>> former governor will be our guest on the blustering "washington journal" starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern. join us thursday for the entire "washington journal" starting at 7 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> now the third and final debate in the virginia governors race the republican ed gillespie and democrat ralph northam yesterday discussed education issues, jobs and opioid abuse. this is one hour.

>> good evening and welcome to beautiful virginia for the third and final virginia gubernatorial debate of 2017 cohosted by the university of virginia college of wives, university virginia school of leadership and public policy, and the southwestern virginia technology council. my name is paul johnson, the anchor and your host for this event. this is carmen, of the "roanoke times" 50 cover state politics for the state of virginia. she will be asking questions of the candidates and i'll be keeping track of the time. together we want to get as much ground as possible tonight while providing the candidates and in-depth opportunity to discuss some of the issues especially affecting southwest virginia and the commonwealth. we have made every possible effort tonight to ensure the fairness of these questions and

exchanges so central to our democracy. let me state for on the record here the ground rules we've agreed to an effort to advance the public interest of this conversation. the question is, each will count will ask each question and order in a predetermined by a coin toss. candidates will have a set response of rebuttal time which will count down on the floor clock. we will also have candidates can't equations are open include remarks. when a candidates time is expired i'll ask him to you the floor. candidates should speak during the designated time and refrain from interrupting each other. let us begin and welcome our first candidate democrat ralph northam. [applause] >> thank you. >> now let us welcome out other candidates, republican ed gillespie.

[applause] >> now please get the cheering at your system because i'm going to ask the arteries not to apply to make any of the noise until the end of the debate. let's let the candidates speak for themselves. we will have two minute opening remarks of each candy. the priest was assigned by a coin toss. mr. northam, you are up first. you have two minutes. >> thank you so much and good evening and is great to be at university of virginia. thank you for hosting this and thanks to carmen and paul for being our moderator. it is great to be back in whisenant wrote for jacob i grew up on -- home to hinder was, governor wise who wise can was named editor of the product of public schools. i attended virginia military institute and eastern virginia medical school. i served for eight years and the united states army taking care of wounded soldiers during desert storm. we worked very hard over the

last four years building a new virginia, , bring in over 215,00 new jobs to virginia. our unemployment rate has gone from 5.4 to 3.8%. i believe in investing in virginians because when we do there is no other state that can beat us. my opponent ed gillespie as a d.c. lobbyist vicki believes in giving tax cuts to the wealthy at the expense of the working class which will put $1.4 billion hole in our budget. as a doctor either plan to resuscitate real virginia. it's time to get the paddles out and shop roof virginia back to life story with universal access to broadband and cell phone coverage, to make sure all of our children have access to a world-class education system so they can be trained for the 21st century jobs. i want to make sure we build ecosystems that can support startups and small businesses. i want to expand i 81 and bring

amtrak out to real virginia in the southwest. i want to make sure we talk about expanding the university of virginia wise right here, bring in more talent, bring in more graduate courses so that we can bring new business to real virginia. and then finally no individual come to family should be one medical illness away from financial demise it should matter what zip code you live in. that shouldn't dictate whether you access to healthcare or not. i look forward to not to sherry my ideas on how we take virginia to the next level and how to more happens writer in real virginia. thank you so much. >> thank you. mr. . mr. gillespie, two minutes. >> thank you, thank you to use a wise for hosting us or the cd. it is great to be back at this great college. ralph, it's good to be with you again. i want to talk about the stakes of this election of the choices that are before stomach because the stakes could not be higher and the choices could not be more clear. the fact is our economic growth has been stuck for six straight years. our economic growth rate last in

the commonwealth was 0.6%. making as 39th out of 50 states. unfortunately 50 states. unfortunately that wasn't an aberration. that was part of a pattern because for securing our economic growth rate has been below the national gdp. we used to always lead and now we're lagging and for five of secure our economic growth was below 1%. we were 44th in the country in wage growth last year. when it comes to wages and economic growth and job creation, virginia should be first in the country. we can be with the right policies but those are not the policies we have in place and have had in place for the past four years. as lieutenant governor, we hit the bottom ten states and economic growth. i know my possible make life better for all virginians and will make sure the next generation can do better than the generation that came before us. that's important to me. i'm the son am an immigrant. my father came to this country as a child because his father my grandfather found work in america.

and i was able to work my way through college. i was the first generation on either side of my family and eventually able to become counselor to the president of the united states of america. from immigrant candidate to wesley at the the white house in two generations time. i want to ensure that upward mobility and economic opportunity is available to future generations of virginians and my policies will do that. lieutenant governor i appreciate his service to our country at a commonwealth but his policies will take us in the wrong direction. higher taxes and higher electric bills and fewer jobs is not where we need to go in virginia. when did unleash economic growth and my policies will benefit all virginians. >> thank thank you, mr. gillesp. it's time to ask the first question to carmen will do that. the ghost and mr. north america are the rules. you have 90 seconds to answer the question then mr. gillespie will have 90 seconds to respond and then you will have 60 seconds to respond to mr. gillespie. the first question.

