Just Elected, Wittman Must Defend His Seat

Even though the 1st District is one of Virginia's most conservative, Day said he hopes the momentum from the races at the top of the ticket -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and U.S. Senate candidate Mark R. Warner -- will help his chances.

Day, 56, did not get into the race until this summer, after Democrat Keith Hummel of Montross withdrew from the campaign amid questions about his personal finances.

"The infrastructure was in place from the coordinated Obama-Warner campaigns," Day said. "They had 12 offices [in the district] when I stepped in. What they didn't have was a congressional candidate. With that kind of field program, I didn't lose a bit of time."

Day, who has a master's in business administration from Harvard, was a home builder in the 1970s and then a mental health counselor for 10 years and owns two office buildings in Prince William. He lives in Fauquier, just outside Warrenton.

One of his top priorities would be to reduce the federal budget deficit, starting with repealing tax breaks to people with incomes of more than $250,000 annually. That group includes him.

Day, who also has oil and gas holdings in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, said "giveaways" to oil and gas companies should be eliminated.

"We don't need tax breaks to give people the incentive to explore for oil and gas," he said. Instead, he would use some of the money to create incentives for alternative energy research.

Day ran unsuccessfully last year for the 31st District House of Delegates seat against Republican incumbent L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William). Day got 44 percent of the vote in that race.

Larson, 28, a self-employed certified public accountant, lives in Catlett.

He got his name on the ballot through a petition drive. Not working at the time, he stood in strip mall parking lots 10 hours a day for five weeks to collect enough valid signatures of registered voters.

"You pretty much lose all fear of rejection when you do that kind of thing," Larson said.

He's running, he said, because the "major parties don't have new ideas to turn the economy around" and because he thinks the private sector can provide better services than government.

"We should trust the capitalist system," he said, citing the potential to privatize highways and implement congestion pricing. He also said he wants to hire private police companies, defense agencies and dispute resolution organizations to do government's traditional job of protecting the public.

Larson did not support the government bailout. "If we bail these companies out once, we are setting them up to think we will bail them out again," he said. "We should allow the market to correct itself without interference. A capitalist system only works if businesses are allowed to fail. If we prop up the businesses that are supposed to fail, it sets the stage for another crisis."