy is about. After we do redistricting, the next step will be Campaign Finance reform. That is another area i feel very strongly about, but we need to start with nonpartisan redistricting. You have 90 seconds to respond. In my book, it was Eldridge Gerry who began gerrymandering, but let me address the question about that i am open to nonpartisan redistricting, but i would like to see instances where it has worked. The maps do not look a whole at different a whole lot different from those where they have partisan redistricting. I am open to ideas in this regard. I have not seen an instance of this, with the exception of iowa. When it comes to this, i am not the one who has gotten 500,000, half 1 million in super pacs money from an organization dedicated to winning control of the governorship here so they can control gerrymandering. That would be my opponent who got that 500,000 from a super pac set up for that purpose. I never voted to enact a District Line for my state sent that made it safer for me to be able to run for reelection. My opponent is the one who voted for that in our general assembly. I hear a lot of great talk, but it sounds to me like a lot of politics where we have someone talking about the need to do something about this, but at the same time, a record of accepting money from a super pac dedicated to winning control for democrats redistricting here at having voted for a redistricting map when he was in the general assembly. Thank you very much. You have 60 seconds. The sixth district, which i represented in the six years of my senate, started on the Eastern Shore and had a little bit of Virginia Beach, half of norfolk, and then wrapped around the other side of chesapeake bay. I used to tell people if you want to look up the definition of gerrymandering look at the sixth district. It is not right and we need to make a change. Some of the things i would just mention about Voting Rights there are a lot of inequities. As i said earlier, i served on the Election Committee for six years in the Virginia Senate. Every time we tried to make it less cumbersome for people to vote, our friends on the other side of the aisle made it more difficult. Things like the photo id, which was designed to stop fraud, even well, theres no evidence of any fraud in voting. All of these things we tried to do to make it easier to vote, our opponents try to make it more difficult. The way to make democracy strong is for all of us to have access to the ballot box. Our fourth question pertains to southwest virginia. The whole state, in fact, but it has been declared an epidemic in southwest virginia. Southwest virginia has been dubbed the epicenter of the opioid epidemic. The governor has declared the academic the epidemic a Public Health emergency. What policies will you advocate to halt the growth of opioid abuse, and what treatments would you provide to help those with opioid problems . This is an awful crisis we are dealing with across the commonwealth, particularly pronounced here in southwest virginia. I talk about this a lot and i point out that on average, every day, three virginians die from opioid or heroin overdose, and a couple of ago, i had is that saying for i had to start died onor virginians average every day. I was talking to a mother in scott county whose 25yearold son was dealing with addiction. An alltoofamiliar story. They had to change the locks on the door. She was relieved when he was arrested because she thought it might save his life. So i put forward a plan the Addiction Recovery and Mental Health plan to help address the crisis. It is a detailed, specific policy proposal that starts with the idea that addiction is a disease. These are sick people who need to get well and we need to get them into treatment. We have to put a greater focus on prevention and make sure we are not just treating addiction but preventing it and we are getting to children before the drugs get to them. Unfortunately, in this day and age it means to get to the fourth graders. When someone reaches out their hands and says i am an addict and need recovery, we need to have the commonwealth of virginia there to take their hands and get them into a program. There are many paths for recovery. Inpatient, outpatient, medically assisted, but i have a specific plan to address this. This cannot become a partisan issue. This is something that democrats, republicans, independents everyone must come , together in the commonwealth of virginia, to save families and save lives, and i have made it a priority. You have 90 seconds. Thank you for the question. As you might imagine as a pediatrician, i take care of babies with these problems. It is a crisis that we have. Across the commonwealth. This past year we lost over 1100 , virginians to opioid overdose. As a doctor i have been around , the state talking to medical schools, students, residents, talking about new ways to treat both chronic and acute pain. The mindset has to change. I have also worked with Law Enforcement. We have far too many individuals addicted to opioids who are in our jails and penitentiaries. Finally, we have a blanket narcantion this year for , which is also called naloxone. It is the only medicine out there that will reverse the deadly side effects of opioids. If you know someone who has an addiction, you can go to the pharmacy or someone in the family can go to the pharmacy and ask for narcan and they will give it to them with no questions being asked. We just put 30 million into our budget for Mental Health care. There are consequences to limited resources. It will take resources to go after this challenge. Again a plan that puts 1. 