Glenda Gail Parker (Ind. Green)
AGE: 59
HOMETOWN: Alexandria
FAMILY: Three grown children, four grand-children
EDUCATION: Graduate degree in Business Administration
OCCUPATION: Retired Air Force Officer, retired executive budget analyst
EMPLOYMENT: Campaigning full-time for US Senate
CAMPAIGN ADDRESS: 5904 Mt. Eagle Dr, Suite 506, Alexandria, Va. 22303
CAMPAIGN PHONE: 703-960-5602
WEBSITE: www.gailparker.us
E-MAIL: gailparker2006@aol.com
BEST BOOK YOU READ THIS YEAR: There have been three: Buck Wild, Three's A Crowd, and Hostile Takeover. I recommend them all, particularly if you are interested in knowing what is going on in our country today.
FAVORITE MOVIE:
QUALIFICATIONS: We collected the required number of petition signatures to become a candidate for US Senate in Virginia. I meet the citizenship, age and residency requirements. Beyond that, I am a retired Air Force officer, a retired, seasoned executive budget analyst, a mother of three and a grand-mother of four. I am a woman of strong faith and Virginia values. I understand family issues. I love and support our country in word and deed. I have the skills needed to balance the federal budget and pay off the $8.5 trillion national debt. I am the only candidate on the ballot that advocates for building rail now! — in Virginia.
1. Was the Iraq war a mistake? Why or why not?
Our campaign is about offering positive solutions. Building rail now! is a positive solution that cuts our dependency on foreign oil and gets us out of that mess Iraq so we can balance the budget and pay off the $8.5 trillion federal debt. Diplomacy is a much better and less expensive way to address differences.
2. Five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, what more could be done to protect America? What limits on civil liberties are acceptable?
We must be eternally vigilante to protect our freedoms and our civil liberties. As they say in the military: Freedom is not free. We must not let the war on terrorism turn into a war on our civil liberties.
Besides building rail now! the single most important thing that we could do to protect our liberties and our economic security in America is to follow our own laws and restore the promise of the American Dream.
3. What is the nation's best long-term strategy in combating terrorism?
This is America. We must be on guard constantly to protect our freedoms and our liberty. This campaign is about faith, values, freedom, fiscal conservatism. We need to foster a healthy respect for our own laws and restore the promise of American, established under God with liberty and justice for all. Every person deserves a say in the decisions that affect their lives. I have faith in our process. Join us and run for office as our candidate. Help preserve our freedom, our liberty and our values by participating in the process.
Follow our own laws and build rail now, right now, high-speed rail, beginning in Virginia, is an excellent long term strategy for combating terrorism.
4. In light of recent corruption scandals in Congress, do you believe reforms are needed? What would you propose?
Campaign finance reform would help. More candidates, less apathy would also help.
We middle-class Americans need to take back the Congress by running for office ourselves. We can't continue to send millionaires to congress to represent our middle-class economic interests.
5. What should be done about the 45 million Americans who are living without health insurance?
Everyone in American — not just Americans — should have ready access to affordable health care insurance. Building rail in Virginia will create good paying jobs for Virginians that will have health care benefits.
This issue highlights why we need more folks to run for office. Join us and run for office in 2007. We need 100 candidates across Virginia to run for the General Assembly, 40 candidates across Virginia to run for state senate, and any number of candidates to run for local office. Join us. Call 703-916-0945 and volunteer to run as our candidate.
6. President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, requires high-stakes testing in all public schools. What is your view of the law? Should it be reformed? Why or why not?
Voters in Virginia have express dissatisfaction to me with No Child Left Behind. I strongly support education. Rail can provide rapid transit to choices in education.
This campaign is about positive solutions. This campaign is about rail and balancing the federal budget. Rail can help us cut dependency on foreign oil, stop giving money to countries that don't like us and put the money on domestic programs, like education.
I will provide a more in-depth position on this issue if allowed into the televised senatorial debate.
7. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the federal deficit will grow to $286 billion in 2007 and to $1.76 trillion over the next decade. How would you address this?
