Brandywine Hundred’s Robert Valihura is running for a sixth term in the General Assembly.
Valihura, who was first elected to represent the 10th District in 1998, said he believed there was more work to be done in Dover. He said that with each term, he gains more and more seniority, giving him a greater role in shaping policy and legislation.
He said he was proud of his record, and pointed to successes with manufactured housing legislation and with helping bring Bluewater Wind to Delaware in the last session.
“I’ve enjoyed the job tremendously and believe I’ve served to the best of my abilities,” he said. “And I believe I have some service left. I think there’s more to accomplish.”
Valihura will face Democrat Dennis Williams in November.
Valihura said his priorities over the next two years include working to balance the state’s budget, continuing to push for open government legislation and ramping up the state’s open space preservation programs.
He said he believed the state still needs to tighten its belt and reign in spending in order to balance the budget going forward and said he has ideas about where those kinds of cuts could take place.
Valihura said he would again sponsor legislation that opened up the General Assembly’s bond bill and budget process – a bill that passed unanimously in the House of Representatives before dying in the Senate last session.
“I will continue to try to lead reform efforts to insist we change the way we do business down in Dover,” he said. “I think people want their legislators to realize that the government belongs to them and not to us, the caretakers.”
He said he also wants to end the days of the General Assembly voting on important legislation in the wee hours of the morning on the final day of the session and said he will again put forward legislation creating a referendum process for voters to enact laws – a bill he said has gotten little support from his colleagues in the past.
Concerned with what he called overdevelopment, Valihura said the time was right for the state to look at purchasing open space for preservation.
He said with the economy slumping, the state could get good deals on properties that developers might otherwise be paying top dollar for.
“This is a good opportunity for us to address some of this loss of pristine open space we’ve been seeing,” he said.
Valihura said he’d like to see the state take a more active role in shaping development policy here, and said he’d like to see the next governor take the lead on working with each county on a unified land use plan that ensures adequate infrastructure.
Valihura, 48, lives in Beau Tree. He is divorced.
