Sen. Deeds transcript from Cathy Lewis's "HearSay"

[Steve Corneliussen, by phone] Thank you Cathy, and hello Sen. Deeds, thanks for being here.

[Sen. Deeds, Virginia gubernatorial candidate] Steve, hey.

[Steve] A question concerning post-Army Fort Monroe. In April you said on "HearSay" that a national park is the best way to go, and since then you've also said "it's just a question of how we do it." Fair enough, Senator. So please comment on the answer to that question given by the Civil War Preservation Trust, by the Virginian-Pilot, by Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, and by two and a half thousand voters -- and counting -- so far in the Hampton citizens' Fort Monroe initiative. We all say that the answer is a new kind of national park that is dynamic, and multidimensioned, and revenue-generating, and self-sustaining, prosperity-enhancing and pays its own way. A Governor Deeds would be the most powerful person on the planet concerning Fort Monroe. How does candidate Deeds see all of this?

[Sen. Deeds] I think it's a great idea, Steve. You know, I think it _is_ just a question of figuring out how to make it work and I look forward to sitting down with the city of Hampton, with the citizen groups that are interested in this topic and with the National Park Service to figure out how to make it happen when I'm governor. You know I think Fort Monroe is an unbelievable historic asset that nobody else has, we have it in Virginia, and in the future it can not only be a huge economic generator because, particularly with the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War coming up, we're going to have the opportunity to bring thousands, millions of tourists to Virginia over a four-year period of time. As you know, Fort Monroe has a big part of that history -- a lot of that story to tell. So I think there's a huge opportunity for us there, and I look forward to making it happen.

[Steve] A follow-up, Cathy?

[Cathy Lewis] Real quick, Steve, and then we've got to move along.

[Steve] Senator, you mentioned Hampton. Their stake is unique and must be respected, but don't the rest of Virginians own it too?

[Sen. Deeds] They do and I certainly look forward to working with the rest of Virginians, Steve, but of course it's in Hampton so we're going to be talking with Hampton and talking with the rest of Virginia too. I look forward to having that conversation.

[Cathy] Steve, thank you for the call. Of course Steve's concern in that, and the concern of his group, is that they really wanted that to be a state-level and in fact Steve would tell you a national and international treasure and they were very interested in bringing more people to the table than the city of Hampton in that conversation.

[Sen. Deeds] Well, I'll tell you Cathy, I don't disagree with that at all. I think it is a national treasure. I think that we have to do what we can to protect it.

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