Steve Shannon said he owes his decision to run for the House of Delegates partly to his wife, Abby.
"My wife and I decided to run. It was not an individual decision. It was a family decision," Shannon said. "We believe deeply in public service to the community."
Shannon, an assistant Commonwealth attorney for Fairfax County since 2000, is the Democrat hoping to win the delegate seat representing the 35th district. That seat is being vacated by Del. Jeannemarie Devolites (R). By becoming a delegate, Shannon, who lives in Dunn Loring with his wife and 9-month son Aidan, hopes to build upon his career of public service.
"He's eager and committed to public service," said campaign volunteer Connie Houston. "He spent a lot of time getting to know people in the district."
Under Commonwealth attorney Robert Horan, Shannon, 32, prosecuted child abuse cases as well as felonies, misdemeanors and traffic violations. He and his wife brought the AMBER Alert program to the metropolitan Washington area, which alerts commuters when a child is abducted. When that program was instituted in September 2001, Maryland and Virginia adopted their own programs shortly afterwards.
"It was a wonderful process. We worked for about two years to get the program up and going," Shannon said.
As a candidate, Shannon has suggested some solutions in improving the area's quality of life. For taxes, Shannon supports changing the funding formula so more revenue returns to the 35th district. He also wants to look at the way locales can generate revenue, because he sees the county as too dependent on property tax revenue.
"I believe that we need to allow locales to diversify their revenue base, with part of the new money going directly to offset property taxes and part of it going to reinvest in our community's long-term future, which includes our public school system," Shannon said.
As for education, Shannon said he supports improving teacher recruitment and retention, making Virginia competitive with other area Washington jurisdictions; reducing class size and expediting school construction and renovation so that students wouldn't have to study in trailers; and improving the student-teacher ratio. Shannon also opposes vouchers and tuition tax credits because he said they divert public resources.
Shannon continued that he is against further cuts in higher education.
"When we're talking about investing in George Mason University, we're talking about investing heavily in the Northern Virginia community," Shannon said.
In terms of transportation, Shannon said he supports expanding Metrorail to Dulles and Tysons, and advocates for smart growth through encouraging incentives for high density near Metro stations.
"My view is that we should be promoting commerce in the Dulles-Herndon-Reston-Tysons corridor, and we need a public transportation infrastructure that facilitates this growing commerce sector," Shannon said.
Shannon's party colleague, Del. J. Chapman Petersen (D-37th) thinks Shannon's public service record will be an asset to the 35th district.
"I just think he's a dynamite candidate for Fairfax County," Petersen said.
Petersen's respect for Shannon grew when Shannon left his good paying job in a downtown D.C. law firm to become a public servant in Fairfax County.
"That's unusual for someone in our profession," said Petersen, who is also an attorney.
Shannon said his decision to run was an outgrowth of the service he's performed to the community.
"It all boils down to this: my campaign is about protecting the homeowner. And to me, that means protecting the public school system here, both at the K through 12 level and the higher education level, protecting the homeowner from rising property taxes that have gone up significantly in the past four years, working to building proper infrastructure so that parents are at home most of the time relative to waiting in traffic, fighting to protect our open spaces, our environment," Shannon said.