The following interview is with Dennis Findley, Democratic candidate in the 10th Congressional District (currently misrepresented by Frank Wolf). The other announced Democratic candidate is Rich Anthony, whose interview (published December 8th) can be read here. I'm also hearing rumors that there's another candidate thinking about throwing his hat in the rink, but for now, I'm assuming it will just be Dennis Findley and Rich Anthony. Having interviewed both candidates, I will most likely make an endorsement in the next few days. For now, thanks to both Rich Anthony and Dennis Findley for responding to my interview questions!
1. Tell us a bit about yourself, and specifically, what made you decide to run for Congress at this time?
Thank you, Lowell, for the opportunity to talk about my candidacy.
I have lived in McLean for 20 years. I am a Senior Project Architect at Bowie Gridley Architects in Georgetown, which means I am a lead designer, or simply put, I am the idea guy.
I was born at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina, grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and am the son of a disabled Korean War veteran. My father somehow lied his way into the army when he was 15 and fought in the war. He came home in pretty bad shape and in today’s terminology I think would probably be diagnosed with severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
From my earliest memories, it was just my mom raising my older brother and me with my dad in the house for short periods of time. When I was very young, I remember my mom driving my brother and me to my uncle’s dairy farm in South Carolina where we stayed so my mother could fly up to Washington and go to Walter Reed to see my dad. I remember later going to see my father at the VA hospital in Nashville when I was seven or eight years old. I never asked why he was there. It was just the way it was and my mom would only say, “He’s not feeling well but he’s getting better.” He was hospitalized much of time I was a kid. My parents divorced when I was nine. I saw him a bit for the next two years, but then he left our lives and I only saw him once again when I was 17 years old.
Whenever I read or hear a story about a solider coming home from the Middle East with psychological problems, I experience a moment of reflection -- actually a rather uncomfortable moment – it is hard to describe. I wonder what the family and the kids are going through and I hope they are getting the help they need, because I know their lives are changed forever.
When I graduated from high school, I could not afford college, so I went to a community college in Nashville to study architecture. It was during this time that I was informed by the Army that my father had been classified as 100% disabled and that I was now eligible for educational benefits through the G.I. Bill. After graduating from junior college with Highest Honors, I enrolled at Auburn University and completed the five-year architecture program in three-and-one-half years and graduated First in Class.
Two years later, I applied to graduate school, but just one. There was only one place I wanted to go – Harvard. My mother thought I was crazy and dismissed the idea because there was no way we could pay for it. However, my professors at Auburn told me to focus on being accepted, and they -- the school -- would figure out how to help me pay for it. I was accepted and none too soon, because I had just been laid off from the firm I was working for during the recession of the early 1980s (the first of two layoffs I have experienced in my career during economic downturns). It turned out that my family was so low on the income scale that I qualified for some special funds and grants that were only available in “unusual circumstances.” I received my master's degree in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and graduated With Commendation in 1985.
After graduate school I worked in Boston for five years and met Bonnie Barit, my wife-to-be, on a ballroom dance floor (another story for another time). We both moved to McLean in 1989 and were married in 1991.
In 1995, when I was with a large architectural firm in Washington, Bonnie gave birth to our twin boys. We talked about the usual options for caring for them. But I had an idea, and when my twins were five-months old, I stepped away from architecture with a three-year plan to be a full-time, stay-at-home dad. After just two months however, we learned that one of my sons had significant developmental delays and my three-year plan to stay home became 11 years of doctors, tests, therapy, special schools, insurance claims, and more.
There were lots of great times too -- lots of love and lots of adventures. It was a wonderful time in my life in so many ways, yet harder than anything I had ever done. In 2002, I started a part-time architectural practice out of my home, and I went back to full-time architectural practice in 2006.
My boys turned 14 last month, and in those 14 years I learned that the word ‘advocate’ is just a nicer way of saying, ‘to fight.’ My wife and I fought for my son medically, educationally, and we are still fighting for his future right now. These experiences are what ultimately led to my decision to run for Congress.
