Thank you, Dr, Hairston, for that introduction and for allowing us to use this facility for this event.

Jackson P. Burley Middle School was floundering when Dr. Hairston arrived. With his hard work, it is now a well performing school. SOL scores have dramatically increased. The achievement gap between the white children and the minority children has diminished. Since his arrival, he has done many things. Two in particular that bear mention are the mentoring program and the Young Women's Leadership program in association with the Women's Center at UVA.

Thank you again, Dr. Hairston, for your leadership, vision, and hard work with our children.

Thank all of you for coming here today. My name is Kim Tingley. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce my family, my dear wife Deborah Lawrence and Penelope, also known as "Nel".

I am here today to humbly offer to this community my services as their delegate in the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

By way of introducing myself to you, I'd like to tell you a little about my work for the past twenty years. I build communities of affordable homes. My business has never sold a home for more than $175,000, although it will in the near future. Most of my customers have been African Americans. A lot of my customers are single parents. There has been a lot of rhetoric in Charlottesville about affordable housing. I have delivered affordable housing.

As it became harder and harder to deliver affordable homes, I became involved in my trade association. I rose to become president of the Homebuilders Association of Virginia. I realized that in many parts of the state, we desperately to improve the way we choose to provide shelter to our population. At my behest, the organization reached out to the environmental community to see if we could work together on issues of interest to both of us.

As a result of this association, the Home Builders of Virginia appointed me to the Board of Virginia Forever, an organization devoted to increasing funding for the environment. We were the only business trade association to be represented on the board of Virginia Forever. We were the only trade association to testify in favor of this funding before the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. I am pleased to report that Virginia Forever was successful in obtaining $60,000,000 in increased funding for the environment.

Like so many of you, I am distressed at the direction of politics in the country and in Virginia. I grew up in Virginia and have lived in Virginia most of my life. I remember playing on the Lawn while my mother attended classes at UVA. If I did not get into trouble, I would get an ice cream cone at the Monticello dairy.

Virginia is a beautiful state, it has everything, beaches, mountains, fishing, hunting, historic sites, just about anything that you would like to do out of doors. I am proud of the scenic natural beauty in the state.

However, there are things about Virginia that make me concerned.

I am concerned that a relatively conservative United States Supreme Court had to tell our state that it is wrong to execute children and mentally disabled people.

I am concerned that we are 49th out of 50 states in its investments to protect its environment to maintain its magnificent scenic beauty.

I am concerned that we may be rolling the clock back to the fifties by depriving some of our citizens of their civil rights through a constitutional amendment. An amendment that passed for the first time in the last session of the General Assembly.

Like you, I believe in progressive values such as:

• Fully funding the states education obligation to local government,
• Defeating the referendum effort to deny civil rights to the gay and lesbian community, and
• Finding ways to deliver the shelter that will be needed in an affordable and environmentally friendly way.

The 57th District is a special House seat. It is special because of you, the voters. You believe in progressive values. This liberates whoever holds this seat to make the halls of the state capitol ring with truth. This liberates whoever holds this seat to take back the moral high ground with real issues that affect all Virginians.

As your Delegate, I will aggressively articulate progressive values in the General Assembly. I will bring the common sense of a small businessman to the House. I ask you to support me in the Democratic primary on June 14th.

Thank you. (Clement "Kim" Tingley, April 6, 2005)