A little over a year ago, I participated in a forum on race and politics, hosted by the 200+ Men. One of the members of the panel was Tom Shields, director of the Center for Leadership in Education at the University of Richmond, seen here on the far left of the photo. What I didn’t put together until last week is that this is the same Tom Shields who is running for the House of Delegates in the 73rd district, even though his is one of the out-of-district races I’ve been following. Truly, it’s a small world.
Shields is challenging John O’Bannon, who now holds the seat formerly occupied by Eric Cantor. As mentioned in the “State of the Races” video I posted Monday, one of the big issues in this campaign has been the loss of some 2,700 jobs as the result of the closing of a local branch of computer chip manufacturer, Qimonda. O’Bannon voted against accelerating grant payments to the company that would have allowed the company to remain open, saying his vote “was in 2008 before the plight of Qimonda was known.“One small problem: fellow Delegate Joe Morrissey pointed out the problem in the floor debate in February 2008.
“The fear is that this 200 mm portion of the plant may close. If it happens, over 1,000 jobs may go with it. ” Not sure you can make it any clearer than that. In October, the company announced the first round of job cuts, with 1,200 employees laid off that manufactured that chip. This past February, the company announced the closing of the plant, taking with it the remaining 1,500 jobs.
On Wednesday, August 12, Shields will be holding a town hall meeting to discuss this and other issues of the economy. He believes there is a need “to build a new generation of independent leadership that puts families and small businesses above partisanship and special interest, fights to create and retain good paying jobs, and helps community colleges retrain workers.” The townhall will be held at 1pm at J Sargeant Reynolds Community College, 1651 E. Parham Rd., Georgiadis Hall, The Gallery in Henrico.
If you go, tell Tom I said hello 😉
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Some of my green Richmond-area friends are very excited about Tom Shields too!
I’m Confused. How did a vote not to accelerate payments on the balance of $17 million bring about the closing of Qimonda. The acceleration would not have covered a single payroll cycle. And the company was loosing more than a $100 million each quarter. Why rush to give away taxpayer dollars to a failing foreign company? A payment of roughly $11 million was so small, it would not have changed the timeline.