Robert C. Sarvis http://robertsarvis.com Candidate for State Senate of Virginia Sun, 06 Nov 2011 00:57:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 RobertSarvisVAhttp://feedburner.google.com Merrifield Fall Festival – Oct. 15 http://robertsarvis.com/merrifield-fall-festival-%e2%80%93%c2%a0oct-15/ http://robertsarvis.com/merrifield-fall-festival-%e2%80%93%c2%a0oct-15/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:36:44 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=600

…and a little shout out from the Annandale VA Blog. ]]> http://robertsarvis.com/merrifield-fall-festival-%e2%80%93%c2%a0oct-15/feed/ 0 Campaign Update – What We’ve Been Doing http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-campaign-update/ http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-campaign-update/#comments Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:21:20 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=579
Talked to folks attending the annual Asian Festival…


Attended a Log Cabin Republican picnic, a Rotary Club breakfast, and National Night Out events… Spoke at GOP Committee and Young Republican meetings…


Addressed a libertarian group… Met voters at a Vietnamese picnic…


And, of course, canvassed in various precincts… The heat was brutal, but it has finally subsided!

]]> http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-campaign-update/feed/ 0 Meet & Greet / Fundraiser – July 28 http://robertsarvis.com/meet-greet-fundraiser-%e2%80%93-july-28/ http://robertsarvis.com/meet-greet-fundraiser-%e2%80%93-july-28/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:36:19 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=489 Meet & Greet / Fundraiser on July 28 at 7pm in Falls Church. Come show your support and hear why Richmond needs reform, why we need a principled State Senator who will fight for Northern Virginia, and why we need to retire Dick Saslaw this November.

Details:
Sarvis Campaign Meet & Greet / Fundraiser [RSVP on Facebook]
Thursday July 28, 7pm–9pm
311 N. Lee Street
Falls Church, VA 22046

– Rob will speak shortly after 8pm.
– Light refreshments will be served.
– Dress is casual or after-work attire.
– Families/children are welcome.
– Swimming pool will be open.


]]> http://robertsarvis.com/meet-greet-fundraiser-%e2%80%93-july-28/feed/ 0 Lake Barcroft July 4th Parade http://robertsarvis.com/lake-barcroft-july-4th-parade/ http://robertsarvis.com/lake-barcroft-july-4th-parade/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:49:42 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=439 Thank You to the Lake Barcroft Community for hosting their annual Independence Day Parade. It was a great experience being a part of it and I enjoyed meeting so many members of the community.


Thank you also to Brad, Adam, and Andrea for joining us and helping out.]]> http://robertsarvis.com/lake-barcroft-july-4th-parade/feed/ 0 Happy Independence Day! http://robertsarvis.com/happy-independence-day/ http://robertsarvis.com/happy-independence-day/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 13:11:40 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=434
We will be taking part in the Lake Barcroft Independence Day Parade in the morning, then meeting and greeting at the Falls Church July 4th Celebration at George Mason High School in the evening. If you’ll be at either event, come say hello!]]> http://robertsarvis.com/happy-independence-day/feed/ 0 Sarvis Family Expecting a Girl! http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-family-expecting-a-girl/ http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-family-expecting-a-girl/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2011 14:09:32 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=419 http://robertsarvis.com/sarvis-family-expecting-a-girl/feed/ 0 Juneteenth http://robertsarvis.com/juneteenth/ http://robertsarvis.com/juneteenth/#comments Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:49:46 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=396 Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the announcement by federal forces of the Emancipation Proclamation—and the end of slavery—in Galveston, TX, at the end of the Civil War.

Juneteenth has a special place in my heart for two reasons.

First, Juneteenth reminds me of my wife’s first visit to Virginia, when I took her to the National Archives in D.C. I hadn’t been to the Archives in a long time, and I was excited to see the Founding documents again (and especially excited to find that one of the original copies of Magna Carta was also on display). My wife, though, was less interested in those documents (understandably) and was eager to see the Emancipation Proclamation. But it wasn’t in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom, and she didn’t think that was right. My first instinct was to defend its exclusion, on the familiar grounds that it was a war-powers document limited in reach and effectiveness (limited to federally controlled areas of states in armed rebellion). But I realized my instinct was misplaced and she was right: the Emancipation Proclamation should be in the Rotunda, because of what it did to people’s hearts and minds when it was first promulgated, because of what it did in Galveston, TX, when it was announced and enforced there, and because of what it symbolizes to the many people who have celebrated Juneteenth (or any other Emancipation Day) ever since.

