Good evening and welcome to beautiful virginia for the third and final virginia Gubernatorial Debate of 2017 cohosted by the university of Virginia College of wives, University Virginia school of leadership and public policy, and the southwestern Virginia Technology council. My name is paul johnson, the anchor and your host for this event. This is carmen, of the Roanoke Times 50 cover state politics for the state of virginia. She will be asking questions of the candidates and ill be keeping track of the time. Together we want to get as much ground as possible tonight while providing the candidates and indepth opportunity to discuss some of the issues especially affecting southwest virginia and the commonwealth. We have made every possible effort tonight to ensure the fairness of these questions and exchanges so central to our democracy. Let me state for on the record here the ground rules weve agreed to an effort to advance the Public Interest of this conversation. The question is, each will count will ask each question and order in a predetermined by a coin toss. Candidates will have a set response of rebuttal time which will count down on the floor clock. We will also have candidates cant equations are open include remarks. When a candidates time is expired ill ask him to you the floor. Candidates should speak during the designated time and refrain from interrupting each other. Let us begin and welcome our first candidate democrat ralph northam. [applause] thank you. Now let us welcome out other candidates, republican ed gillespie. [applause] now please get the cheering at your system because im going to ask the arteries not to apply to make any of the noise until the end of the debate. Lets let the candidates speak for themselves. We will have two minute opening remarks of each candy. The priest was assigned by a coin toss. Mr. Northam, you are up first. You have two minutes. Thank you so much and good evening and is great to be at university of virginia. Thank you for hosting this and thanks to carmen and paul for being our moderator. It is great to be back in whisenant wrote for jacob i grew up on home to hinder was, governor wise who wise can was named editor of the product of public schools. I attended Virginia Military institute and eastern virginia medical school. I served for eight years and the United States army taking care of Wounded Soldiers during desert storm. We worked very hard over the last four years building a new virginia, bring in over 215,00 new jobs to virginia. Our Unemployment Rate has gone from 5. 4 to 3. 8 . I believe in investing in virginians because when we do there is no other state that can beat us. My opponent ed gillespie as a d. C. Lobbyist vicki believes in giving tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the working class which will put 1. 4 billion hole in our budget. As a doctor either plan to resuscitate real virginia. Its time to get the paddles out and shop roof virginia back to life story with universal access to broadband and cell phone coverage, to make sure all of our children have access to a worldclass Education System so they can be trained for the 21st century jobs. I want to make sure we build ecosystems that can support startups and Small Businesses. I want to expand i 81 and bring amtrak out to real virginia in the southwest. I want to make sure we talk about expanding the university of virginia wise right here, bring in more talent, bring in more graduate courses so that we can bring new business to real virginia. And then finally no individual come to family should be one medical illness away from financial demise it should matter what zip code you live in. That shouldnt dictate whether you access to healthcare or not. I look forward to not to sherry my ideas on how we take virginia to the next level and how to more happens writer in real virginia. Thank you so much. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Gillespie, two minutes. Thank you, thank you to use a wise for hosting us or the cd. It is great to be back at this great college. Ralph, its good to be with you again. I want to talk about the stakes of this election of the choices that are before stomach because the stakes could not be higher and the choices could not be more clear. The fact is our Economic Growth has been stuck for six straight years. Our Economic Growth rate last in the commonwealth was 0. 6 . Making as 39th out of 50 states. Unfortunately 50 states. Unfortunately that wasnt an aberration. That was part of a pattern because for securing our Economic Growth rate has been below the national gdp. We used to always lead and now were lagging and for five of secure our Economic Growth was below 1 . 