Norm Mosher is the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives, representing Virginia's First District.Norm Mosher is the Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress House of Representatives from Virginia’s First District that includes Nokesville.
Mosher is a resident of Irvington, Virginia. He served as Chair of the Lancaster County Democratic Committee and as a Virginia delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Boston. He graduated from Boston University with a B.A. and went on to receive a Masters in International Relations and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
He is also a retired Navy Captain who served in Vietnam and was honored with three combat decorations. After his time in the Navy, he served as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He also worked closely with Sen. Ted Kennedy. During that time, he oversaw $25 billion dollars of R&D and procurement for the Navy, Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces.
Deciding to Run
Mosher believes there needs to be a change in the way Congress is run. Knowing there was no challenger to Congressman Rob Wittman (R), he decided to run as the Democratic candidate for Representative from Virginia’s First District. He immediately received the support of his family.
“My daughters said to me, ‘If you wimp out on this, what will we tell your grandchildren?’”
Bi-Partisanship
Mosher believes in reaching across aisles. In the 1980s, when President Ronald Reagan was in the White House and Democrats controlled the House and Senate, Mosher worked closely with Sen. Kennedy. Kennedy taught him much about how to compromise with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Today, Mosher believes it is a little more complicated, because there are so many more radical Republicans in Congress. However, he also feels a political shift is coming.
“My feeling is the Tea Party is weakening,” Mosher said.
However, he said he will work with those willing to work with him, saying, “I don’t think the task is impossible.”
Criticizing Government Shut-Down and Sequestration
Mosher’s biggest criticism of his opponent, Congressman Wittman, is that he would not break with party to fight against the government shut-down and sequestration.
“It affects Virginia in particularly,” said Mosher. “Contractors weren’t doing anything and weren’t getting paid. Federal workers weren’t allowed to do their work.”
Mosher believes that Wittman should have stood up for his district which has more federal workers than almost anywhere in the country. He added, “Nothing good ever comes from shutting down the government.”
He is also in complete opposition to the sequester, which Governor Terry McAuliffe estimates will cost Virginia $50 billion dollars.
The Affordable Health Care Act
Republicans often like to criticize some of the shortcomings of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but Mosher believes that is mainly a political game.
Mosher explained the President essentially adopted a Republican plan, and he had expected more cooperation from the Right. Mosher stands behind “Obama Care” saying it has been a goal of lawmakers for decades. He also points to successes such as the $19 billion saved over 5 years of monitoring Medicare fraud.
Path to Citizenship
Immigration reform is very important to Mosher who is in favor of creating a path for citizenship for the 13 million people who already “live among us and are contributing via their culture and their taxes.” He said an immigration provision has already passed the Senate, but has been held up in the House by the “majority of the majority.”
Student Loans
Mosher believes the government should offer more student grants as well as begin to hold colleges accountable for the successes and failures of their students. When the U.S. government moved from offering qualified students grants to offering student loans, the colleges and universities looked upon the loans like a treasure drove, Mosher explained. It allowed them to keep raising tuition. Meanwhile, universities are not held accountable if their students graduate in 4-5 years, or if they are being properly trained for today’s workforce.
“Universities have got to take responsibility,” he said.
Mosher wants to make universities compete on price. He said the government has a long history of providing grants and legislating higher education going all the way back to Lincoln’s land grant.
Norm Mosher (Photos provided by the Norm Mosher campaign.)Reinvest in Infrastructure
As candidate for the House of Representatives, Mosher thinks it is time for government to reinvest in our infrastructure. Infrastructure is aging, and climate change is creating rising sea levels, making new infrastructure necessary to protect port cities against flooding.
And Mosher notes that climate change is a real threat, noting “the incumbent won’t even say the words ‘climate change.’”
Green Technology
In order to be proactive in preventing further climate change, Mosher wants the government to take action. He recognizes that as well that being proactive on climate change, Congress can help grow Virginia’s economy and secure the jobs of the future.
“Virginia is really missing the mark on this without having renewable standard, without creating tax credits for windmills and solar panels,” he said. “It’s happening in other places, and there is no reason why we could not be using renewable energy to generate the electricity we need by 2030.”
He notes that when President Kennedy said he wanted to put a man on the moon in ten years, none of the technology had been developed. However, today, we already have renewable, green technology, but we are sitting on it rather than adopting it. Mosher realizes this will mean gradually moving away from coal. He would encourage the state to provide grants to help miners receive job training in other fields.
Women’s Equality
Mosher feels he would do more for women than his opponent has done and said he would work for women’s equality and safety through legislation.
“I would do the opposite of what the incumbent has done. He voted against equal pay for equal work, affordable childcare for working moms, strengthening the Violence Against Women Act, and he voted against paid sick leave for women.”
Pro-Choice Legislation
Another difference between Mosher and Wittman is that Mosher is prochoice whereas his opponent is “proudly pro-life. He gets very low grades from women’s organizations,” said Mosher, who is supported by the National Organization of Women (NOW.) But Mosher also wants to use education to empower women so they can make better family-planning choices.
“Abortion should be legal, safe and rare. I think we are working towards rare because the abortion rate has been dropping in this country. I think part of that is sensible sex education in this country,” Mosher said.
On Preserving Social Security
“We need to do a little managing [of Social Security], but it is not in dire straits by any means,” Mosher said.
He said both the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and noted economists say that 100 percent of social security claims can be met for the next 75 years with a humble increase of 80 cents per week in the payroll tax.
Attracting Professional Educators
Mosher is worried about the number of baby-boomer teachers in this country primed to retire coupled with young teachers who are not staying in the profession. He said it is time to raise the bar on education and also attract great, qualified teachers.
He does not want to do this through more accountability and data collection, but through professionalism. He would like the United States to be more like Finland where teachers are well-paid and well-respected. He said we should start with federal incentives through the Department of Education. He would like to see that be a priority and get rid of some of the “filling in bubbles” of standardized tests.
National Debt vs. Economic Growth
While the Tea Party has made the national debt a national priority, Mosher sees the economy in a different light. He explains that debt is healthy as long as it remains low relative to economic growth. He said there are two major economic schools of thought on this subject. One says grow the economy when times are tough, and the other says install austerity measures. Mosher agrees with economists who favor growing the economy. He believes when government invests in the economy, invests in industry and its people, everyone prospers. As a result, people will have more money to pay in taxes and the debt will remain relatively low, even if the government needs to borrow initially to create incentives.
Because interest rates are almost zero, Mosher believes this is the perfect time to make an investment in the future.
For more information about Norm Mosher’s campaign, readers can visit http://www.normmosher.com.
The election will be held on Nov. 4. Norm Mosher plans to be present at some Bristow polling locations on Election Day.
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