GOP Majority On Board Challenged

By Sandhya Somashekhar (Contact)

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Four years ago, six Republicans swept into office on the Loudoun Board of Supervisors promising to change the way the county did business.

On Tuesday, voters will decide whether the legacy shaped by that GOP majority should continue another four years.

Eleven challengers and nine incumbents are running in an election that will hinge in part on how the board has managed the rapid growth of the county, whose population has nearly doubled in seven years to 270,000. The election also will touch on illegal immigration, traffic woes, ballooning property taxes and ethics.

It is shaping up to be the most expensive board race in county history. As of Sept. 30, the 20 candidates had raised a combined $1.4 million, $250,000 shy of the final tally after the 2003 election. At least $320,000 of the amount raised in this campaign has come from the development and real estate community, according to an analysis by the nonprofit group Virginia Public Access Project, which covered only those contributions greater than $100.

The board has been mired in acrimonious debates for four years, with five of the Republicans often voting to allow more residential development and the two independents and lone Democrat favoring slower growth. Supervisor Lori L. Waters (R-Broad Run), who campaigned on a pro-growth platform, has changed her attitude on that subject.

One of the most heated races is in the Dulles District, where challenger Stevens Miller (D) has been attacking incumbent Stephen J. Snow (R) as beholden to the development industry. Dulles has been the site of some of the heaviest home construction in recent years, which Miller says has caused traffic congestion, crowded schools and sky-high tax bills.

“I think this election is a review on the quality of the leadership in the Dulles District,” said Miller, a lawyer who specializes in computer evidence. Snow, he said, “is accountable only to the substantial donors in the house-building industry and not to the residents who elected him.”

Snow is a big supporter of large planned communities in which the developer pays for roads, provides land for schools and offers other amenities. It’s the only way to get such services without spending taxpayer money, he has said.

Snow, a retired Army colonel who works for a construction company, denies that the board’s actions have caused the congestion and school crowding. Citing a dramatic slowdown in the housing market, he blames those problems on the previous board, which he said approved thousands of homes without building the supporting infrastructure.

“Mathematically, it’s an impossibility that the traffic out there has anything to do with this board,” he said at a recent board meeting. He has accused Miller of spreading lies and offering simplistic solutions to complex problems.

There are echoes of that dispute across eastern Loudoun. In the Potomac District, slow-growth activist Andrea McGimsey (D) is challenging incumbent Bruce E. Tulloch (R) and Ken Mikeman (I). In Sugarland Run, schools activist Susan Klimek Buckley is vying against incumbent Mick Staton Jr. (R).

In both districts, the Democrats are accusing their Republican opponents of ethical lapses in their support of housing developments and of neglecting existing communities. The Republicans, meanwhile, have criticized the Democratic candidates for affiliations with slow-growth “extremist” groups.

In the three-way race in Potomac, Mikeman has presented himself as a fiscally conservative alternative to Tulloch, who he has said is too cozy with developers.

In Sterling, businesswoman Jeanne West (D) is mounting a challenge against two-term incumbent Eugene A. Delgaudio (R), who heads an anti-gay lobbying group.

Delgaudio was the primary sponsor of a high-profile effort this year to crack down on illegal immigrants. In an e-mail to supporters this summer, he warned that liberal groups were aiming to “throw open our communities to an invasion of illegal aliens and turn neighborhoods across the country into dangerous, crowded slums.”

West, meanwhile, has focused her campaign on bringing county funds to the aging community to improve living conditions there.

In the Broad Run District, incumbent Waters is in a three-way race with Phyllis Randall, a Democrat, and Jack Ryan, who lost the Republican nomination to Waters and is continuing his run as an independent.

Randall has promoted herself as the “true moderate” compared with Waters, a former conservative pundit and head of the Eagle Forum, a conservative think tank. Ryan has focused his campaign on bringing more high-quality office space and white-collar jobs to Loudoun.

In the Leesburg District, teacher Kelly Burk (D) is trying to oust Supervisor Jim Clem (R), a former mayor of Leesburg. Burk has attacked Clem for his support of large housing developments, while Clem has said his opponent lacks the experience to serve on the Board of Supervisors.

Both have emphasized the importance of keeping the county government center in Leesburg. County officials are seeking a new government complex because the one they built a decade ago in downtown Leesburg is too small. They have considered sites farther east, and Leesburg officials say the loss could hurt the local economy.

In western Loudoun, former Loudoun School Board member Geary M. Higgins (R) is competing against incumbent Sarah R. “Sally” Kurtz, the board’s lone Democrat, in the Catoctin District. Higgins has accused Kurtz of failing to bring enough attention to the district, and he has focused his campaign on jump-starting the rural economy and improving Internet access.

Kurtz, meanwhile, has highlighted her efforts on the board to prevent overdevelopment in the west and protect natural and historical resources.

Supervisor James Burton (I), a retired Air Force colonel, is fending off a challenge from former Round Hill Town Council member and businessman Mark Albright (R) in the Blue Ridge District.

Burton has been one of the board’s most forceful voices for slow growth and is known for butting heads with the Republican majority on a variety of issues. He has said that some of their proposals against illegal immigrants are cruel, especially those that target services to children and the poor.

He also has clashed with Purcellville leaders over his support for a new high school near their town, which they say violates a land-use agreement with the county. He has said a further delay in the school’s opening will hurt students.

Albright has said he opposes building the school near Purcellville and supports finding a new location. He has pledged to work to bring more county dollars to the district, oppose tax increases and increase government transparency.

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