4 hole in our budget you , cannot have it both ways. There are options for this election. I think a child neurologist is more qualified to deal with defeatoid crisis than a lobbyist. We have got to crack down on dealers, we need to get everybody to the table, but at the same time we need to understand we will not rest our arrest our way out of this epidemic. I sat in the jails with addicts in recovery. Our sheriffs are running recovery centers. It is one of the reason we need to support our sheriffs. It is one of the reasons why was disappointed and mcauliffehen the administration canceled the meeting with the Sheriffs Association to talk about issues just like this. That meeting was canceled because of politics, because i am proud to say a majority of sheriffs across the commonwealth, 65 , have endorsed my candidacy. But the virginian Sheriffs Association does not endorse. They are an advocate for the needs of sheriffs and deputies across the commonwealth. When that meeting was canceled , rather than talking about what we need to provide for the budgeting they need to address this epidemic and the Mental Health challenges they face, i could not believe it, and i am shocked by it, honestly, and i would never do Something Like that as our governor. Can i respond to that . No, not really. I do not mean to be rude but we need to move along. Our fifth question . Both you and your opponent have supported broadband across expanding broadband to rural areas across the state. What are your specific plans, and how would you fund such efforts . Great questions. As i said in my opening comment, one of my pet peeves at the top of my priority list will be to bring broadband to all areas of virginia. We worked hard to not only help new businesses grow in virginia but also to attract new businesses to virginia. You cannot start a business or grow a business in 2017 if you do not have access to broadband and cell coverage. It is something we have been working on. It will have to be an agreement between the private and public sector. Whatallenge out there is we call the last mile. It is very expensive, especially in rural virginia. We need to bring people to the table. That the reputation i have in virginia, and it will be people both in the private and public sector. As we move forward we will work , together to make sure there are no gaps in the commonwealth of virginia with broadband. Lastly, iand lastly, for our ch. Our children working at a computer at school. When they go home with an assignment and do not have access to broadband, their hands are tied. If we are going to put our money where our mouth is, we need to make sure every child has the same opportunity across virginia and they and businesses have access to broadband. Mr. Gillespie, what is your land . Mr. Gillespie we have 900,000 virginians who do not have access to highspeed internet. Halfan would cut that in by the end of my governorship by having more than 450,000 virginians get access to broadband capabilities. We could work with the Tobacco Commission to help get funding. O close the gap a multimillion dollar bonding fund that we would make available to make sure that we are having a publicprivate partnership. If someone is digging a ditch to lay a pipe, lets make sure we get broadband put in there in a costeffective manner. The commonwealth has a number of structures that can be utilized to fray the cost of the poirier broadband. I had a specific policy in this regard. My southwest virginia policy will be my detail specific policy proposal. I encourage people to go to edf orvirginia. Com. To get moremy plan than 450,000 virginians linked up to highspeed internet. Lt. Gov. Northam if we are going to grow the rural economy, broadband is essential. Workforce essential is also essential. I would like to talk briefly about jobs in the swing for century. They are much different than from what i was growing up. They are in science, engineering, arts, health care. Things like Cyber Security. Biotechnology. Inas we are promoting here rural virginia. One of the ways i have been doing this is through the g3 program. Yet skilled, get a job, give back. It allows virginians to go to Community College for two years without incurring debt, with the understanding that once they become certified, they will give ork a year to Public Service in a high demand area. This allows individuals from across the commonwealth to come to rural virginia to take classes in Community College and either start or work in a business here in rural virginia. Thank you. Southwest virginia faces an aging workforce and a brain drain of young people moving away from the area. As governor, what policies will you propose to help rural areas reinvent themselves to keep millennials in southwest virginia, and what would you do to encourage more folks to settle in rural parts of virginia . Mr. Gillespie the Lieutenant Governor serves on the center for rural virginia panel, the organization possible responsible for what we need to do to get rural virginia growing. Sadly, he did not attend a meeting as Lieutenant Governor. With uvawion this se. My plan is to make sure we double enrollment. That we have graduate programs here. That we have Cyber Security degrees that we differ here at uva wise. That we hold down costs but also make sure we are increasing the budget at the same time. And we take that budget to a 40 million, 30 million on an annual basis. That will be an engine for Economic Growth in the commonwealth in southwest virginia. There are other things we need to do as well. I mentioned technology, which is very important. The coal tax credit. Also allowing