>> mr. northam, k-12 schools are in crisis mode with few job opportunities and more families moving out of the area. the schools are having to make do with less. as governor what would you do in the short run to aid these struggling districts and in the long-term what would you do to reduce the disparity between rural and urban schools across the commonwealth? >> thank you for the question. you just said exactly what's going on in real virginia whether it be on the eastern shore of the south side or in the southwest. when people leave these communities, there are less children and the sunday for our public schools. we need to make sure we understand there is power in every child and every child should be able to reach the american dream. the way we do that and we've made a lot of great progress here in the commonwealth, the first thing is to bring jobs into real virginia. when you bring jobs and allow families to come here and work and raise their families, then

that helps the economy and it certainly helps with the public schools. so we have a plan writer in wise to expand the uva wise to bring higher levels of talent into this area,, attracts talent. with that will come the opportunity for grants, for research opportunities and for business opportunities. and so school is important one of the first places to start, we're under paint our teachers in the commonwealth of virginia about $7500 less than the national average. if we are going to not only recruit but also retain teachers we have to make sure we put our money where our mouth is and make sure k-12 public education is a top priority. at the high school level we have brought in more vocational-technical training and we are revising our sol summation were no longer teach our children how to take multiple multiple-choice test but to think creatively. k-12 is important.

if you go into new a new area there's two things as, how are the schools and house healthcare? these are two areas that would be top priority for my in the next four years. >> mr. gillespie, 90 seconds. >> we need to reduce the population in southwest virginia. it's having an effect on the schools and the assembly came forward with the plan that 101010 plan that would help address this fund is pretty between the schools. with the schools in some parts of the commonwealth for with overcrowding and we're schools where we've got population to cling to go to address both those chosen. we need to attract teachers to staff schools are before the plaintiff including student loan forgiveness for those teachers. we need to increase teacher conversation in the commonwealth of virginia and my k-12 education plan does that. if you go to my website you will see that plan. one of the recent with a population decline because of the economic numbers i was talking about. we are not going to increase jobs in southwest virginia by doing what those didn't governor wants to which is to impose in

an obama style clean power plant on virginia. the administration of washington, d.c., trump administration has repealed the clean fettle powerpoint of the income wants to impose one. that will only result in more laid-off miners but also laid-off factory workers because it will drive up electric bills for all virginians. when drive up the costs of production you end up with laid-off factory workers as well as minors. we've shed too many good manufacturing jobs and money jobs in the commonwealth and on top of that if it's the poorest virginians the horse. they get hit hardest by higher electric bills. this is a clear choice. we are either going to have clean power plan, carbon emission limits imposed on the commonwealth what the rest of the country is not doing it. that's going to drive up prices for our electric bills or i will oppose it. higher electric bills or lower once. a clear choice. >> the question was about k-12 education and i appreciate you saying you're going to compensate our teachers, but your economic plan a tax cut for

the wealthy at the expense to the working-class puts a whole of $1.4 billion in our budget. i don't know how you going to pay our teachers more at the same time put a hole in our budget of $1.4 billion. wonder the things that is so important to me as the parent and as as a child neurologist s early childhood education. we've worked very hard over the last four years. we have a children's cabinet. we opened up 13,000 more slots this year and the commonwealth of virginia. a lot of them in real virginia to pre-k education. i remind people all the time there's a tremendous learning potential in our children for the ever get to kindergarten and if one family has the means to send their children to pre-k and another one doesn't that's what starts the gap between the haves and have-nots. unwilling and ready and always have been very interested in funding k-12 education as well as pre-k and that's what i will do in the next four years. >> thank you. time for a second question.

>> mr. gillespie, as you mentioned earlier, you today president donald trump administration announced plans to roll back the so-called clean power plan. one of the clear differences between you and your opponent is how you do the energy future in the commonwealth between cold and renewables. what would your policy regarding these fuels particularly in terms of subsidies either directly or indirectly through the tax system? >> i'm going to touch on that in the second but when you point out lieutenant governor is wrong in terms of the tax plan. it's not a tax for the wealthy. it's a tax cut for all virginians and effectively cut a time. we could increase spending by $2 billion based on on the projections revenue if the revenue doesn't come in we would face in the tax cuts at a slow rate we protect government functions like education, transportation and public safety. he doesn't oppose the tax cuts because there for the rich. he opposes them because their tax cuts. >> let's stay on point. >> i need to respond to this point. when it comes to energy policy,

we have real opportunities in southwest virginia. i and for all of the above but truly for all of the above including domestic production. i support the pipelines. i know we can implement them in and if i mentally sensitive manner in protecting the private property rights as well. i know we can do the pump storage technology, hydro storage pump technology that would become southwest virginia. i support the reinstatement of the coal tax credit and it was unfortunate that tax credit was eliminated for political purposes that i think were wrong. we also need to do more in terms of fostering renewables. my plan for energy in the commonwealth would do all of those things but i'm not looking to drive more miners out of work and to drive electric bills up and that is a clear choice as i said, higher electric bills or lower electric bills. that is one of the choices. lieutenant governors pols who