The projected 2007 deficit of $286 billion growing to a $1.76 trillion deficit will be added to the 2006 and previous year's deficits now totaling federal debt of $8.5 trillion. The interest payment alone on this debt totaled $300 billion this year. We need to balance the federal budget, end re-occurring deficits, and pay off the federal debt. We must install an auditable accounting system at the Pentagon, stop the no-bid, non-competitive contract awards, cut out the wanton waste. We can build rail within existing resources with the savings.
8. What is the best way to deal with the record high oil prices of recent years?
Steps need to be taken to achieve energy independence, provide free market incentives, and provide alternatives for the consumer, such as:
(1) Increased emphasis on solar, wind and biofuels,
(2) Build high-speed rail. Build magnetic levitation (MagLev) rail. Right now. In Virginia. We need a nationwide system. Because we need to get the traffic off the roads so we can reduce road maintenance costs, have clean air, clean water, cut our dependency on foreign oil and balance the budget.
(3) Level the field in federal incentives to encourage building rail. Federal rail incentives need to be the same as federal road incentives.
Rail is safer. Every year, 40,000 Americans are killed on our highways. 300,000 Americans are injured in automobile accidents every year. This year 628 Virginians have already died on Virginia roadways. By the end of the year the number is expected to rise to 1,000 killed. Rail is safer and it cuts dependency on foreign oil.
9. While the economy has grown in the last five years, the wages of middle- and low-income Americans has stagnated. How would you address the income disparity between the very wealthy and the rest of the working America?
We believe the best way to raise the salary of Virginians is to bring in good paying jobs, such as those created by building rail, to create free-market employment alternatives and incentives. Advance rail technology in Virginia. Enable future generations of Virginians to compete in a broader market through innovation with rail. We need more trains, less traffic now.
This is another issue that high-lights why the middle-class needs to participate more strongly in the process by running for office. We can't depend on millionaires to represent the economic interests of the middle-class Americans. Join us and run for office as our candidate.
10. Opinion polls suggest that the international community views the United States in a negative light. Does this matter? If so, what can the United States do to repair its standing with the rest of the world?
The single most important thing we can do to repair our standing with the rest of the world is to follow our own laws. Restore the promise of America and the American Dream.
We need to market peace rather than war, butter rather than guns. We can also build rail now! to cut our dependency on foreign oil and get us our of that mess in the Middle East so we can balance the federal budget and pay off the $8.5 trillion federal debt.
For the following questions, please respond with a yes or no answer.
1. The minimum wage has been $5.15 since 1997. Is it time to increase it?
Yes.
2. Congress is considering the elimination of the federal estate tax, which requires the wealthiest 2 percent of all Americans to pay taxes on inherited property. Do you believe the estate tax should be discontinued?
No
3. Is global warming real?
Yes
4. On Nov. 7, your name will appear on the same ballot as a proposed state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Considering the full text of the amendment, will you vote for it?
Candidate did not answer the question.
5. If President Bush's tax cuts are made permanent, $2.2 trillion would be added to the federal deficit over the next 10 years. Would you vote to extend the tax cuts past the 2010 expiration date?
No
6. Should the United States have higher fuel economy standards for vehicles?
Yes
7. Do you believe in evolution?
Yes
8. Should electronic voting machines be required to have verified voting paper trails?
Yes
9. Do you believe the sectarian violence in Iraq is a civil war?
Candidate did not answer the question.
10. Should the federal government fund stem cell research?
Candidate did not answer the question.
11. The United States is one of the few countries that has refused to sign a global ban on land mines. Would you vote to sign the treaty banning the use of land mines?
Yes
12. California has enacted the nation's toughest restrictions on air pollution, requiring a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide pollution. Should similar action be taken for the rest of the country?
Yes
13. Do you support "Net Neutrality," which would guarantee that every website on the Internet loads at an equal rate of speed?
Candidate did not answer the question.
14. Do you believe that Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision that overturned state laws banning abortion, should be overturned?
Candidate did not answer the question.
15. Would you support a guest worker program for illegal immigrants that would lead to citizenship?
Candidate did not answer the question.