DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709120778

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A4   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Focus 

                                            LENGTH:  234 lines

FOCUS: IN THEIR OWN WORDS: LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR'S RACE

THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT ASKED THE CANDIDATES FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR TO WRITE, IN

750 WORDS OR FEWER, THEIR OWN JOB DESCRIPTION - FOCUSING ON VISION, NOT

DETAILS, AND WITHOUT MENTIONING THEIR OPPONENT OR HIS POSITIONS.

Values, innovation

BY L.F. PAYNE

As we approach a new century, we have to make sure that Virginia moves forward prepared to meet the challenges it faces. Our task is to build an education system, an economy and a society that provide all of our families with the best possible opportunities to succeed. Virginia's greatest strength is her families, and their strength will determine our future.

I was raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. A place rooted in history, where neighbors look out for each other, and your word is your bond. My mother was a public school teacher. My father was a state trooper. They taught me that education, respect and responsibility are the keys to success.

I have carried these values with me, through Virginia Military Institute, through the University of Virginia's business school, through service in the Army and throughout my career. These are the values I will bring to state government.

I started Wintergreen, a community in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, nearly a quarter century ago. Then, I had little more than a dream of a model community, nestled in the mountains, and built to preserve the area's natural beauty.

Today, Wintergreen is a vital part of our community. Home to hundreds of families, it is the largest employer in Nelson County. And it contributes more than half of the county's tax base.

As a congressman, I fought to improve education, and to balance the budget. I fought for our fair share of federal transportation dollars. I will fight for the same things as we work together to lead Virginia into the next millennium.

Today, we worry about our children's education, the safety of our neighborhoods, finding good day care, making ends meet, and caring for our parents and our grandparents. We need to do more to protect and support our families.

At the same time, we should expect more responsibility and accountability. That means making deadbeat parents pay their child support. It means successfully moving people off welfare and onto payrolls where they are valued and respected. And it means responsible government that holds down taxes and works for families.

Virginians deserve better value for their tax dollars. As lieutenant governor, I'll fight for fiscal discipline.

I am not talking about expensive, new government programs. What I am talking about is bringing people together - inside and outside of government - to strengthen our families and to move Virginia forward.

I'm talking about parents getting more involved in their children's education, and about schools doing more to help parents be involved. I will work to raise achievable standards for students and teachers. I know we must restore discipline in our schools and teach our kids right from wrong. I pledge to lead a crusade to prevent dropouts and keep our kids in school. And I will encourage our senior citizens to volunteer with our students and our schools.

I'm talking about bringing businesses and public schools together to provide students with real job opportunities and the skills they need to compete in the 21st century workforce. We must make sure everyone has the opportunity to share in the hope and prosperity of Virginia - regardless of race, gender and region.

We must bring businesses, doctors and community leaders together to help families find good, affordable day care and health care for our children. We have to fight crime with community policing, community watch programs and local efforts to steer people away from crime and drugs. And we need to make sure that our families have clean water to drink, clean air to breathe and that we are good stewards of our natural heritage.

What we need, above all, is leadership that pulls people together and inspires action. And that's the kind of leadership I'll provide.

This campaign is not about pitting one region against another, because the people in Northern Virginia have the same concerns about education, health care, crime and jobs as the people in Southside, Southwest, Tidewater and all over this great commonwealth. This campaign is about bringing people together to find common-sense solutions to the problems facing us as we head into the 21st century, eager to grasp the opportunities before us.

ON THE ROLE OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

My first priority will be to fulfill the constitutional obligations of the office. The duties - serving as president of the state senate, casting tie-breaking votes, and presiding over commissions and boards - are very important. However, my job will simply begin there.

First, I will work to help spread the solid values that we all share. These values - common sense, hard work, honesty, decency, respect and responsibility - are the same I learned from my parents and they have guided me throughout life. No matter what region of Virginia you're from, these are values we all share and they will help lead us into the next century.

Second, I will use the office as a ``bully pulpit'' to mobilize and motivate our citizens to help address the challenges facing Virginia. By engaging our citizens to help solve problems, I believe we can find innovative solutions.

From my position, I will work to bring people together, make sure no person or community is left behind, and move Virginia forward.

Finally, with the Senate currently tied, I will strive to reduce partisan bickering by bringing people together, just as I did in Congress, to find practical legislative solutions.

HOW I SEE THE JOB

BY JOHN H. HAGER

Richmond, Dec. 31, 2001 - As Lt. Gov. John Hager finishes his term of office today, he listed the accomplishments he felt proudest of during the past four years.