will drive up the cost of electricity in virginia. >> i've had a lot of discussions with coal miners in the coal industry and call is very important to the economy in southwest virginia. i understand that. the demands for steam related coal are not what they used to be. the demands for metallurgical coal are very good. i would do everything i can to support the coal industry in southwest virginia. at the same time we have a great opportunity as head said to use all of the above and we've made great progress with renewable energies come with wind and solar. one of the things i've talked about earlier tonight and i will continue to expand on is bringing more tell talent intoe inverse of virginia wise right here. graduate school level teachers, students and with this comes the village of research and development. with that comes great opportunities. with that comes business opportunities. we have a great opportunity to

push forward with renewable energy to you solar, wind in addition to call and hydroelectricity which we use in the southwest come in addition to natural gas and nuclear power. it's all of the above but we have a great chance to move forward with renewable energy. it's a win-win. if we can bring people here to southwest that will study that,, was studied the production of energy, the storage of energy that would create jobs and also at the same time move us towards cleaner energy and a cleaner environment. >> third question goes to mr. northam. >> last week the united states supreme court heard oral arguments in deal versus whitford involving the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. the case stems from wisconsin were a lower court ruled the states redraw facility maps are unconstitutional. in protecting one party. if the supreme court upholds the lower court would you propose an independent third-party approach to redistricting similar to the

high successful system in iowa? >> this is something that is very important to me. i served in the senate for six years, the virginia city. i was on the election committee and my opponent is actually the architect of gerrymandering throughout this country. we have two contrasting approaches to redistricting. let me just tell you a quick story. when i ran for virginia senate in 2007, i rant against an eight-year incumbent. there were 100 delegate races that year. there were 40 senate races. out of 140 races there were only 17 that were competitive. that's not good democracy. that means that we as the people should be choosing our representatives rather than politicians choosing the voters. that's the way the system is now. now. it's called gerrymandering and it needs to stop. so i have told anybody fizzling to listen, and i hope you're listening tonight, i will not

sign a map in 2021. we drop our lines every ten years. i will not sign a map and less it's drawn fairly. i do propose and support a nonpartisan redistricting commission that is very important. but as i said it's time that the people choose their representatives rather than politicians choosing their voters. that's not what democracy is about. after we to redistricting, the next step will be campaign-finance reform. that's another area that i feel very strongly about. we need to start with nonpartisan redistricting. >> ninety seconds to respond. >> in my history books it was albert who came up with the gerrymandering but let me address a question about this. i'm open to the concept of nonperson predicting but i would like to see instances where it's worth it if you look at places where they have nonpartisan redistricting maps to look different. from those where they have partisan redistricting. i'm open to ideas and discard.

i just haven't seen it instance with the exception of iowa which is correcting and they can't cut it into four different quadrants. when it comes to this the fact is i'm not the ones who have got $500,000, half $1, half a million dollars in super pac money from an organization dedicated to winnings control of the governorship here so they can control gerrymandering. that would been be my opponentt that $500,000 from a super pac though set up by former attorney general eric holder for the purpose. i have never voted to enact a gifted line for my state senate that made it safer for me to be able to run for reelection to my opponent is one who voted for that and our general assembly. i hear a lot of great talk but it sounds like a lot of politics where we've got somebody talk about the need to do something about this but at the same time a record of accepting money from a super pac dedicated to preserving and when he control for democrats redistricting in virginia and having voted for a

redistricting map that was in incumbent protection plan when using the general assembly. >> the six district which have represented in the six years of my senate started on the eastern shore. at about half of norfolk, a little bit of virginia beach and wrapped all the way around the other side of the chesapeake bay the mathews county. i used to tell people, if you want to look at the definition of gerrymandering look at the six district. it's not right and we need to make a change. some of the things i would just mention about voting rights. there are a lot of inequities. as i said i served on the privileges and elections committee for six years in the virginia senate. every time we tried to make it less cumbersome for people to vote, our friends on the other side of the aisle made it more difficult. so things like the photo id which was designed to stop

fraud. there is evidence of any fraud in voting. we advocated for no excuse absentee voting. all of these things that we try to do to make it easier for people to vote, our opponents make it more difficult. in america the best way to make democracy start is for all of us to have access to the ballot box. >> our fourth question pertains to southwest virginia and the whole state in fact, but it has been declared an epidemic in southwest virginia. >> southwest virginia has been dubbed the of the sin of the opioid epidemic in virginia. the government has to put epidc of public health emergency created a task force to devise possible solutions. what policies we advocate to halt the growth of opioid abuse and what treatment options will you provide for opioid abusers seeking recovery, including mothers and infants born with withdrawal symptoms?