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. We can be with the right policies but those are not the policies we have in place and have had in place for the past four years. As Lieutenant Governor, we hit the bottom ten states and Economic Growth. I know my possible make life better for all virginians and will make sure the next generation can do better than the generation that came before us. Thats important to me. Im the son am an immigrant. My father came to this country as a child because his father my grandfather found work in america. And i was able to work my way through college. I was the first generation on either side of my family and eventually able to become counselor to the president of the United States of america. From immigrant candidate to wesley at the the white house in two generations time. I want to ensure that upward mobility and Economic Opportunity is available to future generations of virginians and my policies will do that. Lieutenant governor i appreciate his service to our country at a 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. When did unleash Economic Growth and my policies will benefit all virginians. Thank thank you, mr. Gillesp. Its time to ask the first question to carmen will do that. The ghost and mr. North america are the rules. You have 90 seconds to answer the question then mr. Gillespie will 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 the question. You just said exactly whats going on in real virginia whether it be on the Eastern Shore of the south side or in the southwest. When people leave these communities, there are less children and the sunday for our public schools. We need to make sure we understand there is power in every child and every child should be able to reach the american dream. The way we do that and weve made a lot of great progress here in the commonwealth, the first thing is to bring jobs into real 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. So we have a plan writer in wise to expand the uva wise to bring higher levels of talent into this area, attracts talent. With that will come the opportunity for grants, for Research Opportunities and for business opportunities. And so school is important one of the first places to start, were under paint our teachers in the commonwealth of virginia about 7500 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 vocationaltechnical training and we are revising our sol summation were no longer teach our children how to take multiple multiplechoice test but to think creatively. K12 is important. If you go into new a new area theres two things as, how are the schools and house healthcare . These are two areas that would be top priority for my in the next four years. Mr. Gillespie, 90 seconds. We need to reduce the population in southwest virginia. Its having an effect on the schools and the assembly came forward with the plan that 101010 plan that would help address this fund is pretty between the schools. With the schools in some parts of the commonwealth for with overcrowding and were schools where weve got population to cling to go to address both those chosen. We need to attract teachers to staff schools are before the plaintiff including student loan forgiveness for those teachers. We need to increase teacher conversation in the commonwealth of virginia and my k12 Education Plan does that. If you go to my website you will see that plan. One of the recent with a population decline because of the economic numbers i was talking about. We are not going to increase jobs in southwest virginia by doing what those didnt governor wants to which is to impose in an obama style clean power plant on virginia. The administration of washington, d. C. , Trump Administration has repealed the clean fettle powerpoint of the income wants to impose one. That will only result in more laidoff miners but also laidoff factory workers because it will drive up electric bills for all virginians. When drive up the costs of production you end up with laidoff factory workers as well as minors. Weve shed too many good manufacturing jobs and money jobs in the commonwealth and on top of that if its the poorest virginians the horse. They get hit hardest by higher electric bills. This is a clear choice. We are either going to have clean power plan, carbon emission limits imposed on the commonwealth what the rest of the country is not doing it. Thats going to drive up prices for our electric bills or i will oppose it. Higher electric bills or lower once. A clear choice. The question was about k12 education and i appreciate you saying youre going to compensate our teachers, but your economic plan a tax cut for the wealthy at the expense to the workingclass puts a whole of 1. 4 billion in our budget. I dont know how you going to pay our teachers more at the same time put a hole in our budget of 1. 4 billion. Wonder the things that is so important to me as the parent and as as a child neurologist s Early Childhood education. Weve worked very hard over the last four years. We have a childrens cabinet. We opened up 13,000 more slots this year and the commonwealth of virginia. A lot of them in real virginia to prek education. I remind people all the time theres a tremendous learning potential in our children for the ever get to kindergarten and if one family has the means to send their children to prek and another one doesnt thats what starts the gap between the haves and havenots. Unwilling and ready and always have been very interested in funding k12 education as well as prek and thats what i will do in the next four years. Thank you. Time for a second question. Mr. Gillespie, as you mentioned earlier, you today president donald Trump Administration announced plans to roll back the socalled clean power plan. One of the clear differences between you and your opponent is how you do the Energy Future in the commonwealth between cold and renewables. What would your policy regarding these fuels particularly in terms of