Gill, Nichols Face Off Over Transportation, Immigration

Candidates' Backgrounds Have Been Fodder During Contest

The race for state delegate in District 51 has attracted a great deal of attention this year, much of it directed at candidates' personal backgrounds rather than their proposals.

Republican nominee Faisal M. Gill, a Pakistan-born lawyer, former Department of Homeland Security official and lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy Reserve, is the second Muslim American to run for state office in Virginia. His opponent, Lake Ridge lawyer Paul F. Nichols, won the Democratic nomination after another Democrat, Jeff Dion, came under attack for his "gay lifestyle" and withdrew from the race.

Gill and Nichols are vying to replace five-term Republican Mich¿le B. McQuigg, who is stepping down to run for clerk of court.

Nichols, 55, is a longtime Prince William County resident who runs a 40-employee law practice and once owned several gas stations, including Lake Ridge Texaco. He has never held public office. Although some have sought to make an issue of Gill's background, Nichols has mostly assailed his opponent's political views, which he calls "ultraconservative."

"I'm the moderate," Nichols said. "That's the difference between the two of us."

Like most Northern Virginia candidates, Nichols pledges to prioritize transportation issues if elected. But he's not only talking about roads. Nichols said he wants to bring Metro to Woodbridge and the Interstate 95 corridor, a long-term goal that he said he would put "on the drawing board."

Gill, 35, said that his opponent doesn't understand the workings of state government and that he'll fight to restructure the way transportation projects are funded.

"I want to let transportation compete with everything else for state income tax dollars," said Gill, who is also a Lake Ridge resident.

Like Nichols, Gill said illegal immigration is paramount to voters in District 51, which includes the Occoquan, Coles and Woodbridge areas of Prince William. He proposes to penalize employers who hire illegal immigrants by making the crime a felony.

"The punishment should not be a fine," he said. "What they care about is going to jail. Most employers, if they have that threat," won't hire illegal workers, he said.

On that point, Nichols has criticized Gill's background, noting that Gill's law firm practices immigration law and offers to defend clients facing deportation.

But the most vicious attacks have come from conservative bloggers in Gill's party and from Web sites such as GoodbyeFaisal.com, which tries to link Gill to Islamic terrorism. In 2004, he attracted national attention when questions were raised about his past consulting work for the American Muslim Council, whose former leader is in prison for conspiring with the Libyan government.

Gill was exonerated by federal investigators and continued to work for the Bush administration as a lawyer and policy adviser at Homeland Security. But the allegations have haunted him.

"There wasn't a hint of impropriety on my part," he said.

With his conservative beliefs and military service, Gill said he is confident that most Republicans will support him over Nichols.

As for his detractors, "either they have a problem with my religion or my ethnicity," he said. "And there's nothing I can do to help that."