By Michael Copley
Staff writer

About 15 county residents filled the back room of the Village Garden Café Jan. 13, for a town hall meeting with Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a democrat from McLean, Va.

McAuliffe, 51, shook hands with those in attendance and made a few remarks before opening the floor for questions.

“Everyone is nervous about the economy,” he said, “and I think 2009 will be the worst year since the Great Depression.”

McAuliffe hails from a business background — “I’m from outside the legislature,” he admitted — and his focus Tuesday centered on bolstering a failing economy by creating new jobs.

“To fix the economy you either generate income through new jobs, cut funding, or raise taxes, and you don’t raise taxes in a down economy.”

He continued, “We’ve cut [the budget] to the bone. Now we’re cutting things like education and health care.”

“50 percent of teachers leave the profession after the first five years,” said McAuliffe. “We need to invest in education early. If they say 90 percent of brain development happens by the pre-kindergartner age, then let’s provide pre-kindergarten education. My kids were able to go to a pre-K program because I could afford it, but that shouldn’t be a reason for them to have a leg up on anyone else.”

Ensuring an educated workforce for the future and efforts to create efficient mass transportation options are a part of McAuliffe’s push to draw investors and big business to the state. But so is his insistence that “Virginia needs mandatory renewable energy standards — that’s the only way to encourage investment.”

But, “It all fits in with job creation. I can’t fix education and transportation,” he said, without an economy strengthened by new jobs. “I get out of bed thinking about creating jobs.”

Leading up to the June Democratic Primary, McAuliffe is in a three-way race with Sen. Creigh Deeds and former state delegate Brian Moran, and opponents have attacked McAuliffe’s lack of legislative experience. He is a former Chairman of the Democratic National Convention and has experience as a campaign fundraiser in the Clinton campaigns.

The opposition is skeptical of McAuliffe’s Clinton connection and says he aims to buy the election with a staggering list of national campaign contributors.

In Powhatan Tuesday, McAuliffe said his campaign has drummed up close to one million dollars since announcing his candidacy in November, but that no donation above $100 was collected from outside the state. “You can’t buy an election, you have to have big ideas. I’m willing to put the big issues on the table —  that’s why Obama won. I’m going to compete for votes in every part of Virginia,” he said, “I’m going to go everywhere. If I don’t win, my life isn’t going to change, so I’m not going to say something just for the sake of getting elected.”