2. What three issues are you most passionate about and why?
Energy and the environment are linked in our future, so for me they are a single issue; then the economy and education.
Architects have been at the vanguard of energy conservation and environmental sustainability for almost 20 years. Changes in energy use and attitudes toward environmental stewardship are coming to our nation whether we like it or not. If we have leaders who understand the issues, as I do, then we will captain these changes and transform our nation. If we continue to drag our feet, our nation will be dragged into the future in terrible shape.
I believe that changes in our country’s future energy use and environmental stewardship offer enormous opportunities for job creation in the manufacturing and service sectors that have seen decades of steady decline. I am truly excited about the potential. In the construction industry we have seen so many new businesses, both large and small, be created and transformed, and that is just the tip of the iceberg for new job opportunities.
The national debt is a present and long-term threat to our economy. We must get control of government spending and reduce the national debt as rapidly as possible. Our debt is causing the cost of dollar-priced commodities to rise that can fuel inflation and puts the squeeze on lower-income Americans, puts us at the mercy of other countries that bankroll our debt, limits our options to maneuver through the globally-linked financial world and is a threat to our national security. Frank Wolf decries the budget deficit we face today, suggesting it is now so large it cannot be handled by Congress and requires an outside, blue-ribbon panel to recommend how to fix it. But Wolf was nowhere to be heard in 2002 when then Vice-president, Dick Cheney, declared that,” Deficits don’t matter.”
Education is the key to my life. All that I have, all that I have accomplished and all that I hope to accomplish are because of my education and the opportunity I was given with the GI Bill. I want to add, too, that the education of special-needs children is an area that requires much attention and no one in Congress is currently a champion of these children and their families. I am that champion.
3. How would you describe yourself ideologically – “progressive,” “conservative,” “moderate,” “liberal,” or something else?
Moderate.
4. Who is your favorite Virginia politician and why?
I admire Jim Webb, without a doubt. Here is a guy who embraced enormous political challenge, fought the good fight, was passionate about why he was running and was true to his purpose. Look what happened. What an incredible American story.
5. Arguably, the biggest debate politically this year in the United States has been over health reform. If you were in Congress right now, how would you vote on: a) a robust public option; b) allowing public funds to be used to provide abortion coverage; c) allowing undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance (with their own money) on the proposed insurance “exchanges;” and d) a surcharge on wealthy Americans in order to pay for this bill?
Washington has taken on one of the most screwed-up situations in America today. I cannot sugar coat this with smooth, polite rhetoric -- sorry, Lowell. It is just a mess. We do not have a healthcare system in this country -- we have a healthcare industry -- focused on profit, not on delivering quality healthcare, and it is monopolistic in nature.
That said, I am not convinced the approach being taken is the best one. I would look to free-market reforms that could be undertaken to break the monopolistic insurance industry so that the power of the purse is put back in the hands of individual patients. Hospitals bear some of the blame as well. They have admitted to tripling their charges because of their battles with the insurance companies (they’re often only reimbursed one-third of what they charge) but the uninsured get hit with the inflated, triple charge when they seek medical care. We know for a fact that quality healthcare cost less and that is where we should focus our reform efforts. It is just stunning where we are today. I could go on here, because as special-need parents, we have experienced numerous medical blunders, staggering medical bills in some years and fought absurd battles with both insurance companies and hospitals.
I wish I could believe the public option would work, but I do not think the government can pull it off. One thing you learn in the architecture and construction industries is that truly mammoth design/construction projects never come in on budget, on schedule and without enormous, unforeseen complications. These projects occur in circumstances where we know problems are going to occur, where we have all kinds of procedures and systems in place to address them, and it is still overwhelming. The public option would be started from scratch with nothing in place to deal with all the intricacies and complications of creating and implementing such a gargantuan project. I just do not think the government can pull it off, so I do not support it.
I am a big supporter of co-ops and insurance exchanges.
