Dear Friends,
Back when I was Governor, members of my staff sometimes would joke that we visited Southside often enough to have our mail and phone messages delivered for pickup in Danville or Martinsville. It’s true: we spent a lot of time working on economic development and rural broadband projects in your area.
And it certainly was great to return for a visit last weekend with the folks in Danville, Martinsville, Rocky Mount and Bedford. I hope you’ll take a moment to watch this short video recapping our visit to Southside.
In Danville, I had an opportunity to talk about our bipartisan efforts to promote start-up companies during a town hall meeting with business and community leaders hosted by Averett University. As the Danville Register & Bee reported:
| “In places like Southside, struggling to bring in new business, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner is focusing on ways to help drive more jobs… ‘If you look at new U.S. jobs, 80 percent are created by start-up firms,’ said Warner. “The problems are finding the talent and getting access to capital,” he said. |
In Martinsville, I discussed my legislation to encourage the on-shoring of jobs that have gone overseas as we visited a great and growing local business, Solid Stone Fabrics. As the Martinsville Bulletin reported:
| “Warner praised the company, saying, ‘You couldn’t have written a better story. This is a poster child’ … A former entrepreneur, Warner also asked several questions and suggested several ideas on how to possibly increase business at Solid Stone Fabrics, such as having state purchasing people come, as well as representatives of universities…“ |
Afterwards, we stopped by the New College Institute, which I was proud to help launch when I was Governor. We also visited with a lot of the folks who attended Friday night’s Martinsville Mustangs baseball game.
On Saturday, we held a town hall meeting in Rocky Mount, where I discussed efforts to strengthen the economy. As the Franklin News-Post reported:
| “Warner warned that ‘there’s no silver bullet to finding ways to create more jobs.’ Warner said new federal legislation called the Jobs Act will help by allowing companies to go public… Warner also advocated finding a balance of U.S. imports and exports and reforming the corporate tax code. ‘American exports are rising, but they’re not equal yet (to imports),’ he said. ‘We shouldn’t have a tax code that allows shipping jobs overseas.’” |
Finally, at a town hall meeting in Bedford, I had a chance to talk about my bipartisan efforts leading the Senate’s “Gang of Six,” which has spent more than a year working to find a commonsense solution to cut the nation’s deficits and debt:
| “A ‘fiscal cliff’ looms if the parties don’t come together to address the debt issue,” he said. “The American people don’t trust either party enough to give them a blank check” … One person in the audience asked Warner if he thought Congress could work together, or if Americans are ‘doomed.’ Warner responded that a ‘trust level’ needs to be built… “I am working my tail off to find common ground,” he said. |
The Lynchburg News & Advance reported that the Bedford audience “did not shy away from the political fracas of a Presidential election year,” and that certainly was true: many of the questions were tough. But if I’m not willing to engage on these issues with Virginians, many of whom share my frustration about what’s going on in Washington these days, I’m definitely in the wrong business.
It was great to visit and speak with hundreds of Southside Virginia residents, business owners and community leaders last weekend, and please know that I always benefit from hearing your views.
If my office can ever be of help you or your family, please be in touch. And I encourage you to sign-up for future newsletters just like this one that discuss the specific issues of concern to you, your family and your community. I promise never to share your email address, or clog your inbox with unwanted messages.
‘Til next time, best regards.
Mark Warner
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