Industrial Hemp to be a product here. It is a strong cash crop. One of my plans is to make virginia the number one outdoor outdoorion for recreation on the east coast. One of our assets is the Natural Beauty. Click in to our rivers and streams so we can take advantage of the Natural Beauty here. That would result in thousands of good paying jobs as well. Lt. Gov. Northam i know the mailboxes have been full and the airway is full of not showing up, but i would like to remind you, mr. Gillespie, i served for eight years in the army. I showed up for our country. I showed up when i served in the Virginia Senate for eight years. As your Lieutenant Governor, i did not miss one second of being on the podium during that for years. I have showed up for virginia. I have been proud to do so. I guess what i have been showing up and serving the commonwealth k virginia, you have been a street lobbyists in washington. The only time you show up as when you get paid. There is a big difference between us. Lets stay on point. Lt. Gov. Northam i when it am. Comes to jobs in rural virginia, we have jobs that are 80,000, 90,000 jobs. That are being unfilled. We used to look at our jobs as either being whitecollar or bluecollar jobs. Now, we refer to them as newcollar jobs. This is why i am excited for rural virginia. Not only working with our colleges and universities, not only expanding great universities, like the university of virginia wise, but program, which allows students to go to Community College without any debt with the agreement that after they finished specification, they will come back to an area like wise and give back for their education, which did not cause them any new debt. Forgillespie i did show up my clients, the firm i left more than a decade ago. I will be i was effective on their behalf. Talkingfact is, we are about a job that youre seeking out and saw from us. You have 84 4 million clients. Eight point 4 million clients. I am one of them. One of the response abilities of being Lieutenant Governor is to serve on the commission for rural virginians. You did not attend at a single meeting. The other is to serve on a panel to make sure that virginians are safe in our homes and communities and businesses. You did not serve show up to one meeting of the security panel. Virginia Economic Development partnership, the central means by which we mean to raise pay in the commonwealth of virginia. You missed 60 of those. Maybe just as well, given that you are for higher taxes, and i am for lower taxes. I am for higher wages, you are for lower wages. My policies will help people lift themselves out of poverty. I will work hard on the half on behalf of the people of virginia. Lt. Gov. Northam all right, i apologize for stepping on you there. It is now time for our seventh question. Governor bob mcdonald enacted increased funding for highways and bridges. In spite of this, the quality of the infrastructure is still lower than the national average. Yet the tax rate on gasoline is the 38 lowest in the u. S. While increasing taxes used to be taboo, 22 states have increased tax gas taxes in the last five years. Considering gas prices are still low, now is the time to increase it for him for structure. Lt. Gov. Northam thank you. I would like to remind everyone i am a Small Business owner in hampton roads. If we cannot get to our office, our patients cannot get to our office, then we cannot take care of health care in hands and roads. Transportation is vitally important not only in metropolitan areas but also in rural virginia. Just to give you history, we have not had any new source any new revenue or any new source of revenue for transportation in virginia since 1986. We got farther and farther behind the curb. We were not keeping up with our roads and bridges, especially in rural virginia. Because of governor mcdonalds bipartisan plan he put on the table in 2013, we now have revenue coming into the commonwealth. A lot of the projects you are seeing all over the commonwealth are because of that 2013 Transportation Plan. One of the things that happened during that plan there is actually a regional tax in Northern Virginia and hampton roads. There was no floor put on that, thinking that the cost of a gallon of gas would go higher. It has actually gone down. So there is a lot of revenue. We, in a bipartisan way we need , to take that back to richmond and have it a remedy for that. Mr. Gillespie we need to maximize every transportation dollar we have in the commonwealth of virginia. We also need to work with the federal government. I will be able to work with secretary elaine chao and congress and the administration to get the expressway gone, to improve 81, address 73. All of these projects, including the channel and our report port, which we have to do. And also make sure we are addressing things like our National Security when working with the administration. When it comes to our transportation dollars, we need to have a lockbox. Every dollar dedicated to transportation projects needs to be spent on transportation projects. I support that. The Lieutenant Governor does not. Not favor having the higher the cost of projects, the fewer projects you get. I do not agree with imposing prevailing wage requirements on our publicprivate partnerships. With me as governor, we will get more mileage out of our dollar on transportation, because i will not impose higher cost projects. The more projects cost, the fewer projects you get. Transportation has to be a priority for us in the commonwealth of virginia, including in this area. We are running long, so for our eighth question, you both get 60 