6. With regard to another top issue – energy and the environment - if you were in Congress right now, how would you vote on: a) a revenue-neutral carbon tax; b) a strong cap-and-trade bill; c) aggressive mandatory renewable energy standards; d) sharply increasing energy efficiency standards for vehicles, appliances, etc.; e) oil drilling off Virginia’s coast or other environmentally sensitive areas (e.g., ANWR); and f) mountaintop removal coal mining.
The approach to energy and the environment will involve contributions from many sources; here are just a few I propose.
As an architect, I know first-hand how much energy is wasted in our homes and buildings. There are building techniques (some very simple), products and strategies that are available right now to dramatically improve the energy efficiency of all buildings, but they are not implemented for a variety of reasons. For some buildings, there are as many as 40 steps in the construction of a building’s thermal envelope and a mistake in one can begin the process of degrading the integrity of the whole system. Some building products, such as fiberglass-batt insulation, should be banned in my opinion, because they are rarely installed properly to achieve their potential as an insulator. I could go on, but I can say with authority and certainty that we can achieve greater energy efficiency in our buildings. The immediate results would flatten the upward-trending line of energy use in our future and that, of course, coupled with power-generating alternatives I discuss below, would dramatically reduce the number of new power-generation plants required and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
I would like to update our Carter-era, nuclear-energy policies to make nuclear energy use more efficient, cost-effective, better for the environment and safer. I would propose increasing tax credits for the use of geo-thermal heating and cooling in our homes. I would propose we phase out the use of energy-wasting, hot-water heaters in favor of tankless systems and other energy-efficient alternatives. I would like to see an acceleration in the transition to hybrid and all-electric cars. Smart-grid technology and smart appliances can give us significant reductions in energy use and both technologies are here but their rollout is extremely slow. We need to consider ways to accelerate their installation and use.
Photovoltaic panels are in our future even in places we are generally told they are not feasible. I am working on a new high school and one option we have investigated is covering the entire, very large roof with solar panels. Summer is when they would generate peak electricity, but with school out, some have asked why consider them? When we ran the numbers we discovered that because of the generating capacity from the large roof of the school, the summer season would turn the school into a small, power-generating facility and the sell-back of energy, when factored into the cost equation, makes them an interesting option.
I am not opposed to off-shore drilling but there is more information I would like to have. The sources of information I have found so far are too biased to be reliable. At best, it is only a small, temporary aspect of our energy future but it may well have an important roll to play. I oppose mountain-top-removal coal mining.
7. In 2006, Jim Webb talked about America dividing into “three pieces,” with the “rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class getting squeezed.” If you are elected to Congress, what will you do about this situation?
I believe the decades-long decline in manufacturing and the more recent decline in service jobs, both of which have gone overseas for low-labor-cost reasons, is the fundamental culprit. We have lost jobs that have sustained many segments of our population for generations, so the question is can we replace them with something that will create a long-term upward trend? We do not need more “contract jobs” for easily expendable workers; we need jobs that build careers, communities and a way of life for people.
I do not think the government can just “make” jobs appear, but it can facilitate a new trend in sustainable job creation and growth. If the great industrial age of the late 19th and early 20th centuries was built upon fossil fuels and those energy sources are in decline (for reasons of availability and harm to the environment), then the new energy revolution that I believe is to come can create a new revolution in job creation on par with the technology revolution of the 1990s.
8. Education is crucial to our nation’s future, yet there are indications we are falling further and further behind to rising nations like China and India every year that goes by. What would you do to reverse this trend and ensure that America remains the best educated nation in the world?
I think we have seen a downward trend in the quality of education for the past 30 years because we have been looking for quick fixes. You can see, and I have experienced with my own children, the ricocheting of what is “in” or “out” in educational programs and philosophies, especially in math, reading and writing.
I agree with the idea of lengthening the school year. My niece graduated four years ago from a rural, Tennessee high school where they eliminated the three-month summer vacation. She preferred the new schedule over the traditional one because it eliminated three weeks of review every fall. I believe it offers greater opportunity in planning curriculums of greater substance and lesson plans that allow an expansion of learning opportunities. My niece is now finishing her last year at the American University in Paris and we are all so proud of her.
