I look forward to the opportunity to represent your interests in Washington. In exchange for your support and your vote, here are my commitments to my constituents in VA-10 and to all Americans once in Congress. These commitments are practical expressions of my three campaign tenets: Fiscal Responsibility, Proactive Leadership, and Responsive Representation.

Spend one day each week in my own District.

This campaign and the broader grassroots movement it represents is a return to citizen-driven government. Those who control Washington are certain political, academic, and media elites who have shown themselves to be out of step with our interests as the American people. While many of their ideas and policies are worth careful consideration, the balance of power is wrong. These elites are more aligned with those with privileged access--lobbyists, campaign donors, political party leaders, and various special interest groups. I believe that candidates who do not commit to regular engagement and accountability with one's constituents will inevitably drift into compromise and stop representing the interests of the local electorate. To reverse this, I commit to spending one day per week meeting with my constituents to share my experiences with you, listen to their concerns, and develop solutions together. If I am unable to meet on a given week, I will spend two days the next week. Bottom line: I will spend 52 days per year in my District to discuss the progress of these legislative priorities with my constituents.

Champion The Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 1359).

The Heritage foundation describes H.R. 1359 well: The Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 1359) would require all legislation introduced in Congress to 'contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority' empowering Congress to enact it. Bills lacking such a statement or containing one of questionable merit would be subject to challenge by point of order, a procedural device to delay consideration until the problem is corrected or the objection overruled. Working with my constituents and proven thought leaders on Constitutional law, I will take up the mantle of this legislation and its intent--to filter every decision made in Washington through the legislative framework given to us in the Constitution. The further we get from our Constitution and its stated mechanisms for changing our laws, the more spending and government overreach grow. It is very simple. This is a check against the overgrown State, and it is also a return to broad civic dialog about the issues of our day. Citizen-driven government requires champions in Congress with the right tools to push back on the culture of compromise in Washington. H.R. 1359 is that tool.

Vote by my conscience and the Constitution.

Simple. I will do what I ask my peers in Congress to do in each vote, on every piece of legislation that comes through the house. Compromising one's conscience and selling one's vote to the highest bidder must end. I believe many of our elected officials want to change back to citizen-driven government. They need a new leader naive enough to think we can actually change Washington, and willing to take the lead.

Use Web 2.0 technology to actively involve the American people and uphold our Constitution.

Ok, I am not that naive. One Congressman championing one piece of legislation cannot change the culture of Washington. But, we the people can do this together through the tools of online and offline communication now at our disposal. This will begin with the Internet and the creation of an Enumerated Powers website.

I will hold quarterly townhall meetings in Washington. I will have some input on the agenda, but it will be created by and for the constituents. We will use our website to openly analyze legislation against these principles and provisions, as H.R. 1359 intends. We will also engage other sites doing the same to broaden the conversation to evaluate how existing, proposed, or potential legislation falls in step or out of step with our Constitution. In addition, my staff and I will use social networking tools to keep the Constitution and its implications in the front of your minds. We will fan out across the web to both listen and drive the discussion.

There are enduring core principles in the Constitution, but the devil is in the details. How do we uphold our Founders' intentions for the finer points of our government's daily operations? We don't presume to have all the answers to that question. Indeed, that is a discussion we must have together, if we are to fulfill the promise of government of the people, by the people, for the people. We look forward to doing this with you!

Being in Washington means we will have the benefit of some of the greatest political minds in the world from across the ideological spectrum right in our backyard. By engaging a plurality of subject matter experts in our dialog, we hope to create a new common ground for political discourse. By engaging multiple generations through technology, we hope to bridge the gap between people like me who grew up in a pre-Internet world and those future generations who will lead America forward into our globally internetworked future.

We also have an agenda ourselves, which we admit openly. We want to take advantage of the best ideas available on policy matters, but we want a government that is citizen driven and Constitutionally constrained. We want to make this effort the tip of the spear to elevate your voice. Thus, we will work hard to help every American to develop a strong Constitutional filter in their minds, so that our elected leaders truly advance the freedom our Constitution was created to preserve, protect, and promote. I am convinced this effort will take hard work, bipartisan coordination, and self-restraint. But isn't that the change we really want and need?

Drive local job growth initiatives.

I know people need jobs right now. We need to change the culture in Washington over time, but we also need to get Americans working. Bailouts will not do this. We need hard work at the local level, fiscal restraint in Washington, and national patience to let the free markets do what only they can do to stimulate economic growth.

The numbers don't lie. Lasting job growth cannot occur through stimulus spending. A centrally planned economy sounds good in theory and it makes big friends politically, but in reality this approach falls short. No individual or bureaucracy knows enough about economics to control the free markets and keep everyone employed all the time. Our present attempts to do so only take us down what Friedrich Hayek called "the road to serfdom."

Life is a gift, and our inherent talents are also a gift from our Creator. There are no gifts that government can give us which will produce sustainable job growth. We already have those gifts within us. So how do we get those gifts to work in a growing economy? The answer is not in government intervention. Remember, the government and those who run it depend upon taxation, borrowing, and the printing of money. All of these measures take us down the road to serfdom, where fewer and fewer Americans are experiencing the benefits of economic growth. Therefore, I will work hard with my colleagues in Congress to drastically reduce taxes and spending while aggressively empowering local entrepreneurship programs at every turn. This is another reason why our elected officials must regular spend time at home!

There are some ways that government spending has been proven to help job growth--by transferring innovations developed for defense and getting them into the hands of entrepreneurs, technologists, and investors. At this moment, there are countless technologies developed for the defense community that can be pushed down the road to economic growth through commercialization. Here is the dialog we need to have: How can Congress create rich incentives to help get these innovative technologies into the hands of those who can turn them into companies that create jobs? In addition to driving this conversation in Washington, I will roll up my sleeves and work with local business leaders to identify opportunities for local entrepreneurs and venture capital investors to turn the technologies on the shelf of the Defense Department today into winning products and services. I will also work closely with the local system integrator and service provider community and with and government customers to richly incentivize them to turn such technologies into things the government can buy to reduce its costs and bring focus and accountability to its operations. This will take hard work and extreme focus--but how else can we expect to bring real, sustainable job growth into VA-10 and the surrounding local marketplace?

Working Together

As we I act on these legislative priorities on your behalf, I will need your support every step of the way. But with that support, I am confident we can begin to change the culture in Washington from the ground up. Resolve is required. There is top-down resistance to these priorities. Many of our highest officials are working hard to change the culture in Washington, too, but I don't think it is in step with the will of the American people or the parameters of our Constitution. It is on us to advance these priorities. Let's roll!