seconds but no rebuttal, ok . Lt. Gov. Northam do i get a response before the 60 60 seconds . Yes, you do. Lt. Gov. Northam the Transportation Plan has brought in billions of dollars into our transportation system. One of the things we did in 2014, we created what is called smart scale. That takes the politics out of what road projects are to be built next. I had a discussion this morning. There are people in rural virginia very worried about the infrastructure. We need to take care of our roads and bridges in rural virginia as well. There is a bias there, and we need to correct that as well. As far as the Transportation Plan of 2013, i was proud to support that it in a bipartisan way. My opponent has attacked me for supporting that. He then said he would not repeal it. To some ofs talking colleagues of his in Virginia Beach and said if you support it, i will support it to you that is not what we need in Public Service right now. We need someone who is steady at the wheel, not someone who puts their finger in the air every time to see which way the wind is blowing. Thank you. Again, carmen will ask the question. You both have 60 seconds. Then we will move to the next portion of the debate. Mr. Gillespie, should you be elected, which one state Spending Program will you propose to eliminate or dramatically reduce and which one would you expand, and why . Mr. Gillespie there are a number of programs. I think we can identify a lot of savings in our budget. Let me share one thing that is an opportunity. Because of this, we face a retirement cliff and our state workforce. 100,000 workers in the workforce who are dedicated employees, but 20,000 to 25,000 will retire. We do not have to replace all of those jobs. We can get consolidation, we can introduce more automation, we can streamline without having to lay people off. We can do that through attrition if we take advantage of that opportunity, and i would. I would not replace more than 1000 of those fulltime positions and get the savings for that, take 50 to increase salaries for existing workers and recruit new workers into our work, so we have a workforce that meets the needs as part of my transformation of our state workforce policy proposal. Lt. Gov. Northam there are several areas. One of the things mark warner did when he was governor was he brought in an outside group and a look at our agencies to see what was working well and what was not working well and to make improvements. Day, it made the government more efficient and it also saved the commonwealth of virginia a lot of money. As far as a program i want to look at and have discussion, i need to have a discussion with our state police and other people. One of my pet peeves are inspections on automobiles. It is time and money for people. I am going to propose, after some discussion, that for the first three years, if someone buys a new car, a sticker will be put on that car, and they will not have to have it inspected for three years. As far as programs i would like to expand, i mentioned this earlier there is a tremendous learning potential and our children before they ever get to kindergarten. So through a privatepublic relationship, i will make sure all of our children in the commonwealth of virginia have access to prek education. Now the fun part of the debate. Each candidate will have 30 seconds to ask the other a question, with 60 seconds to answer. Then the candidate who asked the question will have 60 seconds to respond. Mr. Gillespie, your floor. Mr. Gillespie if youre going to mention the meeting the governor canceled with the virginia sheriffs. I was truly disappointed. They are a nonpartisan organization. They are on the front lines of trying to protect the safety of our commonwealth. I am proud to be endorsed by a majority of our sheriffs. But they should not be published punished as an organization, trying to stand up for the deputies. The opioid and Mental Health epidemic i would like to ask you if you would join me in having governor mcauliffe i will urge him, but you can get him to do it to reschedule that meeting and reschedule that before listen to those sheriffs november 7. And see what their needs are. A routine meeting where they talk about their budget. Would you do that . Lt. Gov. Northam i am glad you asked the question. Respond to that earlier, but paul would not allow the time. I had nothing to do with the cancellation of that meeting. I want to let people know i grew up on the Eastern Shore. My brother is an attorney. My father and grandfather, both judges. I have always had a tremendous respect for Law Enforcement. Great always had relationships with our sheriffs and deputies, with our state police, with our local Law Enforcement. In 2011 i do not know if you know this, because i realize you were in washington, lobbying, at the time, but i actually won the award for the legislator of the year from the virginia sheriffs department. As you might know, there are legislators. 140 i won the award in 2011. So i have always been very supportive of our sheriffs and deputies. I will continue to to be. I have fought for pay raises over the years. As i said a couple times tonight, the 1. 