>> this is an awful crisis would even with all across the commonwealth. it is thickly pronounced in southwest virginia. when i started this campaign a target with his lot and don't point out on average every day three virginians opioid or heroin overdose. a couple months ago i had to start seeing everyday for virginia style average everyday. we've got to address this. i was talking to a mother in this area, scott county, whose 25 year old son was doing opioid addiction and stolen jewelry from her, all-too-familiar story i i heard from others of whether they had to change the locks on the door to she was relieved when he was arrested because she thought that might save his life. i put forward a plan, addiction recovery and mental health plan to help address this crisis. it is a detail specific policy proposal. it starts with the principle that addiction is a disease not a moral failing. these are not that people who need to get good. these are sick people who need to get well and we need to get them into treatment. we've got to put a greater focus

on prevention and make sure we are not just treating addiction, and we are preventing it and getting to children before the drugs get today. unfortunately in this day and age right now what you do with that means in third grade to make sure apple to prevent. the other thing is when someone reaches out their hand and says i am an addict, i need recovery, we need to have the commonwealth of virginia there to take that had and get them into the program. many different pass for recovery, inpatient, outpatient, medically assisted but i have a specific plan to address this. my addiction recovery and a health plan. this cannot cannot become a partisan issue. this is something everyone must come together in the commonwealth of virginia to save lives and families, and i've made it a priority. >> mr. northam, you have 90 seconds. >> thank you for the question as you might imagine as as a pediatrician i take care of individual babies with neonatal syndrome and is a terrible problem, a crisis that have across the commonwealth. just this past you were lost over 1100 virginians to opioid

overdose. as a doctor i've been around the state talking to our medical schools, talking to students,, residents, talking about new innovative ways to treat both chronic and acute pain. the mindset has to change. i also worked with law enforcement. we have far too many individuals that are addicted to opioid for in our jails and penitentiaries. we gave a blanket prescription this year for nor can which is all called dash also called the locks of it is the only medicine that will reverse the deadly side effects of opioid overdose. if you know anybody out there or have friends or relatives that have issues or challenges with opioid addiction, they can go to a pharmacy or someone in the family can go to the pharmacy and ask for prescription for narcan and it will give it to them with the questions being asked. the last thing i i would say we just put $39 into a budget for mental health care. as a said earlier there are

consequences to limited resource. it's going to take resources to go after this challenge and again a plan that puts $1.4 billion hole in our budget, you can't have it both ways. i just would say there are options in election. i think a child neurologist, some who's been dealing with this issue over the years is much more qualified to do with the opioid crisis than is a d.c lobbyist. >> mr. gillespie. >> the fact is we got to crack down on dealers and we need to get everybody to the table. but at the same time we need to understand we're not going to arrest our way out of this epidemic. i have sat in the jails with addicts in recovery and our jails, our shares are running recovery centers all across the commonwealth. we need to support them. it's one of the reasons i was a bitterly disappointed and dismayed when the administration canceled the annual meeting with the virginia sheriffs association department issues just like this and that will help address the needs in terms

of what they need to address this on the front lines and their budgetary requirements. that meeting was canceled because of politics because i'm proud to say a majority of sheriffs all across the commonwealth, 65 have endorsed my candidacy but the virginia shares association does not endorse. they are an advocate for the needs of the shares and deputies across the commonwealth. when that meeting was canceled rather than talking about what we need to do to provide for the budget they need to address this addiction epidemic in the mental health challenges that they face, i couldn't believe it and i'm shocked by it to be honest with you. i wouldn't do do something like that as our governor. >> cannot respond to that. >> was no not really. we need to move along. i don't mean to be who do we need to move along. >> mr. northam, both you and your opponent supported expanding broadband to rural areas across the state. what are your specific plans to expand broadband access, and i would you find such efforts?

>> great question. as i sit in my opening comment, one of my pet peeves at the top of my priority list will be to bring broadband to all areas of virginia. we have worked very hard at building the new virginia economy auto helping new businesses to grow in virginia but also attracting new businesses to virginia. you cannot start a business of grow a business in 2017 if you don't have to broadband internet access to sell coverage. it's something we've been working on. it's going to have to be an agreement between the private and public sector. the challenge others get it what we call the last market it is very expensive. as you know especially in rural virginia. we need to bring people to the table. that's a reputation i have enrichment and it's going to be people at the table that a both in the private sector and the public sector as we move forward will work together to make sure

there are no holes, no gaps in the commonwealth of virginia with broadband. lastly i would just say for our children. our children that are working on a computer at school, when they come with an assignment at night and they don't have access to broadband, their hands are tied. again if we'll put our money where our mouth is we need to make sure every child has the same opportunity across virginia and that they have access as well as businesses have access to broadband. >> what is your plan for broadband? >> 70% of all internet traffic flows through virginia to loudoun county. yet we have 900,000 virginians who do not have access to high-speed internet. my plan would cut that in half by the end of my governorship,, by having more than 450,000 virginians get access to broadband capabilities and includes a number of things we could work with the tobacco commission to have funding to help close the gap incentivize middle mile and last mile extension of high-speed internet

access. a multimillion dollar bonding fund that would make available to make sure we're having a public-private partnership. somebody is digging because they're digging a ditch to lay a pipe or something like that, let's make sure we get broadband put in their in a cost-effective manner. the commonwealth itself has a number of structures that could be utilized to help defray the cost of deploying broadband. i put forth a detailed specific policy in this disregard like e on 18 of the policies and tonight like essay by southwest virginia policy will be my 20th detailed specific post proposal to encourage people to go to my website. you can see my detailed specific policy plan to cut the digital divide in half in the commonwealth of virginia and get more than 450,000 virginians linked up, many of them in southwest virginia and other real parts of the commonwealth. >> if we're going to grow the real economy than broadband it's absolutely essential. workforce development also is absolutely essential.

