Woodbridge, Va. –– While Esteban Garces knows the perils of the underprivileged in Alexandria, he says he’s listening to voters in his district to find out what the issues are in the Potomac Communities.
The Democrat vying for a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates for the newly shifted 2nd District says transportation and home foreclosures top the list of concerns of residents in the district, which include portions of North Stafford and Woodbridge.
“We’re looking at all solutions right now [to the problems], we’re exploring all solutions, we haven’t narrowed it down to one thing just yet, but it could be [Metro’s] Blue line from Springfield to Potomac Mills, special programs for housing like the ones that were just set up and adopted in Maryland and the District of Columbia where the borrower asks for mediation with the lender through the state. It’s forced mediation, they have to meet, and 21 percent of the time borrower is satisfied with the mediation even if they are going to lose their home,” said Garces.
In some cases, many families struggling to pay mortgages would like to at least stay in their homes until their children finish school, he added.
Garces, 30, admits his race against Republican veteran Mark Dudenhefer, Chairman of the Stafford County Board of Supervisors, will be a tight one. He urged the 20 people who came to his campaign kickoff at the La Luna Restaurant and dance hall Monday to donate, sign up to man the phone banks, and to help him canvass neighborhoods to get the pulse of the voters.
Garces expects to do well in the Prince William County portion of the district, where the majority of the democratic precincts are. His team is looking at population density maps to determine which neighborhoods they will canvass, he added.
Garces is employed by an Alexandria non-profit, Virginia New Majority, where he works as a community organizer. He graduated from the University of Mary Washington where he studied network security.
He is married and lives in the River Oaks section of Woodbridge.
