In early March, Albemarle resident and retired IBM vice president of human resources Cynthia Neff, announced her intention to run for Delegate for the 58th District. In November, Neff, a Democrat, will challenge four-term Republican Rob Bell for his seat in the General Assembly.
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Going up against a four-term incumbent is not easy, but Cynthia Neff says she a strategy that will help her stay the course. “We’ve got the people on our side, I think,” she says. |
C-VILLE: Why did you decide to run?
Cynthia Neff: I’ve been in business my whole life. One of the things that I was really used to, especially in the last couple of years in my career as an executive for a large company, was to learn how to tackle really big problems. I’ve just not seen that kind of focus coming out of Richmond. I find it entirely too partisan and people aren’t working together, and a lot of the really big problems that are facing Virginia just aren’t even getting addressed.
Are there some issues you want to focus on more than others?
CN: Absolutely. If you look at what got accomplished in 2008 in the general assembly, I would give them a D minus. Maybe even an F. When you look at the job situation in this state, the transportation issues in this state, the educational funding issues in this state, then the whole kind of safety net for the more vulnerable people in our communities, it’s appalling. Virginia has the third-largest roadway system in the country, and yet we have no money. We’re 47th in how much we fund to take care of our roads. That’s not O.K.
How would you solve the transportation problems?
CN: First of all, I think you have to take the budget and you have to put everything on the table, even the things that are most sacrosanct, and decide what are the things most important to Virginia, what is it that people want to do, and then really do some zero-base budgeting. If transportation is one of our top three priorities, then we need to figure out what we’ve been funding instead of transportation, because we need to take our top three priorities and fund them. And if that’s transportation, education and energy, then that needs to be where we put the most of our money. I think we need to make some of our decisions closer to the citizens, where people live.
Do you have a strategy to help you win against a four-term incumbent?
CN: Yes we do. The thing that I’m most encouraged by in the short term is how many people are signing up. Rob Bell is a man who can knock on doors. Well, fortunately for me, I love knocking on doors, talking to strangers, so I can compete with him on that. But more than that is the money. He’s managed to garner quite a large war chest. But I would say that we’re doing a pretty good job of raising money. A lot of people are coming out, and I think it’s that that will allow us to run a really tight race against Rob Bell. We have several staffers working for us from Tom Perriello. His mother let me know what she can do.
What do you think are the biggest challenges the district is facing right now?
CN: It’s clearly this whole economic crisis. Much of which is painfully real. I remember last year when the stock market was plummeting and people were all worried about money they were losing in the stock market, and I just said, “This is not the problem, the problem will occur when people start losing their jobs,” because there’s nothing that makes you sicker than losing your job or having someone you know lose their job.
Also, I’m concerned about education; the disparity in education funding. I think that’s a big problem. We have to invest in education, so we have a very competitive workforce for our kids today.
If you’re elected, what will be the top priority?
CN: That’s a hard question. I think it’s really got to be the budget. Everything flows from the budget.
What do you do as a hobby?
CN: Hang out with my dogs. I’m a big dog person. I do a little gardening, and we take walks. I love dogs. I’m a vegetarian because of dogs. At one point fifteen years ago I decided I couldn’t distinguish between animals I called pets and animals I called food, so just for my own personal decision I just said, “I don’t eat meat anymore.”
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