Democratic 5th District Congressional Candidate Jane Dittmar visited Grounds March 30 to meet with the University Democrats.
There are currently four Republican congressional candidates running for the 5th district, but Dittmar is running unopposed on the Democratic side.
Dittmar said one reason she developed an interest in public service is because her parents both worked in government during the era of the Kennedy administration.
“If I were to look back now, I would say that the seeds were planted with my parents, because they believed in giving back that way, the both of them,” Dittmar said. “It was quite by serendipity that I was asked to run for office. I was always involved with making sure good people got elected either by helping them get the financial resources they needed or encouraging them to step up, but I didn’t have it on the bucket list.”
Dittmar is currently an Albemarle County supervisor, mother of six and business owner. She graduated from the University with a B.A. in economics in 1978 — only eight years after the school opened its doors to minorities and women.
“I was coming out of school during a recession where jobs were difficult to get, and the economics program had such a good reputation that I decided to declare economics,” Dittmar said.
Dittmar — who is running on a platform of expanding Internet access and affordability, job creation and workforce training — said she wants to provide those things for a predominantly rural district that spans over 10,000 square miles.
Dittmar said her goal is to rally an underrepresented district.
“We have been fairly ignored as a region within the district and that’s why it got my attention,” Dittmar said. “A lot of our district is not served by Internet, or if people can afford to pay $300 or $400 a month by satellite … but it’s not very affordable, and so we are trying to get — for the rural areas of Albemarle County — help [deploying] Internet, so people will not be left behind.”
Dittmar answered questions from University Democrats ranging from the importance of the current election to her platform as candidate.
“I just wanted to hear about her and what she values and why she would be a good candidate for this district,” first-year College student Michael Arbor said. “Also, in particular, what kind of Democrat she was.”
After hearing Dittmar speak, Arbor said she is the kind of candidate he would vote for.
“I liked her thing about Internet access, I thought it was very potent,” Arbor said. “She seems like an honest candidate who knows what the situation is like for average Americans. I think she would definitely be the candidate I would vote for.”
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