AFTER 24 years of service to the 57th District, Del. Mitch Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, is retiring. Throughout his career, in eras of both Democratic and Republican dominance, Van Yahres fought relentlessly for working-class Virginians. Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, calls Van Yahres the "conscience" of the House of Delegates for his unflinching progressive advocacy.
The citizens of Charlottesville and portions of Albemarle County deserve credit for electing and re-electing such an outspoken advocate for working Virginians. The residents of the 57th district are among the most progressive in the state; in the 2004 presidential election, for instance, only Petersburg voted for John Kerry by a larger margin than the citizens of Charlottesville. In a state with a relative paucity of progressive districts, it is particularly important that the Democratic delegates and senators from those districts are strident advocates of leftist policies, including support for public education and a strong welfare state.
Only one true progressive is running in the upcoming 57th district Democratic primary: Rich Collins, the University's Lawrence Lewis Jr. Professor of Planning. Last week I talked to Prof. Collins about his candidacy and his vision for the Commonwealth. Collins has years of academic experience in environmental issues dealing with planning and land use, and will be a voice for the University in Richmond where anti-tax, anti-education rhetoric is damaging the quality of public higher education across the state by preventing adequate funding for it. Most importantly, in the tradition of Van Yahres, Collins will be an advocate for working-class Virginians and others whose rights are sacrificed by Republican demagoguery for the GOP's short-term political gain.
Collins is running against former Charlottesville Mayor David Toscano and local developer Clement "Kim" Tingley.
Collins supports meeting the state's Medicaid obligations, for which there has not been adequate money in the recent past due to former Gov. Jim Gilmore's fiscal mismanagement and the House Republicans' callousness to human needs. He will support state policies that guarantee workers a living wage.
In contrast, Toscano, cast the only vote against a living wage for city employees while serving on City Council. Collins, meanwhile, also supports a fairer, more progressive tax system, wherein wealth is taxed more than work. He sees little reasons to tax working people heavily while the rich live off inherited wealth or dividends that is subject to little or no taxation.
Collins' progressive principles also inform his positions on higher education. He believes that qualified students of any economic background should be able to attend a public university. This requires additional state funding for public higher education, and in particular a commitment to greater financial aid.
Collins does not believe that the University or any other public institution of higher education should be the province solely of the rich, and therefore does not support pseudo-privatization plans that some administration officials and state policy makers have suggested. Nor does Collins believe the state college system exists only to train workers. He values a liberal arts education, and will not support state policies that allow History Department faculty positions to be left vacant, for instance, while the state partners with universities to build research parks that exist for the purposes of regional economic development alone.
Because he has decades of academic experience dealing with environmental policy, Collins is completely qualified to ensure that economic development does not impair the state for future generations. Specifically, Collins will work on giving localities the authority to control growth. For too long the homebuilding and developers' lobby has used the state to prevent localities from establishing smart growth policies that preserve open space and encourage investment in existing urban and suburban areas.
Regrettably, Tingley has funneled PAC money to anti-environmental Republicans in the General Assembly, such as Del. Bill Janis, R-Henrico. Allowing localities to pass adequate public facilities ordinances is one of Collins's top environmental priorities. APFOs could prevent developers from causing school overcrowding by building too many homes for the local public school system and would also protect farmland and open space. Collins will also work to restore the health of the Chesapeake Bay, by reducing non-point pollution, like agricultural runoff, and by improving sewer treatment facilities of towns and cities.
In a district as progressive as the 57th, whoever wins the Democratic primary effectively wins the seat. Our next delegate could serve for any number of years, and we have a responsibility to ourselves and to the state as a whole to ensure that the next delegate from the 57th district will promulgate the correct progressive policies. Rich Collins is the only populist, progressive candidate in the Democratic primary. If we wish to see him elected, we will have to turn out in force for the Democratic primary on June 14.
Zack Fields' column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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