i would just like to talk briefly about the jobs of the 21st century. i much different than what i was going. they are in team, the arts, math and healthcare. things like cybersecurity, unmanned aerial systems, technology, areas with promoting in rural virginia. one of the ways i into doing this is called the g3 program, get skilled, get a job and get back. it allows individuals in virginia to go to commit to college for two years without incurring any debt, with the understanding once they become certified they will get back to your either to public service or in hiding area. this will allow individuals from all across the commonwealth and this country to come to roll virginia to take classes in the committee college and then you start working in a business writer in rural virginia. >> as governor, mr. gillespie

him what post we propose to rural areas reinvent himself to keep millennials and southwest virginia and what would you do to encourage more young folks to set and rural parts of the commonwealth? >> this is something i care about. the lieutenant governor just talked about. as lieutenant governor he serves on the senator hirono virginia panel which is the organization responsible for identifying what are the things we need to do to get rural virginia growing? , he did not attend a single one of those meetings during his time as lieutenant governor and did not show up. i will make it a priori and part of it does have to do with uva wise. it needs to be a bigger gym and my plan includes making sure we doubled enrollment and have strategic goal.

it's a strong cash crop, that would be helpful. for the plan, one of my 19 plans to make virginia the outdoor recreation destination for outdoor recreation on the east coast. some of the underutilized assets we have in southwest virginia is the natural beauty so i will open the clinch river take part where my governorship will create 50 more put in for our rivers and streams so we can have more outdoor recreation and take advantage of the natural

beauty here and that would result in thousands of good paying jobs >> if i could address, i know we did mailboxes have been full and airways full of not showing up but i would like to remind you mr. gillespie that i served for eight years in the united states army. i was one of the wounded soldiers during desert storm, i showed up for this country. i served in the virginia senate for six years as your lieutenant governor, i did not miss one thing being on the podium during that for years. i have showed up for virginia. i've been proud to do so and i guess why i've been showing up and serving the commonwealth, you've been a lobbyist in washington. the only time you showed up is when you've gotten paid so there's a difference between the two of us. >> yes sir, i am. when it comes to jobs in rural virginia, as i've said earlier, we have jobs out there right now that are 80,000, $90,000 jobs that are being unfilled. used to look at our jobs as being white-collar or blue-collar, now we refer to

them as new collar jobs. this is why i'm so excited for rural virginia, not only working with our colleges and universities, not only expanding the great university like virginia but also my g3 program which gives virginia the opportunity to go to two years of community colleges without incurring any debt with the agreement that once they complete their certification, they will come back to an area like wise or an area of public service and give back a year with pay an agreement for their education which doesn't cause than any new debt. >> i did show up for my clients. the firm i left more than a decade ago was effective on their behalf and i will be effective on behalf of the people of the commonwealth of virginia but the fact is we are talking about a job you are seeking now and that you sought from us, that 8.4 million clients, governor

norton, i am one of them and part of the duties of being lieutenant governor is to serve on the center for rural virginia to make sure virginians are having the opportunities for broadband access. you did not attend a single meeting during your time in office. another is to serve on the secure commonwealth panel making sure virginians are safe in their homes and communities and you did not attend a single meeting of the secure commonwealth panel. economic development, we need it desperately. we have the partnership with it which is essential means by which we try to identify a strategy in the commonwealth of virginia, you missed 60 percent of those and given that your for higher taxes and i'm for lower taxes, for fewer regulations, my policies can result in job creation, raising take-home pay and helping people themselves out of poverty and i will work to get those policies back. i apologize for stepping on you there. it is now time for questions. >> several years ago governor bob mcdonnell introduce

funding for highways and bridges. in spite of this additional funding, the quality of the infrastructure by most measures is lower than the national average, yet the tax rate on gasoline is the 30th lowest in the us. while increasing gasoline taxes needs to be taboo, states have increased their taxes in the past five years. considering gas prices are so low is now the time to upgrade virginia's infrastructure. >> thank you carmen and i would remind folks that i am a small business owner in tampa roads. we have five satellite offices, our main office in north and if we get to our office, then we can take healthcare in hampton roads so transportation is vitally important to our economy, not only in the metropolitan areas but also rural virginia and just to give you a history, we haven't had any new revenue, no source of revenue for transportation in virginia since 1986 when

governor liles was in government and we got farther and farther behind the curve, we were keeping up with our roads and bridges especially in rural virginia and because of governor mcdonnell's bipartisan plan which he put on the table in 2013, we have revenue that's coming in , a lot of the projects that you are seeing all over the commonwealth are because of that 2013 transportation plan. one of the things that happened during that plan and you talked about the gas taxes, the regional tax in northern virginia and hampton roads, there was no floor put on that. thinking the cost of gallon of gas would go higher, it's gone down. there's a lot of revenue and we in a bipartisan way need to take that issue back to richmond and have a remedy for that. >> we need to maximize every transportation dollar we have in the commonwealth of virginia. need to work with the federal government and i will be in

