Mike Casey (Virginia)
Mike Casey was a 2017 independent candidate for District 53 of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Biography
Casey's professional experience includes working as an engineer for CHAP, a nonprofit focused on health services.[1]
Campaign themes
2017
Ballotpedia candidate survey
Casey participated in a survey created by Ballotpedia. The survey was designed to let our readers know more about the candidates and feel confident that they are voting for the best person to represent them. The survey questions appear bolded, and Casey's responses follow below.
| “ | The people of Virginia and in Falls Church and greater Merrifield[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
| “ | In establishing an effective healthcare system, there are a few key objectives to consider. I want to: Ensure that as many people as possible have access to a decent standard of healthcare Avoid spending taxpayer money irresponsibly Prevent patients from getting lost in a labyrinth of bureaucracy and specialists Our current system does a relatively poor job of accomplishing all three objectives. Costs are skyrocketing even as coverage remains moderate, salaries for healthcare professionals are flat or dropping, and emergency rooms in rural areas keep closing. The influence of insurance companies has grown, allowing them to control the cost of healthcare, coverage received by patients, and the compensation of healthcare professionals. Many of these problems are a direct result of government intervention in the healthcare market, but that doesn't mean that the solution is for government to step out. The government of Virginia, representing the will and force of the people, has the opportunity to eliminate the insurance as the entry point to healthcare and better serve our citizens. To that end, I support establishing a publicly run healthcare system to provide basic and preventative services for free. This baseline level of healthcare coverage should treated like other basic government services, like fire & rescue services and police protection. Running the healthcare system ourselves will allow us to ensure that patient care is the top priority, while having more direct control over costs. Once we have achieved a reasonable standard of care through this system, Virginia can roll back several of our restrictive regulations on the industry (such as removing the requirement for a Certificate of Need, and granting APRN's full practice authority) in order to incentivize more people to join the field, resulting in greater coverage, more competitive salaries, and lowered overall costs through competition. Insurance would still have a role in this paradigm, but instead of being the single entry point into the market, it would return to being a helpful financial tool. Instead of the ACA model of mandated insurance coverage and policies to protect patients with pre-existing conditions, we can pass regulation to ensure that health issues acquired while under an insurance plan will be covered for the extent of the health issue, and not merely until the end of the year. That's where I see our healthcare system going in the long run. However, under the current ACA paradigm, Virginia should absolutely expand medicaid in order to expand medical coverage and control emergency room costs.[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
| “ | Virginia has almost no laws currently restricting campaign finance, either on contributions or expenditures. This open policy has led to an arms race of spending, resulting in significant power going to corporations and special interest groups, not to mention extremely wealthy individuals. This is unhealthy for a democracy, and it's unhealthy for America at large - democracy is supposed to be for the people, not for well funded special interest groups I support restricting spending to defensible campaign-related expenditures, and limiting campaign contributions from individuals. This will require politicians to develop a broad base of support, and will give a voice back to those Americans who feel marginalized by the political process.[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
| “ | One of the major points of my campaign is improving our transportation network. I believe that we need to stop investing in solutions that are outdated by the time they are complete. I believe that we need to acknowledge that our population is growing faster than our road infrastructure, and that a different solution is needed. I propose that we change the conversation away from continuously expanding our roads, and focus on how to best expand our public transit system to serve us and our children for generations to come. This will come with expanded bus service, better metro funding, and possibly additional high-speed VRE lines to serve commuters coming from Leesburg and Manassas. Government (in particular the state government) needs to drive these changes. Infrastructure like roads and mass transit are services that drive commerce and support the whole population, and providing that is one of the core functions of a government. Supporting mass transit in favor of roads is more efficient, better for our environment, and helps support citizens who can't afford cars and tolls. I am also vehemently opposed to public private partnerships in transportation, because they're a bad deal for the public. There are many levels on which they hurt us: We pay for (usually) half the project, but companies get to reap the benefits for inordinately long amounts of time The companies get to write off the interest on the loans they take on to do the project. This means that the federal government is subsidizing the private part of the project in a roundabout way, meaning taxpayers end up paying even more. If the company goes out of business or declares bankruptcy, the public is left to deal with the project — regardless of the shape that it's in.[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