Second, Juneteenth, though a celebratory day, always makes me reflect on the nation’s failure to protect freedom and equality for another one hundred years after the Civil War ended. I think of the heroic, but tragically failed, efforts of the “Radical Republicans” to protect Freedmen during Reconstruction. To me, Reconstruction was as much of a defining era for the Republican Party as the Civil War was, an attempt to universalize the ideal of freedom under the rule of law, secured by legitimate governmental power protecting individual rights, that was the country’s founding principle. Being a Republican for me means being inspired by those who fought for the rights of Freedmen. Juneteenth, a day that celebrates the end of slavery, is thus a Janus-faced holiday to me, commemorating the sweet joy of emancipation but recalling also the ruinous results of our failure to fight for freedom’s preservation.]]> http://robertsarvis.com/juneteenth/feed/ 0 Issues Page Up with More to Come http://robertsarvis.com/issues-page-up-%e2%80%94-more-to-come/ http://robertsarvis.com/issues-page-up-%e2%80%94-more-to-come/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:35:00 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=383 My Issues page is now up, with a short discussion of Leadership, Education, Transportation, and Taxes. More to come each week, on Spending, the Rule of Law, etc. Follow along…

Visit Rob’s discussion of the Issues HERE.]]> http://robertsarvis.com/issues-page-up-%e2%80%94-more-to-come/feed/ 0 Education YES, Partisanship NO http://robertsarvis.com/education-yes-partisanship-no/ http://robertsarvis.com/education-yes-partisanship-no/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:51:11 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=338
Delegate Kory introduced a bill to weaken the “Kings Dominion Law,” the execrable state law mandating that the academic year of every public school system in the state start after Labor Day. But the biggest defender of the Kings Dominion Law is a member of her own party—my opponent, Dick Saslaw. He has repeatedly voted against bills to alter the Kings Dominion Law, a law that greatly benefits Kings Dominion but forces Fairfax County’s school year to run into late June! Not surprisingly, my opponent, a 35-year incumbent and Richmond insider, is the biggest recipient of donations from Kings Dominion.

My opponent has even called parents’ and educators’ concerns about the late start to the school year “hogwash.” When our politicians hold us parents in such contempt, we have a serious problem.

Unlike my opponent, I believe in local control of the public schools. I will work with Republicans and Democrats to repeal the Kings Dominion Law entirely. The victory won’t be along party lines, but it will require us to retire Dick Saslaw.

Let’s reject partisanship, special interests, and self-serving incumbents and vote for leadership, principles, and good education policy.

Update: Right on cue, my opponent Saslaw displays his instinctive partisanship. Despite Saslaw’s repeated anti-education votes supporting the Kings Dominion Law, the examiner.com notes:

While Sarvis denounces the idea of “rank partisanship”, Saslaw believes that it is specifically Republicans who have been the source of anti-education activity in Richmond.

He’s spent three decades in the State Senate, he’s the Senate Majority Leader, but he says it’s all other people’s fault.]]> http://robertsarvis.com/education-yes-partisanship-no/feed/ 0 Ready to File, Ready to Run http://robertsarvis.com/ready-to-file-ready-to-run/ http://robertsarvis.com/ready-to-file-ready-to-run/#comments Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:01:49 +0000 admin http://robertsarvis.com/?p=325
I have met kind people with open, but worried, minds. Voters are worried about the economy. They’re worried about maintaining the quality of the education system and rebuilding our transportation infrastructure. Voters are willing to pay taxes if their tax dollars are spent well and wisely, but they’re upset that taxes and spending keep rising while our basic priorities go underfunded and poorly administered. They’re concerned that lawmakers and political leaders at every level of government have lost touch with reality, that the common citizen is suffering, while organized, politically connected interests get bailed out or subsidized, that government is picking winners and losers instead of enforcing rules everyone lives by. They are concerned that government is growing larger without any benefit to our lives. And they are concerned that the system is broken, and that politics is too partisan and divisive to fix anything.

I feel many of the same worries and concerns, but I am optimistic about our ability to come together to solve problems and invest in the future. That’s why I am filing my candidacy papers today to run for the State Senate of Virginia in the 35th District. I believe the solution begins with institutional reform and focusing government back on the priorities it is constituted to protect and provide. My education in law, economics, and public policy and my experiences in the real world have taught me what works and what doesn’t, and I intend to meet as many voters as I can over the summer and fall, to explain my vision of reform, to help get government back within its means and within its proper bounds, to help resurrect optimism about the future, and to rekindle the dynamism, economic opportunity, and cultural vitality that arises in a free society governed by the rule of law.

Campaigning for office will take a lot of hard work, especially because I begin with little name recognition against an incumbent with a war chest funded by vested interest groups. But fighting for a good cause is worth it, and I believe I can win.]]> http://robertsarvis.com/ready-to-file-ready-to-run/feed/ 0