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MANASSAS, Va. - With Virginia voters heading to the polls in just over a week, the candidates for governor are making the rounds.
Democrat Creigh Deeds is campaigning in southern Virginia while Republican Bob McDonnell was in Manassas Friday afternoon.
McDonnell headed to Prince William tech company Micron Technology Friday morning. The Republican spoke to workers there -- many of whom have yet to make up their minds in the race for governor.
The Northern Virginia workers want to hear where McDonnell stands and how he plans to address some big issues.
"All of the issues are really important. Obviously, the biggest topic that everybody is talking about is health care," said Deborah Fenner of Mineral, Va.
Manassas semiconductor company Micron Technology hosted a town hall-style forum for their employees Friday.
"I want to know if this candidate plans on seeing to it [that] his constituents get as good a health care coverage and policy as he's going to get out of the state of Virginia as governor," said Charles McClure of Manassas.
McDonnell says he believes people are satisfied with the health care they have. "I'm concerned about turning the remainder of our system that's not already controlled by Medicaid and Medicare over to the federal government," he said.
He says he supports health savings accounts and also wants more preventative health care programs. It's an idea for dealing with the uninsured.
"I think we can do a better job with expanding the knowledge about our free clinics. We've got a great system of free clinics in Virginia that treat people either free or on a sliding scale -- that people don't have insurance but people don't know about that network there," he said.
Several people at the forum were concerned about another big issue in Northern Virginia -- transportation.
"Transportation is pretty big; it's a mess," noted Rick Irwin, a Haymarket resident.
McDonnell says he wants to spend more on roads but without raising taxes. Instead, he wants to fund construction by selling state-run liquor stores and establishing public-private partnerships.
"I understand that there's some significant infrastructure that we've got to be able to do in Northern Virginia to be able to keep your quality of life good and more importantly your business climate so we can continue to recruit jobs and opportunity and business to the state of Virginia," he said.
All voters in the room whether undecided, Democrat or Republican say it was good to hear straight from a candidate.
"I think people are just tired of them slamming back and forth with each other," said Milo Christensen, a Manassas resident. "Tell me your vision; tell me what you want to do with Virginia and let me make my decision."
NewsChannel 8 spoke to several undecided voters at the event. Many said they're just starting to watch the race and they're getting prepared to make a decision on who to support.
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