``Eliminating that unfair tax on cars and trucks has to be the biggest benefit Virginians enjoyed during my term,'' Mr. Hager asserted. ``Providing parents with a report card on their schools also helped get more parental involvement in the classroom. Adding 4,000 new elementary teachers also gave kids a boost when they needed it the most. We said it was about ``taxes and trust'' and we meant it.

``I also consider the dozens of town meetings I had with voters to be a significant achievement. For too long, the hard-working taxpayers have had their concerns ignored by the government in Richmond. By listening to and learning from Virginians, I was able to translate their legitimate concerns into legislative action.''

Sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. I am running for lieutenant governor on the Republican ticket because I sincerely believe that government must bend to the will of the people, not ignore their demands and build bigger bureaucracies.

Virginia has hardly seen a better four years than that of the Allen-Gilmore administration. The economy is booming, our citizens are safer, felons are staying in jail longer and our children are learning the basics to prepare them for the world of work.

It is my goal as lieutenant governor to build on the successes of the last four years while protecting those very gains. We have come too far to turn back the clock on public safety and welfare reform issues. We have far to go in cementing in place the positive changes wrought since January 1994.

What I bring to the commonwealth's second-highest elected official is nearly a generation of civic and political activism. After serving on over 30 boards and commissions both locally and statewide, I have dealt first hand with many of the challenges we now face, whether we live in Hampton Roads or Gate City. I have a record of accomplishment, of bringing together divergent views into a commonality of purpose, of solving problems rather than creating them.

My vision for Virginia is a simple one: that it will remain the dynamic Dominion in the next four years that it has become in the last four years. It will take leadership, clear vision and an action plan for the future. By empowering our local governments and school boards to take greater control of their destinies, state government can and should become the facilitator of change. Regional cooperation, spurred by state financial support, will solve problems where they can best be solved - at the local level.

As a businessman, I believe very strongly in test-marketing ideas. That's why I favor charter schools, for example, to give local school officials the opportunity to try new ideas. Once a program has been judged a success at the community level, the seeds of that success can be planted across the commonwealth.

We must protect and nurture those things which have traditionally been successful, export-import operations in Hampton Roads for example, to continue our efforts to have the strongest economy in the Southeastern U.S.

To do that, we must also make our state even more attractive to businesses by rejecting any tax increases and moving to eliminate the tax on cars and trucks. Virginia's families deserve no less, especially given the economic growth our commonwealth is enjoying today and in the foreseeable future.

Virginia can do more and Virginia can do better and Virginia can share the fruits of its growth with those who made it happen.

My whole life has been about turning challenges into opportunities. Virginia faces a future fraught with challenges - in education, public safety, tax policy, economic development, all aspects of public policy.

Four years is a long time, but a blink of an eye when looking at the history of Virginia that stretches back to Jamestown. We share with those brave explorers and all who followed them a responsibility to make tomorrow better for our kids, to make our streets and schools safe for our families, to build on the successes of yesterday for a better tomorrow.

I will work full time for the people to make that happen. With the experience to care and the courage to lead, I want to be Virginia's partner in moving our commonwealth into the new millennium.

ON THE ROLE OF LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

With a 20-20 tie in the state Senate, the next lieutenant governor will hold unprecedented sway in the resolving the thorny issues that will confront the legislature in the coming years.

It is most important that the person casting that 21st vote for the 21st century be a person committed to cutting taxes, promoting accountability in education and guarding against any rollback in the significant gains we have made as a commonwealth in the areas of welfare reform, public safety and economic development.

Aside from the legislative aspect of the office, I am committed to being a full-time lieutenant governor, touring the state at my own expense and holding town meetings to listen to the concerns of those folks who pay their taxes and wonder why Richmond ignores them. I want to reconnect government with the grassroots and translate those concerns into legislative action in Richmond.

We as a commonwealth would be remiss if we dismiss the second-highest elective office in the state as merely a ceremonial, part-time position used as a stepping stone for the governorship. While that may be how some have viewed the position, I believe that the lieutenant governor should be a full partner in helping develop and enact policies that will keep our commonwealth moving forward in areas as diverse as education and economic development.

It has been a generation since John Dalton set the standard for lieutenant governors with his commitment to ``Listening to Virginia.'' His care for the concerns of all Virginians, not just those who belong to a particular political party, will be my guide as I strive to be the best lieutenant governor Virginia ever had. ILLUSTRATION: Photos

Graphic

L.F. Payne

Personal

52, lives in Nellysford

Democrat

Education

Virginia Military Institute, BS, 1967; Darden School of Business

at the University of Virginia, MBA, 1973

Employment

Practices law

Political activities

Former United States congressman