One week after releasing a plan to better treatment for Virginians suffering from substance abuse and living with mental health, Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has proposed another plan for a specific Commonwealth population.
Gillespie turned his attention to Virginia military and veteran families Monday afternoon. Through his initiative, he proposed to better job opportunities for veterans, elevate military importance in state government, bolster the Virginia National Guard and continue efforts to support military families.
“With nearly 800,000 veterans living in our Commonwealth, nearly one in 10 Virginians is a veteran. Virginia should be the most veteran-friendly state in the country,” Gillespie said in a news release. “This is not just a policy matter to me, but a personal one as well. Both my parents are laid to rest in a veterans’ cemetery. I understand the pride, and the sacrifice, military families endure, and my policies will ensure that our veterans and military community have the support they need and deserve.”
Gillespie said that to ensure jobs are more readily available for veterans, he planned to double the number of Virginia Values Veterans – or V3 – companies. V3 is a program run by the Department of Veterans Services meant to help companies recruit, hire and retain veteran employees.
He also said that he would work to develop “new and improved strategies for ensuring our highly-training veterans are able to fully convert their skills into industry-recognized certification.”
“Virginia should lead the nation in this the conversion of military training to civilian certification,” Gillespie stated in the plan on his campaign website.
Gillespie also said that he would work with the Joint Leadership Council of Veterans Service Organizations four times a year and improve absentee voting for deployed service members.
While Gillespie’s opponent, Democratic candidate Ralph Northam, has not released a formal plan for veterans or military members, he addresses the population on his campaign website. A spokesperson for Northam’s campaign also said that Northam has already been working to better services military members and veterans.
“A veteran and Army doctor himself, no one better understands the needs of veterans and military families than Dr. Ralph Northam,” said Ofirah Yheskel, press secretary for Northam’s campaign. “Throughout the course of his career, he has worked to virtually end veteran homelessness in the commonwealth and to match their invaluable skill sets and leadership to employers through the Virginia Values Veterans and Military Medics and Corpsmen programs. Unfortunately, Ed Gillespie’s plan makes no mention of the 14,500 veterans at risk of losing their healthcare under Trumpcare — that omission speaks for itself.”
Throughout his time as lieutenant governor, Northam writes that “Virginia has doubled the number of veterans placed in jobs through the Virginia Values Veterans program.”
Similarly to Gillespie’s plan proposed Monday, Northam writes that he intends to create a program that would connect military medics to private sector healthcare jobs and ensure that their service experience was recognized outside of the military.
Northam also addresses health care for service members on his site and said he plans to establish two new veterans care service centers, one of which will be in Virginia Beach.
The website also points out that he participated in the Summit on Veteran’s Healthcare “which led to Virginia becoming the first state to develop provider agreements between the VA and community health centers to give veterans greater access to healthcare facilities of their choice, in their communities.”
“Unlike President Trump, Ralph knows we must uphold our commitment to ensuring veterans have timely access to quality healthcare,” the website reads. “…Ralph will use his position as governor to be a leader in pushing Washington to reform the VA so that every veteran receives the medical care they need when they need it.”
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This article was published in partnership with WYDaily’s sister publication, Southside Daily.
