Come Meet Ellen M. Arthur, Candidate for State Delegate in the 24th District.
ELLEN M. ARTHUR, Our Democratic Candidate for STATE DELEGATE from the 24th District will Meet and Greet voters and citizens.
Come and hear what she can do to help Amherst County.
Ellen practices law in Lexington VA. and has worked with the Legal Aid Society helping protect peoples rights and also with the SPCA in Rockbridge County.
Ellen Arthur, a recently retired attorney in Lexington, is planning to run for the region’s seat in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Arthur said Wednesday that she will seek the Democratic nomination in the 24th District, which includes the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista, Bath and Rockbridge counties, and parts of Amherst and Augusta counties.
Arthur said she had been approached by Democratic Party officials in the past about running for the seat, but had been too busy with her solo law practice.
Now that she’s retired, Arthur said, “It’s time for me to give back a little.”
Arthur is the only declared candidate for the Democratic nomination, which will be decided at a May 23 caucus. It will be her first bid for elected office.
“I’m the non-politician running against a career politician,” she said. “I’m coming in to this very fresh and hoping to make connections with everyday people.”
A 1979 graduate of the law school at Washington and Lee University, Arthur began her law practice in Staunton. In 1981, she returned to Lexington, where she worked for and later managed the area’s legal aid office. She started her private practice in 1988, concentrating on family law.
The public is invited to the kickoff.
Here are some thoughts from Ellen M Arthur.
“Although I’ve never run for political office before, I am very concerned about the direction that politics have taken in Virginia, especially in the General Assembly,” Ms. Arthur said. “Too many legislators are more concerned about pleasing well-funded interests and getting reelected than they are in serving the needs of their constituents.
“I am concerned about the future of Virginia and am running for office to do my part to build a better Virginia for our children and grandchildren.
“I’m especially troubled by Delegate Cline’s strenuous opposition to the expansion of Medicaid in Virginia under the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid expansion, which is being implemented even by Republican-controlled legislatures in other states, would allow up to 400,000 working Virginians, including thousands of hard-working people in the 24th District, to obtain health insurance. Virginians currently are paying federal taxes to fund Medicaid expansion and getting nothing in return. Medicaid expansion would pay for itself. Virginians currently pays for services to people who lack health insurance from the state general fund, as do all of us in higher health care expenses. Expanding Medicaid would allow Virginia to use the federal dollars and reduce the state’s costs.
“I’m also concerned about the cozy relationship between too many of our state’s legislators and Dominion Virginia Power. Landowners in southern Augusta County face having their land taken for the construction of a natural gas pipeline by Dominion. Gas pipelines are inherently dangerous to both landowners and the environment. Building pipelines to transport fossil fuels is an investment in obsolete and dwindling energy sources. We should be using that money to create well-paying jobs harnessing other energy sources such as solar and wind power.”
Ms. Arthur is committed to equal pay for women, raising the minimum wage to allow working families to support themselves without public assistance, and the expansion of high-speed internet to rural areas to encourage the growth of clean high-tech industries which rely on modern communications.
Ms. Arthur has worked as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society of the Roanoke Valley and has conducted a practicum course for the Washington and Lee Law School. She has, for most of her career, had a solo practice focused on family law and is legal counsel for the Rockbridge County SPCA, also serving on the organization’s board. She lives on a 13-acre farm in Rockbridge County which she maintains herself, and keeps two horses, three dogs and two cats. She has been a resident of the 24th District for 39 years.
Ms. Arthur, 68, the daughter of a factory worker, has two sons and five grandchildren. Ellen is just the change the 24th District needs, a honest and hard working person to represent us in Richmond.
Please join her as she announces her candidancy. She welcomes the opportunity to meet you and answer any questions you may have.
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