From left to right, Creigh Deeds, Steve Landes and David Toscano speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville.
Area legislators report on the 2016 Session of the Virginia General Assembly. This was a session that included some inter-party cooperation but also the most vetoes in almost 20 years, and a post-session executive order that has spurred calls for a special session and led to a more adversarial relationship between Democratic Governor McAuliffe and the Republican General Assembly majority than perhaps ever before.
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) represents the 25th Senate District which includes the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Covington, and Lexington, and the counties of Albemarle (part), Alleghany, Bath, Highland, Nelson, and Rockbridge.
Delegate Steve Landes (R) represents the 25th House of Delegates District which includes portions of Albemarle, Augusta, and Rockingham Counties.
Delegate David Toscano (D) represents the 57th House of Delegates District which includes Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County.
The three spoke at the Wednesday May 11, 2016 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV board member Terry Cooper.
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) and Delegate David Toscano (D) provided their perspectives on the issues that came before the 2014 Virginia legislature. Senator Bryce Reeves (R) and Delegates Rob Bell (R) and Steve Landes (R) were invited but responded they had scheduling conflicts. Delegate Matt Fariss (R) was also invited but had not responded at press time.
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) (left) and Delegate David Toscano (D) speaking at the Senior Center in Charlottesville Wednesday.
Senator Creigh Deeds
Senator Creigh Deeds (D) represents the 25th Senate District, which includes the counties of Alleghany, Albemarle (part), Bath, Highland, Nelson, and Rockbridge, and the cities of Buena Vista, Charlottesville, Covington, and Lexington. He serves on five Senate standing committees: Transportation (Chair); Finance; General Laws and Technology; Privileges and Elections; and Rules. He was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1991, winning reelection five consecutive times before leaving the House to fill the seat of the late Senator Emily Couric in a special election in 2001. He was the Democratic nominee for state Attorney General in 2005, losing that race by the closest margin in Virginia history and was the Democratic nominee for Governor in 2009.
Delegate David Toscano
Delegate David Toscano (D) represents the 57th District (Charlottesville and part of Albemarle County) in the House of Delegates and, since 2011, has served as House Democratic Leader. He is a member of the Courts of Justice; Transportation; and Rules committees. He is also a member of the Disability Commission and has served on the special Joint Subcommittee to Study Land Use Tools in the Commonwealth and the Joint Committee to study Math, Science, and Engineering. He is a member of the Manufacturing Development Commission, the Virginia Adopts Statewide Steering Committee, the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program Committee, and the Board of Directors of the New College Institute. He is also a member of the United Way Board.
Deeds and Toscano spoke at the Wednesday, May 14, 2014 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Senior Center in Charlottesville. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV President Bob McGrath.
Senators Creigh Deeds and Bryce Reeves provided their perspectives on the 2012 legislative session and other current issues facing Virginians.
Senators Bryce Reeves (left) and Creigh Deeds speaking at the Charlottesville Senior Center Wednesday.
Senators Deeds and Reeves spoke at the Wednesday, May 9, 2012 meeting of the Senior Statesmen of Virginia. The meeting was held at the Charlottesville Senior Center. Following the presentation, questions were taken from the audience. The program was moderated by SSV President Sue Liberman.
Senator Creigh Deeds
Creigh Deeds represents the 25th Senate District, which includes the counties of Albemarle (part), Alleghany, Bath, Highland, Nelson, and Rockbridge, and the cities of Buena Vista, Covington, Charlottesville, and Lexington. He serves on three Senate standing committees: General Laws, Privileges and Elections, and Transportation.
Sen. Deeds’ public service career began in 1987 when he was elected to serve as the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Bath County. In 1991 he ran against an incumbent and won in the 18th District in the House of Delegates. After serving 10 years in the House, Sen. Deeds was elected to the Senate in a special election in 2001. Senator Deeds was the Democratic nominee for Attorney General in 2005 and for Governor in 2009.
Senator Deeds serves on the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation, the Virginia Sesquicentennial for the American Civil War Commission, the Small Business Commission, and the State Water Commission. For his work on behalf of crime victims, he was awarded the Warren Stambaugh Award from Virginians United Against Crime. He also has received the Leadership in Public Policy Award from The Nature Conservancy, the Preservation Alliance of Virginia Delegate of the Year, and the Virginia Association for Parks Legislator of the Year. His legislative work and accomplishments have also been recognized by the Fairfax Coalition of Police, the Virginia Conference of the American Association of University Professors, and BikeWalk Virginia.
Senator Deeds attended Virginia’s public schools and graduated from Bath County High School in 1976. After completing undergraduate work at Concord College, he received his law degree from Wake Forest University in 1984. Senator Deeds lives in Bath County. He is an attorney in private practice and a visiting professor of law at Washington and Lee University. He has four grown children.
Senator Bryce Reeves
Bryce Reeves represents the 17th Virginia Senate District which includes all of Orange County and the City of Fredericksburg, and parts of Albemarle, Culpeper, Louisa and Spotsylvania Counties. He serves on four Senate standing committees: General Laws and Technology, Courts of Justice, Privileges and Elections, and Rehabilitation and Social Services.
Senator Reeves is President of Bryce Reeves Insurance and Financial Services, and President of Reeves Asset Management Group, a commercial real estate development firm with holdings in Stafford County, Virginia.
Senator Reeves joined the United States Army as an enlisted soldier but ultimately earned the rank of Captain and served as a United States Army Ranger, our country’s oldest elite special operations force. He worked for the Prince William County Police Vice/Narcotics Bureau as a front-line detective and served on a joint jurisdiction drug interdiction taskforce of Northern Virginia and Maryland.
Senator Reeves serves his community as a small group Bible study leader and deacon at Spotswood Baptist Church in Fredericksburg and is also an International Mission team leader that helped to spread humanitarian aid and resources to the less fortunate in Romania, the Republic of Moldova, and Jamaica.
He served as the regional chairman for Americans for Prosperity.
Senator Reeves holds a Master of Public Administration in Public Policy from George Mason University and Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M University in Industrial Education, a discipline focused on designing optimal manufacturing workspaces to maximize worker efficiency. He lives in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, with his wife Anne and their two children, Nicole and Jack.