subsidies either directly or indirectly through the tax system . Im going to touch on that in the second but when you point out Lieutenant Governor is wrong in terms of the tax plan. Its not a tax for the wealthy. Its a tax cut for all virginians and effectively cut a time. We could increase spending by 2 billion based on on the projections revenue if the revenue doesnt come in we would face in the tax cuts at a slow rate we protect government functions like education, transportation and public safety. He doesnt oppose the tax cuts because there for the rich. He opposes them because their tax cuts. Lets stay on point. I need to respond to this point. When it comes to energy policy, we have real opportunities in southwest virginia. I and 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 and if i mentally sensitive manner in protecting the private Property Rights as well. I know we can do the pump storage technology, Hydro StoragePump Technology that would become southwest virginia. I support the reinstatement of the coal tax credit and it was unfortunate that tax credit 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 in the commonwealth would do all of those things but im not looking to drive more miners out of work and to drive electric bills up and that is a clear choice as i said, higher electric bills or Lower Electric bills. That is one of the choices. Lieutenant governors pols who will drive up the cost of electricity in virginia. Ive had a lot of discussions with coal miners in the coal industry and call is very important to the economy in southwest virginia. I understand that. The demands for steam related coal are not what they used to be. The demands for metallurgical coal are very good. I would do everything i can to support the coal industry in southwest virginia. At the same time we have a great opportunity as head said to use all of the above and weve made great progress with Renewable Energies come with wind and solar. One of the things ive talked about earlier tonight and i will continue to expand on is bringing more tell talent intoe inverse of virginia wise right here. Graduate school level teachers, students and with this comes the village of research and development. With that comes great opportunities. With that comes business opportunities. We have a great opportunity to push forward with Renewable Energy to you solar, wind in addition to call and hydroelectricity which we use in the southwest come in addition to natural gas and nuclear power. Its all of the above but we have a great chance to move forward with Renewable Energy. Its a winwin. If we can bring people here to southwest that will study that, was studied the production of energy, the storage of energy that would create jobs and also at the same time move us towards cleaner energy and a cleaner environment. Third question goes to mr. Northam. Last week the United StatesSupreme Court heard oral arguments in deal versus whitford involving the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. The case stems from wisconsin were a lower court ruled the states redraw facility maps are unconstitutional. In protecting one party. If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court would you propose an independent thirdparty approach to redistricting similar to the high successful system in iowa . This is something that is very important to me. I served in the senate for six years, the virginia city. I was on the Election Committee and my opponent is actually the architect of gerrymandering throughout this country. We have two contrasting approaches to redistricting. Let me just tell you a quick story. When i ran for Virginia Senate in 2007, i rant against an eightyear incumbent. There were 100 delegate races that year. There were 40 senate races. Out of 140 races there were only 17 that were competitive. Thats not good democracy. That means that we as the people should be choosing our representatives rather than politicians choosing the voters. Thats the way the system is now. Now. Its called gerrymandering and it needs to stop. So i have told anybody fizzling to listen, and i hope youre listening tonight, i will not sign a map in 2021. We drop our lines every ten years. I will not sign a map and less its drawn fairly. I do propose and support a Nonpartisan Redistricting Commission that is very important. But as i said its time that the People Choose their representatives rather than politicians choosing their voters. Thats not what democracy is about. After we to redistricting, the next step will be campaignfinance reform. Thats another area that i feel very strongly about. We need to start with nonpartisan redistricting. Ninety seconds to respond. In my history books it was albert who came up with the gerrymandering but let me address a question about this. Im open to the concept of nonperson predicting but i would like to see instances where its worth it if you look at places where they have nonpartisan redistricting maps to look different. From those where they have partisan redistricting. Im open to ideas and discard. I just havent seen it instance with the exception of iowa which is correcting and they cant cut it into four different quadrants. When it comes to this the fact is im not the ones who have got 500,000, half 1, half a Million Dollars in super pac money from an organizat