to work with secretary lane child and the administration to make sure we are getting more of our virginia dollars back into virginia to get the expressway done. to improve 81 two addressed 73, all these projects as well as dredging the channel in our port which we have to do and to make sure that we are also addressing things like our national security working with the administration as well but when it comes to our transportation dollars, we need to have a locked box. every dollar dedicated to transportation needs to be spent on transportation projects, i support that, the lieutenant governor does not. i do not favor having labor agreements imposed on our partnerships and using union contracts when we are right to work state and we don't have to have a higher cost. the higher the cost of projects, if your project that you get. i don't agree with revealing wage requirements and

mandates on our public-private partnership projects, that drives up the cost as well. we will get more molotov mileage out of our dollar on transportation since i will impose those higher cost projects. the war projects you cost, the fewer you get an transportation has to be a priority in the commonwealth and in this part of the commonwealth. we are running long on this debate. any questions , you are both going to get 60 seconds but no rebuttal. >> 60 seconds. >> yes you do, i'm sorry. >> the transportation plan of 2013 brought billions of dollars of new revenue into our transportation system. one of the things we did in 2014, we created what's called mark scale. that takes the politics out of what road projects or to be the next and i had a discussion this morning, there are people in rural virginia, they are worried about the infrastructure so we support the coal industry and we need to take care of our roads and bridges in rural virginia as well so there's a bias there and we

need to correct that as well. as far as the transportation plan of 2013, i was proud to support that in the bipartisan way. my opponent has attacked me for supporting that. he then went and said he wouldn't repeal it and was talking to colleagues of his in virginia beach and said if you support it, i will support it. that's not what we need in public service, we need someone to his steady at the wheel, not someone who puts their finger in the air each time to see which way the wind is blowing. >> carmen will ask the question and you will have 60 seconds and then we move on to the next portion. >> mr. gillespie, should you be elected which state program will you propose to eliminate grew more dramatically reduced and which one would you stand and why? >> there are a number of programs i think we can identify a lot of savings in our budget. let me share one thing that's not so much a program but an opportunity for the next governor.

doors demographics we face retirement in our state workforce. we found 98,700 workers, 100,000 workers in the workforce dedicated employees claim 23,000 will retire during the course of the governorship. we are going to have to replace all those jobs . we can introduce more automation, we can streamline without having to lay people off, we can do that through attrition if we imagine that opportunity and i would i would not replace or than 1000 or about 1000+ of those full-time positions and savings for that at 50 percent increase salaries for existing workers and recruit new workers into our workforce so that we have a workforce that meets the needs of part of my transportation transformation of our state workforce policy proposal. >> 60 seconds. >> thank you. there are several areas in one of the things mark warner did when he was governor of the commonwealth is he

brought an outside group and looked at our agency to see what was working well and what wasn't working well and to make improvements and at the end of the day, make government more efficient and it also saved the commonwealth a lot of money. as far as the program but i want to look at, i need to have a discussion with our state police and other people, one of my peeves is inspections on automobiles and i am money for people, and i am going to propose after some discussion that for the first three years if someone buys a new car, the sticker will be put on the car and they will have to have it inspected for three years. as far as programs i would like to extend, i mentioned this earlier, there's a tremendous learning potential in our children before they get to kindergarten through a pipe public relationship i'm going to make sure all of our children in the commonwealth have access to pre-k education. >> each candidate will have 30 seconds to ask the other is the question. 60 seconds to answer and then the candidate who asked the question will have 60 seconds

to respond. mister, mr. gillespie is your floor. >> you mention the meeting the governor canceled, i was disappointed by that, we are a nonpartisan organization on the frontline trying to protect our state commonwealth. i am proud to be endorsed by a majority of our sheriff's including ronnie oates wiping his here. but they should not be punished as an organization trying to stand up or the deputies and to make sure we have proper compensation. many of the problems we talked about tonight, the opioid and mental health epidemic and i would like to ask tonight if you will join me in having governor mcauliffe, i will urge him but you can get him to do it, to reschedule the meeting before november 7 and listen to those insurance and find out what they are looking for in their annual meeting to have scheduled on an annual basis, where they talked about their budget. >> glad you asked the question because i was going

to respond but you all wouldn't allow the time which i understand but i had nothing to do with the cancellation of that meeting. i wanted to let people know i grew up on the eastern shore, my brother is an attorney. my father and grandfather are both judges and i've had a tremendous amount of respect for law enforcement. i've always had great relationships with our sheriff's deputies, with our local law enforcement. in 2011, i don't know if you knew this because you were up in washington lobbying but i won the award for the legislator of the year from the virginia sheriffs department. i was proud of that and that was because as you might note, there are 140 legislators. i won the award in 2011 so i have always been very supportive of our spirits and deputies and i will continue to be. i thought for pay raises over the years and as i said a couple times tonight, and $1.4 billion all in our

