Va. House candidate talks crime and education

The multicolored poster on the wall to the left of Albert Williams seemed especially appropriate after he spoke.

It said: “Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.“

Speaking about Virginia House of Delegates candidate Mike Hodge, Williams said: “I am truly, truly impressed with this man.”

And: “I’m just amazed at this man’s bio and resume.”

And, boosting Hodge to campaign for an even higher office: “He needs to be up there on Capitol Hill.”

Seemingly surprised by the avalanche of praise, the candidate smiled sheepishly.

“Truly, I didn’t pay him,” said Hodge, a former Secret Service agent who lives in Montclair. “I didn’t even suggest it.”

But that kind of praise is never bad for a candidate in a primary election that could draw few voters beyond political party regulars.

It came at a town-hall-style meeting Hodge held Tuesday night. The venue was the KnowledgePoints tutoring center in Dale City, hence the poster near Williams.

Hodge faces the Rev. Luke Torian, pastor of First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries, in the June 9 Democratic primary for the 52nd District seat in the House.

The winner faces Republican candidate Rafael Lopez, a former Dumfries town councilman, Nov. 3.

Incumbent Del. Jeffrey M. Frederick, R-Woodbridge, didn’t seek re-election in the district, which includes Southbridge, Quantico, Dumfries, Triangle, Montclair and most of Woodbridge.

Hodge told a crowd of more than a dozen that he has a background that fits a job in the Virginia General Assembly.

In addition to being in the Secret Service (a campaign slogan: “If four U.S. presidents can trust me ... so can the people of Prince William County and the commonwealth”), he served in the Marine Corps and has experience in private security.

He took questions from voters on a variety of topics, including education, crime and assistance for small businesses.

“Small businesses are having a time,” Hodge said.

To find funds to aid them, the candidate said he would propose raising criminal and civil fees charged to the convicted.

“I think we can get some money out of that,” he said.

On crime, Hodge said he would push to protect seniors and the disabled who live alone.

On education, he said teachers should always have planning time built in to their schedules so they can spend less time working during their off hours.

And he’s concerned that states don’t have enough money to implement regulations mandated by the federal “No Child Left Behind” law.

“We can’t have any unfunded mandates,” Hodge said. “That’s the bottom line.”

On social issues, he said he supports abortion rights and civil unions for homosexual couples.

“I think that they deserve the same equal rights as everybody else,” Hodge said.

Before voicing opinions on those issues, he joked that they were the “hard questions.”

But he said he interacts with voters as if they were the hiring personnel at a business.

“These are interviews for me,” he said.

If Williams, artistic director at the Creative and Performing Arts Center, had the last word, it seems Hodge would already be hired.

Staff writer Jonathan Hunley can be reached at 703-369-5738.