Congressional candidates spar at Mason Inn

Candidates for Virginia’s 11th-Congressional District, Keith Fimian and Rep. Gerry Connolly, participate in a debate hosted by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce at the Mason Inn Tuesday. (Jordan Frasier) 

Candidates from two of Northern Virginia’s congressional races faced-off over lunch at the Mason Inn Tuesday.

With three weeks to go before voters head to the polls, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce hosted the political debates between the candidates for Virginia’s eighth-congressional district and between the candidates for the 11th-district, which includes Mason’s Fairfax Campus.

The debate focused mainly on economic issues as moderator Bruce DePuyt, of TBD’s “News Talk,” prompted the candidates in front of the business leaders.

The event gave candidate Keith Fimian the chance to tout his business background as an important qualification in his congressional bid; while incumbent Congressman Gerry Connolly had the chance to tout his accomplishments as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and how he said he has continued that tradition in Congress.

The candidates spoke on the Mason campus as the Connolly campaign is airing a television ad with footage of Fimian’s visit with Mason’s College Republicans last month.

The ad is edited to show Fimian speaking to the student group about giving Congress a $250,000 raise.

At today’s debate, Fimian said economic growth is the key to the overall success of the country, especially with attention to potential revolutionary technological advances in the next two decades.

Connolly said he has a history of balancing budgets in Fairfax County and that he voted against two jobs bills in Congress because they were not paid for and would add to the national deficit.

When Fimian asserted the nation’s deficit problem could be fixed in part by changes to discretionary spending, Connolly said there are deeper problems than discretionary spending when it comes to the deficit.

Both candidates looked at environmental policy from a business perspective, with Fimian saying it’s important not to “handcuff” the economy without solid research to back environmental restrictions. Connolly said environmental changes are real and need to be addressed with an opportunity to create “green jobs.”

The audience also heard from eighth-district Congressman Jim Moran and challenger Patrick Murray who touched on job creation, tax cuts and Middle East issues.

Tuesday was the last day for Virginians to register to vote ahead of the Nov. 2 election.