budget is not a good way to support law enforcement and are virginia state police. >> for whatever it's worth route, for the past more than a decade i have business in old town alexandria and have left the firm you were talking about a decade ago but you just made clear that law enforcement is not a priority, you are not going to urge the governor to have that meeting. owner mcauliffe, these reschedule that meeting, listen to their needs, find out what theyneed to meet the challenges that we face in opioid and heroin epidemic . that is a priority for me and is one of the reasons i'm so proud to have a majority endorsing me in the commonwealth as well as the police benevolent association and the fraternal order of police because i have policy that will make virginia safer and i will have their back as our governor and i'm proud to have their endorsement. i wish the governor would engage in politics when it comes to people on the front lines of keeping us safe in our communities every day. >> thank you paul, we had a discussion and in the first debate. it was regarding market, i

think we both agreed that the unintended pregnancies we have in the commonwealth, the better. i put in a budget amendment of money that would come out of state funding for increasing access which are long-acting reversible contraceptives, women of low income across the commonwealth, the budget amendment was defeated over two years, each year i introduced it. my question and you said when i asked you the question last time you needed time to review that particular issue but they are either inserted under the skin or placed into the cervix, they are effective and one of the most successful ways of contraception for women so that they can choose if and when to start a family but my question was simple, would you support that budget amendment to increase access to women across virginia? >> i don't oppose long-term access to contraception at all. and in fact what i support is taking contraceptives,

especially oral contraceptives more readily available to women across the commonwealth. according to as you would note, better than me but the american college was not sufficient, long ago recommended that we could have over-the-counter for oral contraceptives and they wouldn't need to be a prescription. in my mind they should be behind the counter, i would have them back there with the fed and that kind of thing but i think increasing access to true contraceptives is a smart thing and a policy that i fully support. i would make them more readily available and that would end up making them more affordable if they worked prescription as well. >> the question was not for contraception, >> my answer is i do not oppose contraceptives. i am pro-life but i don't support abortion but i'm not opposed to contraception. even the long-acting reversible kind. >> so you would support that budget amendment.

>> i would support an amendment that funds those contraceptives that are contraceptives long-acting and reversible. >> i'm glad to hear that because one of the things that is important as we reach out and talk to businesses that are interested in coming to virginia is being inclusive and there are things like defunding planned parenthood, things like pieces of legislation that discriminate against women's access to reproductive health care, they discriminate against the lgbt community, discriminate against immigrants and i can promise you businesses are watching virginia. we vetoed 120 pieces of legislation that do just that virginia needs to move forward. we can't look in the rearview mirror but i'm here and glad tonight that you will be supportive of increasing access to long-acting reversible contraceptives, that's great news for women so thank you for that. >> my next question is we've also had a discussion over the past few months now about

sanctuary cities and i think we got toclear some things up . as i've agreed with you, we do not have them here but i believe leadership means preventing problems before they occur as well as responding to problems. in states that have implemented and allowed for their cities to become sanctuary cities they've not made their people safer. you made the point we don't have them and we won't if i'm governor because i would sign that legislation that you voted against the ban them and you bragged about that vote in the democratic primary and said the only reason thatyou don't support it because because we don't have them. if a sanctuary city were to be established during your time is gone or should you win on november 7 , since you have a bill saying we need to reverse that, and the second or third to reverse those sanctuary cities haven't established themselves as such and not cooperating with federal authorities to deport

people who commit a crime, would you sign that? >> thank you for that question and as we did agree, we do not have sanctuary cities in the commonwealth of virginia so it's a solution looking for a problem. we made that clear. just to go back and, i thought it was amusing , when that boat came up it was nothing more than a political ploy. that's what's wrong with politics today but i did pass the deciding vote and right after that, by the way, one of the senators reconsidered and it was defeated. and five minutes later, a statement from you came out so it almost seems like it was a little bit of political games going on. i have made it clear i support local law enforcement, i don't support sanctuary cities, we don't have actuary cities in the commonwealth. let me finish.we don't have sanctuary cities, i support local law enforcement doing their job. i support pay increases for our sheriff's deputies and state police and i would do

everything and i have done everything to make sure our communities in the commonwealth are safe and things like this piece of legislation that was a political ploy are doing nothing more than promoting your monitoring and hatred and bigotry in this commonwealth and we don't condone that, i don't condone it and it was a political ploy, we don't have sanctuary cities and i don't support sanctuary cities. >> but you refuse to say that in the event one were established you would ban them and even in retrospect, that's very telling to me. the fact is i was talking today to a fake leader of hispanic descent, sean fake leader in northern virginia who said being anti-ms 13 is not being anti-immigrants, it isimportant , we want these people gone. it's our communities that are most vulnerable to their violence and to , it's not the young women who are forced into human trafficking

situations or not in neighborhoods like yours and mine, they are in the neighborhoods of this gentleman i was talking to and i believe we need to protect those. i would ban one if a city or county had established themselves as a sanctuary city because we need to cooperate when someone is here illegally maybe a gang or not, if they commit a crime, we need to cooperate with authorities and that person should be deported, not people who were brought here by their parents, not the dreamers, they should not be as the fake leader shared with me and i told him i agreed with him but we cannot allow for the establishment of sanctuary cities and you won't even say you would ban and after the fact. i think that's a concern . >> time waits for no one, especially on television. wehad planned for one other question but i want to hear your closing statements . >> i think we each have to have a question. >> i'll be very quick with it, we've had some tremendous strategies with nonviolence mister mr. gillespie.

