2017 General Election Elected 53 — 47
How much has Virginia changed? How much has American changed?
Virginia is not New York. New York’s state colors are blue and orange, recalling its Dutch origins. Google VanValkenburg, you find someone born in New York of that name in 1703. Google Schuyler, you find a County in New York, memorializing one of New York’s earliest Dutch settlers.
You might expect a Schuyler VanValkenburg http://schuylervanvalkenburg.ngpvanhost.com/ to run for office in New York. This VanValkenburg is originally from NY, from Johnstown, north of Albany. A quick look at the New York state Assembly and Senate will find only Vproduce presidents. The New York Dutch don’t seem to be producing politicians at all anymore.
Johnstown is a good place to develop an anti-corporate attitude. Known as Glove City, Schuyler VanValkenburg’srecalls businesses closing and moving overseas. His website does not recall the Johnstown Flood, a disaster that killed over 2,000 people. The flood was probably a result of a failed dam system weakened by millionaire speculators led by Henry Clay Frick (think museum) who sought to create a resort for the wealthy.
What is Schuyler VanValkenburg doing in Virginia? Unlike the Roosevelts, his family were not aristocrats among the New York Dutch. He went to the University of Richmond, not Harvard. He married and stayed in Virginia. He has been teaching school. National Board Certified, he is good at it. Much as he may love to teach, but is now a politician — running for an open House of Delegates seat.
He is running with a vision that will generate Democratic support:
- Promote infrastructure spending which will improve the economy because of jobs created and infrastructure created
- Update the tax code to eliminate breaks for special interests
- Expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act
- Treat addiction as a disease, not a criminal offense.
- End gerrymandering
- Lower barriers to voting
- Create a fair campaign finance system
- Create a student loan authority to ease the student loan crisis
- Move toward universal Pre-Kindergarten
- increase funding for education — smaller classes, increased teacher pay, and curriculum revision
If he can make his case to independents, moderate Republicans, and Democrats, he can win this seat, a seat that Democrats have not contested seriously for years. About his students: “I literally teach them democratic citizenship and how to be a democratic citizen, that’s my day to day life …… I never thought I’d run [myself], but after November it just seemed like the right thing to do.”
Help this Virginian with a New York name get elected. Help Schuyler VanValkenburg http://schuylervanvalkenburg.ngpvanhost.com/ with some resources.
