Bob FitzSimmonds for Virginia State Senate, 29th District

The results were obviously not what we had hoped for, but we always knew that taking on an entrenched incumbent would be a challenge. The emails and phone calls that have poured in have been encouraging and we appreciate every one of them.

Senator Colgan ran a great race and was quoted on several occasions saying that this was the toughest race of his political career. It is clear from the flurry of activity in the last two weeks of the campaign that the Democrat Party turned all their attention to holding the 29th District.

While I continue to have strong policy issues with the Senator, I of course, congratulate him on his win and his return for a ninth term.

I greatly appreciate the thousands of voters who supported our reform message and am proud of the issues we raised during our campaign. Our opponent abandoned his long-time support of a gasoline tax increase. During the final weeks of this campaign our opponent asserted that he no longer supported a gas tax after three decades of loyalty to this questionable
policy. I hope he maintains this new policy position.

We challenged our opponent's inactivity addressing illegal immigration and he responded by promising to introduce some of the very reforms we were championing. I hope he will make good on those promises and am confident that at the very least he will now co-sponsor some of the needed reforms being pushed by conservatives in both houses of the legislature.

We have begun to create awareness in our area about Virginia's Conservation Easement Program. We will work in the coming months with the Board and our local legislative delegation to see what can be done to bring this good idea to Prince William County.

While I am sorry to miss this opportunity to serve in the Virginia Senate, both Debbie and I will continue to work for our community. We again, appreciate all of you who worked so hard, contributed so much, and prayed so faithfully.