Democratic Party of Virginia:
           The followings are platforms of Democratic Party of Virginia, which announced priority issues for the 1999 campaign and 2000 legislative session. The issues are Education, school safety (Gun Control), transportation, targeted tax relief, and Health Care to most likely to represent the interests of middle-class families. They also implemented an Affirmative Action Plan for 2000.

1) Education 
On July 1999, Democratic Party of Virginia 1999 Campaign Headquarters announced the following public education platform as their 1999 agenda; 
a) Hiring 2,000 new teachers to reduce class sizes.
b) Continuing the party's school construction initiatives.
c) Placing resource officers in every middle school and high school in the state.
d) Tripling funding for alternative education centers so that disruptive students can be removed from the classroom.
e) Revoking the drivers' licenses of children caught making bomb threats on schools.

2) Gun Control
General Assembly Democrats and democratic legislative candidates also announced policy of Azero tolerance for guns in schools on September 13. AWe know how important it is to make sure our children learn in a safe environment, said F. Drew, a candidate for the House of Delegates.

3) Transportation
Democrats proposed to reform the state's critical transportation crisis including traffic congestion and gridlock by using the state's 1999 budget surplus. The specific plans are;
a) Immediate relief by allocating $60 million from the state's 1999 budget surplus to jump-start stalled transportation projects.
b) Short-term relief by leveraging a portion of the state's recordation tax to issue $710 million in bonds and using the cash from the first two years of the tobacco settlement.
c)Long-term relief by allocating one-half of future budget surpluses for transportation while leveraging income from the state's share of the tobacco settlement to issue over $1 billion in bonds.
d)Generation of $2 billion in new money over the next four years, without a tax increase.

4) Tax
The party argues to repeal the state's sales tax on food. The transportation trust fund should be reimbursed, just as the state did for the car tax cut. They also proposed a real estate tax freeze for homeowner senior citizens age 65 and over. The plan will also reform the state's tax system by distributing one percentage point of the state's income tax revenues to local governments. 

5) Health Care
Virginia Democrats discussed the HMO reform and a Patient's Bill of Rights during the 1999 legislative session. The reform contains; 
a) The establishment of independent and impartial panels to review treatment denials made by HMO's.
b) Access to a managed care consumer advocate to protect the interests of HMO patients.
c) More option when patients choose doctors and health care providers. 

           Democrats are advocating the rights of working people, their children and senior citizens to be accessible to health care. 

6) Affirmative Action Plan For 2000
Democrats recently implemented an Affirmative Action program for the year of 2000 on September, as disseminate details of their Delegate Selection Plan leading to the election of their delegation to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. The discussion includes a request that each congressional district committee establishes an affirmative action program within each district.