We are committed to a common agenda that will strength Virginia and improve our quality of life. Having returned from India on the Governors Trade mission, it could not be clearer that we have great challenges in the 21st century global economy. We have made some great progress in recent years while Delegate Moran has been the leader of the House Democratic Caucus.

10 KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF VA DEMOCRATS SINCE 2001

1. We made the largest investment in k-12 education in Virginia history, providing for over 10,000 new teachers and ensuring our workforce could compete in the global economy. Virginia has been rated the best state for a child’s lifetime success by Education Week.
2. Recognizing that God’s natural beauty and our natural resources need to be protected, we provided over $200 million for Chesapeake Bay Cleanup to ensure they’re available for future generations to enjoy.
3. Knowing how important it is to bring good, high paying jobs to our hardest hit rural areas, Virginia Democrats launched the largest rural broadband deployment and ensured unemployment rates fell to single digits in every county in rural Virginia.
4. In 2001, Virginia’s Department of Transportation performed less than 50% of its projects on-time or on budget. Now, that performance is up above 90% showing we can efficiently and effectively manage the state bureaucracy.
5. A hallmark of good management in our state system, Virginia Democrats fought to preserve our AAA Bond rating. The rating was re-affirmed by the national credit agencies because we balanced our books and put our fiscal house in order.
6. Governing magazine named Virginia the ‘Best Managed State’ in the nation for its efficient management.
7. Forbes has named Virginia the Best state to do Business in the nation and commented that we were far above a distant second.
8. We increased the personal exemption, cut the food tax, and made the tax code fairer. We took 140,000 working-poor Virginians off the tax rolls and now only 9 states in the nation have a lower tax burden.
9. In order to develop life saving 21st century technologies, we invested in University Research to advance nanotechnology, bioinformatics and other technology projects in conjunction with our Universities.
10. In 2001, we fell to the lowest point in Democratic history with only 34 seats in the House of Delegates. Since then we have gained seats in every general election and numerous special elections and now Republicans only hold 58 seats. These are the first sustained gains since the second World War.