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Va Beach General Assembly Members Make Rounds at Filipino American Breakfast

America is known as the land of opportunity, a melting pot of cultures across the globe coming together under the stars and stripes of Old Glory. Anyone who has spent time in Hampton Roads knows how lucky the region is to have the cultural influence of the Filipino-American community.

Long-time Republican Pepe Cabacoy has been instrumental in connecting the Filipino community with political candidates. Cabacoy played a key role in helping to turn Virginia Beach red and is responsible for helping Norfolk achieve its last city-wide elected Republican victory for Clerk of Court Albert Teich.

Through the Filipino American Community Action Group (FIL-AM CAG) there has been a great opportunity for both political candidates and the Filipino community to focus on key issues. The members of Fil-Am Cag are intelligent, friendly, and family oriented people who truly love their country. Their hospitality is simply second to none.

The 28th Annual State Legislative Update Breakfast held this past weekend at Susan’s Kitchenette focused on asking area legislators about the past General Assembly session and their views on Virginia politics moving forward.

The panel consisted of Republican Delegate Glenn Davis, Democratic Delegate Joe Lindsey, Democratic Delegate Kelly Converse-Fowler, Democratic Delegate Cheryl Turpin, and Republican Senator John Cosgrove. Attendees were based primarily in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

The panel began with a conversation on legislation that each representative worked on followed by passing the microphone for Q and A.  The topics included transportation, tolls, teacher pay, SOLs, guns, and immigration.

The issue of sanctuary cities became a focus point as Delegate Davis contrasted his views with Delegate Lindsay. Davis stressed his strong opposition to sanctuary cities and explained the process of becoming one, citing his experience on the Virginia Beach City Council as pivotal in understanding the issues and problems that are related to not working in conjunction with ICE.

Another hot spot of the discussion came on the subject of teacher pay with unanimous agreement across the panel that they should receive more.  The most intriguing comment came from the last panelist to weigh in on the topic.

Senator Cosgrove met his wife while attending Shenandoah Conservatory where he studied to teach music. He expressed his love for education and his passion for learning, and agreed that that we must pay teachers more adequately but he brought to light an issue that opened the eyes of those in attendance.

Senator Cosgrove hit on the premise that when education associations and education lobbyists come to government to ask for increased teacher pay, the increase includes the entire workforce of the school system. That leads to serious financial concerns and often a failure to actually give teachers a raise.

The point of prioritizing school employee raises to teachers first is something conservatives should applaud. Senator Cosgrove was sincere and straight to the point in his remarks of teacher pay. His idea is one that is often overlooked and could serve as a focal point for a compromise.

The 28th Annual Fil-Am Cag State Legislative Update Breakfast was a stellar success with food, intelligent dialogue, and cheerful fellowship. While it is obvious that Virginia Beach’s two new Democratic delegates are not up to speed on many of the issues facing Virginia, they are out making the rounds in hopes of holding their seats in 2019.

If Republicans can recruit qualified candidates to run in 2019 for those seats, they will have a good chance at victory in a year where the wave is much less. It is essential that Republicans must continue to show up and support great organizations like Fil-Am Cag. More than just earning votes before an election, it is about forming a friendship with people who genuinely love the principles that make the United States of America the best nation on the planet.