For the second time in a month, Sen. Barbara Favola (D-31) debated by herself.
“As you see, we only have one candidate. George Forakis had a last minute conflict, he contacted me yesterday,” said McLean Citizens Association Glenn Harris, moderator of a four-hour debate for candidates in the Dranesville District.
“It is a low voter turnout year. I believe most of you in this room will vote, but please help us bring other people out to the polls,” Favola said.
She encouraged voters to remain active and participate with local officials throughout the year.
“You are a very active group and I think that is a noble thing,” she told members of MCA, which celebrates its 100th year advocating for citizens and the land of McLean.
WHEN HARRIS ASKED what she would and could do as a senator regarding the gun store located adjacent to property of Franklin Sherman Elementary School, Favola responded, “I do believe changes are needed in gun laws.”
“We have vowed to make it illegal to have a firearm shop near an elementary school.”
— Sen. Barbara Favola (D-31)
“We have vowed to make it illegal to have a firearm shop near an elementary school,” she said, and wants county government to have more authority to prohibit it. “It’s totally inappropriate to have a gun shop at the back door of an elementary school.”
When she was first elected to the Virginia Senate four years ago, “my first area that I focused on was education, particularly for children with special needs, and children in foster care,” she said. Favola serves on the board of CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates. “It’s a pleasure serving on that board.”
Last session, she said she focused on legislation that advocated for victims of sexual assault, especially on college campuses to “hold perpetrators more accountable” and to provide “survivors of sexual assault any services possible.”
MEDICAID EXPANSION must be a priority, she said.
“Every business and every hospital begged the General Assembly to participate in Medicaid expansion,” she said. “This is something we have to do. It’s the right thing to do.”
She is interested in helping students leave high school with associate’s degrees so they are better equipped to enter the workforce, especially if they are not going to be attending college.
“My first priority is to actually increase funding for K-12 education,” she said.
Education “is not cheap but very, very, very worthwhile, and the most important investment you can make,” she said.
FORAKIS, of Arlington, is a graduate of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park, according to his website. Forakis is a Certified Fraud Examiner. His responses to the Connection Newspapers Candidate Questionnaire appear elsewhere in this paper.