On The Right

This will be my first interview with the Republican and independent  challenger’s to Tom Perriello in the 5th District. I would like to thank Mr. McPadden for his extremely quick responses to my questions and his well thought out answers. You may visit Mr. McPadden’s website here.

1. Give me a bio, and tell me what made you decide to run against Tom Perriello.

MM: This is the bio from my website.

Mike’s family has been in Virginia for well over 200 years. He was born in California while his father was serving in the United States Navy. His father, a career naval officer, settled the family down in Annandale, Virginia when Mike was in grade school. He graduated from Annandale High School and joined the labor force as a carpenter’s apprentice working his way up to lead carpenter. After working several years in the construction field and saving enough money for tuition, Mike was accepted into the Electrical Engineering program at Virginia Tech. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. Mike joined the United States Navy, completed Aviation Officer Candidate School and was commissioned as an ensign in August of 1980. In June of 1981 Mike earned his wings as a United States Naval Aviator.

Mike flew for 6 years on active duty. In addition to flying as a plane commander on the P-3 Orion, he also served as an instructor pilot. Mike separated from active duty and joined Northwest Airlines in 1986. While flying for Northwest Airlines, Mike continued to fly as a reserve officer with the United States Naval Reserve. He retired from the Navy in 2002 with a combined 22 years of service. Mike is currently a Captain on the Airbus 320. While at Northwest, Mike has worked as an instructor pilot as well as a check airman in the training division. He also volunteered to be the contract administrative point man for the union. Between his military service and the airlines, Mike traveled the world. He has had the opportunity to meet and work with people throughout Europe, Asia, North and Central America. He is also president and CEO of Liberty Trading Partners Incorporated a financial services corporation.

In March of 2010 Mike and his wife Meggan will celebrate 30 years of marriage. They settled in North Garden, Virginia in 1993, where they raised their family. Mike and Meggan have two daughters, two sons and one son-in-law. Katie and her husband, Matt, are both graduates of The College of William and Mary and Eastern Virginia Medical School. They are currently doing their residencies in Norfolk, Virginia. Jacob, a graduate of UVA, is a second year medical student at Eastern Virginia Medical School. Hunter is a recent graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in civil engineering. Sami is currently a senior at James Madison University. She will graduate in the spring with a degree in Theatre.

When you meet Mike, the first thing that you will notice is that Mike is not a politician. He is a working man and has been his whole life. If you ask him a question, he will give you a straight answer. You may not always agree with him, but you will never be in doubt about where he stands on any issue.

As for what made me decide to run, this summer I watched on TV as young people in a foreign city and a foreign country rose up and demanded their liberty, their God given rights. To me what I saw was Americans in those streets. I could almost hear them saying, “We hold these truths…”

Those young people knew that the tyrannical government, that had stolen their rights to begin with, was not going to give these rights back easily. All they needed was to have someone come up alongside them and say, “We validate you. We support you. Brothers and sisters in the struggle for liberty, we have your back.” That never happened, because the only actor on the world stage that has the authority to do that, was missing in action.

For the first time in over 200 years my country failed in one of its most sacred obligations, which is to help shine the lamp of liberty in to the darkest corners of the world. And the world watched as our brothers and sisters in liberty were cut down in the streets for acting like Americans. It was this seminal moment that I said to myself, “I will never stand by and allow this to happen again. Never.”

In 1776 Virginia sparked the first brush fire of liberty, and I believe now in 2009 it is time for Virginia to spark the second brush fire of liberty in our land. The fifth Congressional District, where I am running, is the heart and soul of Virginia and it is right here in the Fifth District that this new spark of liberty should be started. We plan to lead Virginia in liberty, and Virginia will lead this nation out of the wilderness of oppression and back to the safe harbor of liberty.

The next time some young people in a foreign land stand up to demand their God given rights, they will not be alone. My country, the same country that was formed in the crucible of liberty, and birthed in the violence of war, will stand up with our brothers and sisters in liberty and say, “We have your back.”

2. What attributes, work experience, and life experience do you have, that you feel would make you a better representative than Tom Perriello?