I believe that teachers seventh grade and up should have degrees in the subjects they teach (as opposed to being only certified to teach a subject). Having a degree in math or physics, for example, means several things. First, you have passion about what you know and teach and, second, by knowing a subject in depth, a teacher can adapt the content of the curriculum and their style of teaching to the different students they have from year-to-year. I have found teachers at upper levels that are only “certified” stick too closely to pre-made lesson plans and, without a depth of knowledge in the subject, cannot be creative in their teaching approach.
No Child Left Behind has put most schools systems in the “teach to the test” frame of mind. It is heartbreaking to see the limitations in teaching and content in today’s schools.
9. On GLBT issues, where do you stand on: 1) repealing “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” 2) allowing gays and lesbians to marry; 3) “hate crimes” legislation?
Architecture is a creative profession with a high proportion of gay men. I have worked in the past and work today with individuals who are gay, talented and professional in the workplace and I would put many of their names at the top of my list if I could hand pick individual, team members for my projects. Their sexual orientation is never a matter for discussion, although references are made to their partners just as I refer to my wife in causal conversation. I have also worked with members of the gay community who make their orientation an issue, with the result being problematic team performance and discomfort in the work place. This is an issue I would like to discuss in much greater detail with leaders in the military and the gay and lesbian community in order to gain a better understanding.
Civil unions? Yes. Full, legal rights to same-sex partners as conveyed by the law to husbands and wives? Yes. However, I do not support gay and lesbian marriage. My faith teaches me that marriage is the union of a man and a woman before God.
I fully support strong hate-crimes legislation. There is no place for harassment, assaults and murder in a civilized society for any reason.
10. Finally, given that you have a Democratic opponent, why should voters – whether in a primary or a convention – support you as opposed to the other Democrat in the race?
Before I conclude my remarks, Lowell, I want to mention transportation, which is the number one issue in our congressional district. I bring an expertise in design, urban planning, infrastructure, construction and project management that bears directly on this critical issue. I have an understanding in this area that is unmatched by my opponents in either party.
Given what I have shared about my life, I believe I can make the most compelling case to the voters for my candidacy because I bring a depth, breadth and understanding of the lives of the many different people that make up the 10th District. Further, I will bring to Congress the creative problem-solving ability, solution-focused thinking, vision and leadership that I have as an architect to help find solutions to the problems we face today and in our future.
Architects are generally defined by the designs of their buildings, and if we are prolific, by the size of the pictures and the weight of the coffee-table books of our work. What is little understood, however, is the work that must be done and the skills an architect must use in realizing a completed work of architecture. Ironically, they are the same leadership skills necessary for our elected leaders, but they are used very differently.
Ambassador Richard Swett, the only architect elected to Congress in the 20th Century -- he was in Congress in the mid 1990s -- clearly articulates this:
“For politicians in today’s climate, the skills of leadership, strategic thinking, motivation, and the trust they try to engender are used to create divisiveness and destroy the public trust in those with whom they disagree. For architects, it is those same skills we possess but use to build trust among people with many different opinions, many different agendas and different intent in order to come to a common understanding, a common purpose and a common solution that we must then build.”
Whatever project we undertake, we, as architects, must get to “Yes.” Politicians today, as we too often see, seem to find many ways to get to “No.”
I tell my clients and my staff that it is not about being right; it is about getting it right. I believe that views in opposition do not have to mean conflict; rather they define the breadth of the issue to be considered and worked on very hard. It is this hard work that I want to undertake in Congress. I do not think I am the only one who would be in Congress with this view, but if I were, that would be fine. The power of “one” can be amazing as we have seen throughout history.
In regard to Rich Anthony, we have met, talked several times and exchanged emails. I like him. However, I feel my political views are more aligned with those of the voters in the 10th District which gives me a better chance of unseating Frank Wolf.
Thank you Lowell.
Blue Virginia