| “ | Gerrymandering is one of the most problematic parts of modern democracy. It skews the direction of government away from the will of the people, radicalizes our parties, discourages civic participation in politics, and generally disenfranchises our citizens of the efficacy of their votes. In order to alleviate these issues, I support establishing an nonpartisan redistricting commission, with a balance of both partisans (from both sides) and independents. This commision would be independent of the legislature to avoid conflicts of interest. There are two important process changes that I'd like to see reflected in the redistricting process. First, I'd ensure that the process would be as transparent as possible to maintain accountability and faith in our democratic process. Second, I would put the lines up for a popular vote to ensure that citizens have a way to influence the outcome if they see problems that the commission may have missed.[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
| “ | Virginia's income tax brackets haven't been updated since the 1980s. We need a fairer tax system that reduces the burden on the middle class and small businesses. I support adding tax brackets at 80k and 400k, along with increasing the standard deduction. By doing so, we can modernize our tax brackets and bring them in line with the state of inflation and compensation today, as well as help maintain a balanced budget. I also support providing tax rebates for small businesses to compensate for the regulatory work they do on behalf of the commonwealth. Such regulations that our businesses comply with are important, but they represent a far more significant burden on small businesses than on large companies that have enough administrative employees to absorb it.[2] | ” |
| —Mike S. Casey | ||
Candidate website
Casey’s campaign website highlighted the following issues:[3]
| “ |
Election Reform Our political process favors the will of the parties over the will of the people, it favors the interests of the well-connected over the interests of the majority, and it favors opposition over political cooperation. We know about these problems, and we know how to fix them. What we seem to lack is the political will to change things. A primary driver is partisan redistricting, for which Mike supports an independent redistricting commission. Every 10 years, the United States performs a census, gathering information about how many people live in certain areas. With this updated information, new lines have to be drawn to ensure that our electoral districts have roughly equal representation. Virginia, along with most of the United States, allows our legislature to draw our district lines. That means that our legislators are choosing their own district lines, which is an inherent conflict of interest. It would be nice to give them the benefit of the doubt that they will draw fair, reasonable lines, but history has shown time and again that our elected officials would rather have easier elections, and favor their political party over improving our political process. To solve the problem of gerrymandering, we need an independent redistricting commission. Independent of the legislature, independent of partisan politics, and without conflicts of interest. There’s no way to fully remove politics from any process, but that doesn’t mean we should surrender to politics entirely. Universal Health Care I have a friend that I met back in 2011. Funny, smart, all around decent guy. I knew him for a little over a year before I moved away, and we didn’t really talk for a few years. I wish I had stayed in touch, because when we reconnected in 2015, the story he had to tell was horrifying. See, he had Diabetes. His family couldn’t afford treatment when he was younger, and that seemed ok at the time. He wasn’t showing any symptoms. But later, he started showing symptoms, and he still couldn’t afford more than the most basic symptomatic treatment. He was relatively poor, without insurance, but making just enough money to not have Medicaid coverage. And insulin is expensive. So his Diabetes when mostly untreated, and by 2015, he was legally blind. Now, of course, he is unable to work, and is covered by not only Medicaid, but Disability (SSDI). So, thanks to soaring prices and an ineffective social system for preventative care, a productive and good member of society will forever have a diminished life (although I will say, I still enjoy hanging out with him). The flip-side to the emotional argument here is a cold one of cost. Because we as a society were too cheap to pay for preventative care when it could have mattered, we now bear a significantly increased burden. Not only is his life diminished, but we are all diminished, morally, financially, and in our productive and creative capacity. His is not an isolated story. There are millions of stories like that. I support Universal Health Care, pushing just beyond preventative and maintenance care. I don’t support it because it’s a human right. I don’t support even support it because of my friend. I support it because when more people have access to health care, our society is better. Transportation Here in Northern Virginia, traffic is a constant headache, and for too long, we have responded to clogged roads by building more and bigger roads. I don’t believe our traffic problems are the result of not having enough roads; I believe they’re the result of too many people driving too often compounded by a quickly growing population. Until we fix that fundamental