MM: I spent 10 years as an officer in the United States Navy, that experience alone puts me head and shoulders above Tom Perriello. As a Plane Commander in the Navy and a Captain at Northwest Airlines, I have spent almost 30 years making good decisions. Tom Perriello has made very few good decisions on behalf of the people of Virginia’s fifth Congressional District since he has been in Congress. As a Husband and a father of four I know what it means to make sacrifices on behalf of others, and I understand what it is like to live under the onerous tax burden placed on the average citizen by otherwise out of touch representatives.

3. What 3 issues are the most important, why, and how would you go about fixing them?

MM: Individual Liberty—it was individual liberty that gave us the prosperity of the 19th and early 20th century and without it there can be no prosperity. Any law that proposes to take away more of our liberty is dead in the water to me. I will work tirelessly to reduce the size and power of the Federal Government; this is how we regain our liberty.

Pass into law the Fair Tax—this will create an economic boom that will stun the world.

Term Limits—This is the only way to return citizen legislators back to the Congress.

4. How would you describe your political ideology? Conservative, libertarian, moderate, liberal, Regan conservative or other?

MM: I am a Paleo-Conservative. My conservative roots go directly back to the Declaration of Independence and to the Constitution. This is the bedrock of our American philosophy.

5. Who is your favorite Virginia politician and why?

MM: Patrick Henry, of course. You need to ask why??

6. Who is your favorite president and why?

MM: While I love Ronald Reagan it was George Washington who had the greatest effect on the office and the nation. He was our greatest president. It was George Washington that refused to be a King, and when asked what he should be called he replied, Mr. President. It was George Washington who said, “Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. He understood on a deeper level what most politicians today cannot possibly begin to grasp about the danger of overreaching government, and the infringement of our individual liberties.

7. Do you think Tom Perriello is out of touch with the voters of the 5th District and if so, why?

MM: We here in the 5th district are heartland people. We love our country, and we love the principles of liberty and rugged individualism that it was founded on. If Tom Perriello truly understood us, he would not be working so hard to move America in the opposite direction of our founder’s vision.

8. What are the biggest issues facing Virginia’s 5th District and how could they be remedied?

MM: The biggest issue facing the 5th district is clearly JOBS. We here in the 5th district are quite literally taxed to death. The more money that leaves our community the more jobs leave our community. It is really no more complicated than that. The largest destroyer of wealth and jobs in the 5th district is the Federal Government and its extreme taxation policies. If you can remove this, or at least reduce it, you will see jobs return en mass to our communities.

9. How do you feel the United States health care should be reformed? Do you agree with the Democrats’ big government takeover, if not why?

MM: Show me one program that the federal Government has handled well. You can’t. Medicare; Bankrupt, Post Office; Bankrupt, Medicaid; Bankrupt, Fannie Mae; Bankrupt, Amtrak; Bankrupt, etcetera, etcetera. Only a fool could believe that the government could run health care. Only the free market has the ability to give us quality health care at the lowest possible cost. Free market reforms are what we need to fix health care.

10. Tell the 5th District why you would be a better representative than Tom Perriello and why the residents of the 5th District should vote for you?

MM: I would never vote for a cap and trade bill that promises to send 5000 5th district jobs to China and India. Haven’t we lost enough jobs already? I would never vote for a so called heath care bill that promises to send upward of 1500 more jobs overseas. Haven’t we lost enough jobs? The citizens of the 5th district don’t want Tom Perriello and his nanny state government handouts. What we want is for the Federal Government to get off our backs, and let us get back to work so that we can take care of our families and rebuild our communities. Tom Perriello does not get this, and he never will.

11. Tell the 5th District why you would be the best Republican candidate to take on Tom Perriello on in a general election and why?

MM: Next November if I am the nominee the voters will have a clear choice. It will be night and day with no gray area. In one camp you have an extremely left wing statist who votes with Nancy Pelosi 90% of the time, which would be Tom Perriello. In the other camp you have a Jeffersonian Constitutionalist who believes in liberty and in the individual; that would be me. One loves the State and the other loves his fellow man.

Most people running for office today just want to address the issues. But these are just the symptoms of the disease that infects the body republic. I want to address the disease that is causing the symptoms. We are losing our liberties at a breath taking rate and this is the disease that is causing the symptoms that the others see, and want to fix, but this is not how we will cure this disease, we must attack the root causes. We must strive to restore our lost liberties, and the symptoms will correct themselves.

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