Congressional candidate Tom Garrett is back in Charlottesville today a week after he debated Dem Jane Dittmar at the Senior Center. The two are vying for the 5th District seat currently held by Robert Hurt, who decided not seek a third term.
C-VILLE caught up with Garrett, a state senator, at ACAC, where owner Phil Wendel, a reliable political contributor who usually leans Republican, showed him around the facility.
“We’re meeting job creators,” says Garrett, who notes that Wendel employs between 700 and 800 people in the Charlottesville area.
“What we’re constantly hearing is that the regulatory climate keeps businesses from doing things that create jobs,” says Garrett. Earlier at Gaston & Wyatt, he says he was told its owner spent between six and seven hours a week complying with OHSA.
He points to Lane Furniture in Altavista, which closed its doors because of the burden of meeting OHSA and EPA regulations for safety and health, according to Garrett. Lane had been in business for nearly 100 years, he says, “with no history of Lane employees getting hurt.”
Garrett’s wife, Flanna, is campaigning with him, and said she could beat her husband in tennis, an assessment with which he disagreed. The couple resides in Buckingham.
Next on the job creators tour: gun store Woodbrook Sports and Floors R Us.