problem, building more roads will only further incentivize driving, resulting in the same traffic 5 years later, at the low, low cost of millions of dollars. Instead, I propose that we support the roads we already have, but invest in greatly expanding our mass transit rather than expanding or adding roads. Not only is it far more efficient for our population, but it’s also more scalable as our population continues its staggering growth – and it’s more cost effective, because it pays itself back more quickly. Additionally, in the case of buses, the up front investment is substantially lower as well. Right now, driving is almost always cheaper, faster, and more reliable than public transit. I propose that we take a hard look at how quickly our population density is growing and start investigating solutions that won’t be outdated and insufficient at conception (like expanding our roads is). Personally, I try to bike, walk, or take public transit everywhere I can, but I get that that’s just not a reasonable option for most people. A couple of months ago, when my car broke down for a few weeks, there were some things I just couldn’t do. So, with how Northern Virginia is currently set up, people need cars. And when people need cars, they use them. Because even if there is a public transit option, driving is almost always cheaper, faster, and more reliable. So, what I propose is simple on it’s face. Instead of investing in more road infrastructure, we invest in making our mass transit options cheaper, faster, and more reliable. When combined with sensible community development that doesn’t put people miles from where they need to be, everybody’s lives will be improved, *including* people who decide to keep driving (as there will be less people on the road). Specifically, I support increasing the amount of Virginia money going to WMATA, preferably through a dedicated levy, along with adding several more bus routes and more buses. Metro can’t keep increasing fares and decreasing services. I support spending some more money to expand Metro in such a way that people will use it for more than commuting. It may have been cheaper to just use the existing right-of-way for the Reston Town Center stop on the Silver line, but it’s a 15 minute walk to where people might actually want to go. I support building a VRE line to connect the western suburbs to the orange/silver lines directly, using the I-66 right-of-way. I support creating a regulatory framework to support intra-city and intra-regional private mass transit options. Climate Change I believe that climate change is one of the most important issues of our time – if left unchecked, our future on this planet could become uncertain. As recognized by climate change scientists and even the US Military, we are faced with a clear and present danger in climate change. This is directly applicable here in Virginia – being a coastal state, we’re susceptible to nearly $92 billion worth of residential property damage due to climate related weather shifts. On top of that, nearly half of our counties, including Falls Church, are at risk of water shortages by 2050. I propose that we accelerate the shift towards renewable energy that we began in 2008, when we reduced our state energy dependence on coal from 44% to 20% over four years. However, instead of migrating to natural gas (all but 2% of that shift went to natural gas), I propose that we move to 100% renewable or nuclear energy by 2030 – in so doing, we will both create new jobs and become the example for other states to follow when it comes to energy policy. [2] |
” |
Elections
2017
General election
Elections for the Virginia House of Delegates took place in 2017. All 100 house seats were up for election. The general election took place on November 7, 2017. A primary election took place on June 13, 2017. The filing deadline for primary election candidates was March 30, 2017. The filing deadline for non-party candidates and candidates nominated by methods other than a primary was June 13, 2017.[4] Incumbent Marcus Simon (D) defeated Mike Casey (Independent) in the Virginia House of Delegates District 53 general election.[5]
| Virginia House of Delegates, District 53 General Election, 2017 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Marcus Simon Incumbent |
75.15% | 19,235 | |
| Independent | Mike Casey | 24.85% | 6,362 | |
| Total Votes | 25,597 | |||
| Source: Virginia Department of Elections | ||||
Democratic primary election
Incumbent Marcus Simon ran unopposed in the Virginia House of Delegates District 53 Democratic primary.[6]
| Virginia House of Delegates, District 53 Democratic Primary, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | ||
| Marcus Simon Incumbent | ||
Republican primary election
No Republican candidate filed to run for this seat. [7]
| Virginia House of Delegates, District 53 Republican Primary, 2017 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | ||
See also
- State legislative elections, 2017
- Virginia House of Delegates elections, 2017
- State legislative special elections, 2017
- Virginia House of Delegates
- Virginia State Legislature
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ casey53.org, "Why I'm here," accessed August 21, 2017
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ casey53.org, "Issues," accessed August 21, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "Candidacy Requirements for the November 7, 2017 General Election," accessed March 21, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 November General Unofficial Results," accessed November 7, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 June Democratic Primary," accessed July 6, 2017
- ↑ Virginia Department of Elections, "2017 June Republican Primary," accessed July 6, 2017
