This month, we asked the candidates from each competitive race on the ballot on Election Day to write a sub-750 word essay describing why Arlington residents should vote for them on Nov. 4.
Here is Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District Micah Edmond’s unedited response:
The congressional race in the 8th District to replace Jim Moran should be about your priorities and your future. You deserve a candidate that spends no time attacking anyone else, no time talking about their political party and no time looking backwards. Instead, you deserve a candidate that talks about an inclusive future. That’s specifically why I didn’t put a political party label on my campaign literature. I believe all that mattered was telling you my vision, my priorities, and my plan to achieve those priorities.
I believe leaders rise above party and should be measured by results rather than popularity or polls. While leaders should have common principles and values rooted in organizations like political parties, they should be willing to abandon party orthodoxy when it pushes for all or nothing extremes over a willingness to compromise on bi-partisan, practical solutions that achieve progress.
I got into this race last year because I was tired of partisanship that blocked results in Congress on both sides of the aisle. Both were willing to accept sequestration as a partisan political issue to campaign on in the mid-term elections rather than embrace a bi-partisan compromises like the President’s Simpson-Bowles Commission and Congress’ Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, both of which I was happy to serve on as a senior advisor. The failure to enact these compromises proves that while we have real, bi-partisan solutions, we lack real leaders willing to compromise and enact them.
So here is why I would like your vote.
- My vision — I want to make the American Dream achievable again for all people. I want to move past short-term fixes and enact annual budgets that control spending while making investments in our collective national and economic security. Fiscal conservatism and investments in the future are not mutually exclusive. I believe both are necessary to ensure we don’t mortgage away our future.
- Priorities — I want to enact a long-term budget that grows the economy and creates jobs by making regular investments in education, infrastructure and our national defense. I want immediate immigration reforms that transition un-documented workers into a legal status but does not include citizenship. And I want immediate changes that make healthcare more affordable and portable.
- Plan — I favor a 10-year budget plan along the lines of Simpson- Bowles. My plan achieves a 2:1 ratio of cuts to new revenue raised, balances the budget in 5 years and retires a third of the national debt in 10 years. My plan achieves this through four areas: (1) Tax relief for the middle class and small businesses, (2) Tax reform that closes corporate welfare loopholes and ends tax incentives that don’t focus on job creation, small business ownership, education, home ownership and research and development, (3) Entitlement reform that grandfathers the benefits for seniors and veterans either receiving or within a few years of receiving benefits while also enacting changes for all others that reflect the realities of a new labor force including life expectancy and recruiting and retention differences and (4) Enacting a 5-10% cut in federal discretionary spending over ten years that abandons sequestration in favor of allowing agency experts the flexibility to impose cuts.
I would be proud to have your vote and represent the whole 8th district. I have continued to make my campaign forward looking and inclusive. With your support, you can trust me to bring a new vision, a new voice and a new energy to making the American Dream achievable again for all people.
Please visit www.micahedmond.com for more information, or email me at [email protected].