Caleb on the issues

Champion for Catoctin

My farming childhood and professional background in finance and law gives me the knowledge to be the champion for Catoctin businesses, landowners, and families. Living in Western Loudoun shouldn’t mean sacrificing safety, excellent education and modern necessities to improve our quality of life.

Constituent Service

First and foremost, I believe that the role of local government is to respond to and meet the needs of its citizens. Elected officials should listen to and meet with their constituents. An elected official is no different than an average citizen, other than they have been entrusted to do the peoples work.

As a practicing attorney, I listen to and advocate for my clients every day. Part of my job is to give them my best advice and carry out legal work on their cases, but I don’t get to decide what is best for them. Similarly, as a supervisor, I will listen to and advocate for what the Catoctin citizens have made it clear what they want. I will also be proactive and transparent in meeting with as many Catoctin residents as possible to hear their concerns and explain my record.

As an attorney, we don’t always get to pick the cases that comes to us. However, I have always believed in the standards of the American justice system: an individual is innocent until proven guilty, and everyone deserves qualified representation notwithstanding the crime they are accused of committing. I want to bring my commitment to fair representation in the judicial system to the legislative arena to fight for the freedom and rights of Catoctin families.

Taxes, Spending and Budgets:

As a fiscal conservative, I will work hard to reduce the tax burden on the citizens and individual households of Loudoun County. That requires smart budgeting.

Every household in Loudoun has to live within a reasonable budget—and so should Loudoun’s government. An effective budget requires 1) controlling expenses and 2) increasing revenue. Do this effectively year after year and Loudoun and its citizen’s will prosper—keeping more of their hard earned dollars.

Presently, Loudoun enjoys a lower tax rate than both Fairfax and Prince William County. I will fight to keep it that way. I believe that our homeowners already pay enough in property tax and I will fight to hold the line against any future increase tax rate.

I will champion continued business growth at the proper places and acceptable to our citizens in the county which will increase our commercial and industrial tax base and help shift the tax burden away from our households.

Champion for Loudoun Business & Rural Economy

I will be a business friendly supervisor—creating more jobs in Loudoun is critical to reducing the tax burden on families and increasing our quality of life through shorter commutes, more time at home, and increased community investment by our local companies.

One way to keep Western Loudoun open and less developed is to increase the opportunity and value of our farming and agricultural business opportunity. I will champion our agricbusiness community and fight to keep costs low, and opportunities abundant. These businesses need a representative that understands the unique challenges that can mean the difference between life and death for family farms and small town businesses, and I have the knowledge and background to be that champion.

Lower Tolls & build alternatives

Throughout my career, I have travelled the Greenway weekly and sometimes daily since it was opened in 1995. I have seen a percentage of my personal budget increase significantly for transportation due to increase costs of the Greenway tolls—and I know I am not alone. Thousands of other Loudoun citizens are feeling the impact of increased transportation cost on both their pocketbook and quality of life.

I was deeply disappointed in our incumbent chair’s vote to support annual, guaranteed toll hikes indefinitely on the Greenway. This is not the kind of leadership Loudoun needs. It would only serve to increase costs to Loudoun citizens—especially those in the west.

As a member of the Board, I will bring my legal experience to advocate for lower tolls on the Greenway and fight for increased transparency of how the tolling company uses our hard-earned money. I’ll also support efforts to create and build alternative to our toll road that will create transportation competition and force toll expenses lower.

Preserve Rural Loudoun

I am running for the Board of Supervisors for the Catoctin District to preserve the way of life we all enjoy in Loudoun County. Not only does Loudoun boast the highest per household income in the nation with some of the best schools, but we have one of the most beautiful counties in the country. This way of life will not endure without thoughtful planning and diligent oversight by the Board of Supervisors.

I support the current housing density contained in the comprehensive plan amended by the Board in 2007. I am deeply skeptical of any new projects that encroach on the Transition Policy Area and the quality of live homeowners currently enjoy. I believe every development project should be viewed through the lens of what is best for the county and the citizens, not special interests.

Safer Roads

Safe roads are a top priority for me—especially Rt.15 North of Leesburg.

As a former prosecutor, I have been to too many roadside fatalities and dealt with too many serious vehicle accidents where safer roads would have made a difference and avoided such tragedy. Nothing is more important than bringing our families back together safely and sooner every day.

Supervisor Higgins has made a good start but much still needs to be done. I will bring increased urgency to improving our major highways, especially Route 15. I will champion a combination of local, state and federal funding and accelerated completion timetables for these crucial projects. This will not only ease congestion but will also encourage more patronage to our thriving agribusiness in the west.

This also extends to our rural roads. I grew up on a half-mile dirt country road and loved every minute of it—but maintenance was always an issue. Western Loudoun deserves its fair share of road repair resources while also maintaining its unique rural character. Loudoun County has the most miles of unpaved roads in Virginia and I will work with VDOT to preserve and maintain our unpaved gravel roads in Western Loudoun.

Putting Students First

As supervisor, I will fight to keep our small schools open—especially those in Lucketts, Lincoln and Hamilton. I believe smaller class sizes and more individualized student attention leads to greater success for all Loudoun students. Closing these schools would force our students into larger schools with more than hour long bus rides.

Having grown up involved in public, private and home schools, I see the value of all types of education that parents can choose from. I will support a parents right to tailor their child’s education with different choices in education. I will also support expanding access to education programs that give students skills in our growing county industries in tech and agribusiness.

Broadband

Broadband is a top priority for me. Lack of broadband and cell service negatively affects our families’ safety, impacts our competitiveness and jobs, and hamstrings access to 21st century education tools for public, home and private school education. There has been much talk and little progress to finding any real solutions to broadband in Catoctin. If elected, my focus will be finding ways to reduce barriers and increase incentives for private infrastructure investment.