4 billion hole in our budget is not a good way to support local Law Enforcement, sheriffs and our , virginia police. Mr. Gillespie . Mr. Gillespie for whatever it is worth, for the past more than a decade, i have had a business in old town alexandria. I left the firm youre talking about more than a decade ago. But you just made clear Law Enforcement is not a priority for you. You will not urge the governor. I will do it right now. Governor mcauliffe, please reschedule that meeting. Listen to their needs. Find out what they need as they face the challenges like the opioid and heroin epidemic. That is one of the priorities for me, and that is why am proud to have the majority of police supporting me, as well as the Police Benevolent organization and the fraternal order of police. I will have their back as governor. I am proud to have their endorsement. I wish the governor would not engage in politics when it comes to people on the front line of keeping ourselves in our Community Safe every day. Mr. Northam, your question. Lt. Gov. Northam we had a discussion in the first debate. Lessnk we both agreed the unintended pregnancies we have in the commonwealth of virginia, the better. As you know i put in a budget , amendment of federal money that would not come out of state funding of increasing access to long acting contraceptives for women of low income across the commonwealth. The parchment the Budget Amendment was defeated each year i introduced it. When i asked the question last time, you said you needed time to review the question. By the way, those are either inserted under the skin or placed in the cervix. They are very efficient. There are one of the most efficient ways of contraceptive for women so they can choose when and if to start a family. Would you increase that Budget Amendment to help women across the state of virginia . Mr. Gillespie i do not oppose access to longterm i do not oppose longterm access to contraceptives at all. I support making contraceptives, especially oral contraceptives, more commonly available to women across the commonwealth. As you would know better than me, the American College of gynecologist and obstetricians long ago recommended we could have overthecounter for oral contraceptives. There would not need to be a prescription. In my mind, i would have them back with sudafed and that kind of thing, but i think increasing access to true contraceptives is a smart thing and a policy i fully support. I would make them more readily available. I would also end up making them more affordable, if they were not prescription. Lt. Gov. Northam the question was not oral contraceptives. These are long lasting mr. Gillespie i understand. Not prolife, and i do support abortions, but i am not against contraceptives, even longacting. Lt. Gov. Northam so you would support that amendment . Mr. Gillespie i would support long acting contraceptives. Lt. Gov. Northam i am glad to hear that. One of the things important as we reach out is being inclusive. Defundingthings like planned parenthood, things like pieces of legislation that discriminate against womens access to Reproductive Health care, discriminate against the community, they discriminate against immigrants. I promise you businesses are watching virginia. We vetoed 120 pieces of legislation that does just that. Virginia needs to move forward. We cannot look in the rearview mirror. I am glad you will be supportive of increasing access for women to longterm contraceptives. Thank you for that. Mr. Gillespie we have also had a discussion over the last few months about sanctuary cities. I think we have to clear some things up. As i have agreed with you. We do not have them here, but i believe leadership means preventing problems before they occur as well as responding to problems. In states that have implement it and allowed cities to become sanctuary cities, they have not made people safer. You made the point that we do not have them, and i made the point we will not if i am governor, because i will sign legislation that you voted ban them. O were to bey city established if you became rnor two reverse century cities, not supporting authorities, would you do that . Lt. Gov. Northam thank you for that question. We do not have century cities. It is a solution looking for a problem. Just to go back and i thought it was kind of amusing when that book came up on the floor of the senate, it was nothing more that is wrong with what it was nothing more than a political ploy. By the way one of the senators , switched his vote. It was defeated. That imade it clear support local Law Enforcement. I do not support sanctuary cities. Indo not have century cities the commonwealth. Let me finish, and then you can we do not have sanctuary cities. I support local Law Enforcement during their jobs. I support pay increases for hours sheriffs, deputies, and state police. I will do everything, and always have done everything, to make sure our communities in the commonwealth of virginia are safe. Things like of this piece of legislation, which is a political ploy, is doing nothing more than promoting fear mongering and hatred and bigotry in this commonwealth. I do not condone that. It is a political ploy. We do not have century cities and i refuse to support sanctuary cities. Mr. Gillespie but youre fused to say that you would ban them. Even in retrospect. That is telling to me. I was just talking today to a faith leader of hispanic dissent, a strong faith leader in Northern Virginia, but he said, you know, being antims13 is not antiimmigrant. It is important. We want these people gone. It is our communities that are most vulnerable to their violence. You know, the young women who are being forced into Human Trafficking situations are not in neighborhoods like yours and mine. They are in the neighborhoods of this gentleman i was talking to today. I believe we need to protect these folks. I would ban one that says a city or county cannot establish themselves as a sanctuary city, because we need to cooperate when someone is here illegally. Membery be an ms13 gang or not. They should be deported. Not