we had the shooting 10 years ago at virginia tech. we lost two precious lives, we just had that shooting in lasvegas, we lost 58 miles, over 500 individuals wounded and i have a question . as you know, i do support and promote, and advocate for responsible gun ownership. my question is do you support universal background checks in the commonwealth of virginia? >> as you know there are universal background checks and we had an agreement reached with the governor and republican general assembly in 2015 lamented that allowed for background checks and private dealers. state police are now there to help them accommodate that and that is being implemented and i think it's been helpful and i'm here to see if implemented even more troublesome. one thing i've noticed yesterday was when senator dianne feinstein who was the foremost champion of gun-control laws in the united states from california

said there is no law that could have prevented what happened in las vegas. i suspect unlike a lot of other virginians and americans, i never heard of the stocks until that heartbreaking, turning mass murder that we saw in las vegas but i believe that a device that allows you to circumvent a ban on automatic weapons should be regulated and should be banned if it's designed to turn a non-automatic weapon into a weapon so there are, that is something i would support in response to what we saw in las vegas but let's be clear, in terms of your desire to limit second amendment rights in the commonwealth, the effect is as gun ownership has risen, the incident or the rates of violent crimes and murder has done ownership has risen. >> we only have a couple minutes left in this broadcast you are each going to have one for your final statement.use it and mister northam, you are first. >> thank you to the university of virginia wives

and i think you run an excellent debate. we appreciate it and added, you for running and i wish you and your wife, i see your wife here and wish you all the best as we come down the home stretch. i would tell you that to look at people's resumes, what did they do before they went into public service? i have had a life of public service in the united states army, i took care of sick children and their families for over 25 years. i have served in the virginia senate and as lieutenant governor and i would tell you that i look forward to serving in the next four years in this together making sure that we have access to healthcare, making sure that our children have access to a world-class education system, making sure all of you have good high-paying jobs in virginia.we live in the greatest state, greatest country in this world. i urge you to vote and i would be privileged to have your vote on november 7, for being with us tonight, have a great weekend and god bless all of you.

>> mr. gillespie, one minute. >> thank you for making time for this today, i wish you and all the best on a personal level as well. i do believe this election on november 7 is important to us, we had three straight years where more people have moved out of virginia into virginia. last year 51 percent of those moved out for your college degree took it with them. this is not a matter in southwest virginia, it's across the commonwealth and it reflects a lack of opportunities and my plans would result in the creation of 53,000 additional full-time good paying private sector jobs across the commonwealth, that's a 25 percent increase over projection. we need those jobs and need those opportunities. i have a plan to get virginia going again, i have a sense of urgency with which to get them done and i will not. i've been given that opportunity i will be a governor for all virginians and my policies will benefit all virginians. i ask for your vote on

november 7 so that i can serve the peopleof virginia. i will be an honest , ethical, sensible leader for the virginia. >> we have to go, thanks to this audience here. you were great. i'm paul johnson, don't forget. vote november 7. thanks for joining us here live from the university of virginia. thank you everybody. >>. >> and another governors debate coming up in about 90 minutes, the candidates for new jersey governor, democrat phil murphy is republican lieutenant governor. their first debate before the november election, we will bring you live coverage starting at 7 pm eastern here on c-span2, also online at c-span.org or listen on the free radio. >>. >> all this week, but tv is in prime time on c-span2. tonight at the eastern, cyber warfare and security with fred kaplan, author of dark

territory, builder in his book i wore and john q and jeremy rapkin with the spiking power. wednesday at eight a look at the 2016 election with ellery clinton and her book what happened? jonathan allen and amy parr, author of shattered and douglas scholl and his book america in the age of 12. thursday at eastern, books into movie featuring martha lee generally author of hidden figures. mark knight and their book 13 hours and rebecca's loop with her the immortal life of henrietta lacks and on friday night, highlights from book fairs and festivals with author david mccullough at the national book festival, library of congress carla hayden and greg harper at the mississippi book festival and political activist and author james o'keefe at freedom facts. this week what book tv in prime time on c-span2. american history tv on

c-span3 is in prime time. this week starting at 8 pm eastern. tonight, the life and influence of william buffalo bill cody on the 100th anniversary of his death. wednesday, the 60th anniversary of little rock central high school integration with former president bill clinton. thursday night a discussion on the lead up and response of the 1957 segregation of little rock central high school and friday night from american history tv's oral history series, interviews with prominent photojournalists who documented major events throughout american history. what american history tv this week in prime time on c-span3. >> c-span's washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up wednesday, we look at president trumps decision to decertify the iran nuclear deal this week with lane

missed off, security program director of the bipartisan policy center and georgia republican congressman ralph woodall with his view on the tax reform proposal. also the future of immigration and the dac a program and a potential deal to protect immigrants with congressman ted lou on to talk about that. watch c-span's washington journal live at seven eastern wednesday morning, join the discussion. >> we are live at the senate for strategic and international studies in washington for an event marking the 75th anniversary of the security council. it includes three former national security advisors and the current national security advisor, hr mcmaster. >>