people brought here by parents. Not the dreamers. They should not be, as this faith leader shared with me and i told him i agreed with him on that, but we cannot allow for the establishment of sanctuary cities, and you would not even say you would ban them after the fact. I think that is a concern. Time waits for no one, especially on television. We had planned one other question, but i want to hear your closing statements because were running out of time. Lt. Gov. Northam can ask a question . I will be very quick. I appreciate that. With a tremendous tragedies with gun violence, mr. Gillespie. We had to the shooting, as you know, 10 years at virginia tech. We lost 32 precious lives. We had the shooting in las vegas. We lost 58 lives. Over 500 individuals wounded. I just have a very simple question for you. As you know, i do support and promote, i am an advocate for responsible gun ownership. So my question is do you support ackground checks in the commonwealth of virginia . Mr. Gillespie as you know, we do have universal background checks. We passed a resolution that allows for universal background checks at gun shows. That is being implemented. I think it is helpful. I am eager to see it implemented even more fully. Thathing i noticed was senator dianne feinstein, the foremost champion of gun control laws, said there is no law that could have prevented what happened in las vegas. I suspect i am like a lot of other virginians and americans. I have never heard of bump stocks until that heartbreaking, stomach turning mass murder we saw in las vegas. I do believe a device that allows you to circumvent a ban on automatic weapons should be regulated and banned if it is designed to turn a nonautomatic weapon into an automatic weapon. So that is something i would certainly support, in response to what we saw in las vegas. But lets be clear about something. In terms of your desire to limit Second Amendment rights here in the common with a virginia, the fact is as gun ownership has risen in america, the incident, or rate, a Violent Crime and murder has declined as gun ownership has risen. A gentlemen, we only have couple minutes left in this live broadcast. You are each going to have one minute for your final statement. If you have some saved, you may use it then. Lt. Gov. Northam thank you to the university of virginiawise. You have run an excellent debate tonight. Ed, thank you so much for running good i wish you and your lovely wife, i wish you all the best as we come down the home stretch. I would just tell you, look at peoples resumes. What did they do before they came to Public Service . I have had a life of Public Service. I served in the United States army. I took care of Sick Children and their families over 25 years. I have served in the Virginia Senate and as Lieutenant Governor. And i will tell you i look forward to serving in the next four years. We are all in this together, making sure we have access to health care, making sure our children have access to a worldclass education system. Make sure all of you have good paying jobs in virginia. We live in the greatest state in the greatest country in this world. I encourage all of you to vote on the election day. I would certainly be privileged and honored to have your vote on november 7. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being with us. Have a great weekend. Mr. Gillespie thank you for making time for this important debate. Ralph, i wish you and pam the best as well. I believe this election is important. We have had three straight years where more people have moved out then come in. Ins is not just a problem southwest virginia, it is a problem across the commonwealth. My plans would result in the creation of more than 53,000 new additional full paying private sector jobs across the commonwealth. That is a 25 increase over current projections. We need those jobs and those opportunities. I have the plans to get virginia growing again. I have a sense of urgency in which to get them done. I will not fail us. I will be a governor for all virginians. My policies will enter if it all virginians. I ask for your vote november 7 so i can serve the people of virginia. I will be an honest, ethical, principled, faithful leader. Thank you, gentlemen. We have to go. Thank you to this audience here. You were great. I paul johnson. Amdo not forget vote, november 7. Thank you for joining us here at the university of virginia at wise. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the virginia governors race has mike pence mike pence has Vice President mike pence gillespie, for ed taking place in southwestern virginia. Earlier this month, trump encouraged reaching a residence to vote for mr. Gillespie in a tweet. Meanwhile, next week former president obama is set to make his first appearance on the campaign trail. He will be at a rally for democratic candidate Ralph Northam in richmond, virginia. Sunday night on after shirleyhistorian craig the life of newt gingrich. He is interviewed by former virginia congressman tom davis. Before cable Era Television was prominent. It was before cnn, before msnbc. Just Little Pockets of cable. But it was mostly reruns of i love lucy, england that. There is no talk radio. And cspan. Just big media and cspan. He quickly realizes the policy of special orders every afternoon, doing a fiveminute speech. Because it was getting carried over cable into 100,000 homes around the country. Ribrmer congressman used to you and gingrich said would gave a speech to 100,000 people . Of course you would. That is what you are doing with cspan, with special orders every afternoon. He quickly becomes a