|
|
||
Final campaign reports for last fall's board of supervisors contests in the Fredericksburg area reveal a changing local political landscape Date published: 1/17/2010
BY JONAS BEALS Big money, campaign managers and party backing are changing the political landscape in board of supervisors elections around the region. An analysis of last year's campaign contribution and expenditure reports shows that Stafford County appears to be in the vanguard of this shift toward professional campaigns. In Stafford, 11 candidates running for four supervisor seats combined to spend well over $200,000 during one of the worst recessions in U.S. history. Campaign reports filed throughout 2009 show that winners outspent losers by about 80 percent and Republican Party politics carried the day. Several Stafford supervisor races featured paid campaign managers. Susan Stimpson, a first-time candidate, received financial and organizational help from the state level via House of Delegates Speaker Bill Howell's political action committee. Elsewhere in the Fredericksburg area, campaigns involved less money and fewer party-affiliated candidates. THE NUMBERS Of the campaign cash spent in supervisor races Party affiliation was more prevalent in Stafford as well. In smaller, more rural King George and Orange counties, every candidate ran as an independent. Spotsylvania featured three independents and two Republicans. Stafford had the only two Democratic candidates in the region, along with five independents and four Republicans. All four Stafford Republicans won--the only GOP candidates to do so in a four-county region that has a reliably conservative voting pattern in most elections. Independent candidates start at a disadvantage in larger counties, said Republican Stafford Supervisor Cord Sterling. But he said a good independent can prevail. "It can be done in a supervisor race of our size," Sterling said. "The larger the race, the harder it is. The more you can get known by the people, the less the affiliation matters." Stafford and Spotsylvania, each with about 130,000 residents, are in a transition period when it comes to party politics. They are no longer small communities, but they aren't yet population behemoths like Prince William and Fairfax counties. In campaign finance reports for the November election, however, Stafford had more in common with those larger counties than with Caroline, King George or even Spotsylvania.
Date published: 1/17/2010
to do with who wins or buys an election. There seem to be NO true leaders in Stafford County government anymore. Which is a shame. Everyone- all of them- have their own agenda, and it doesnt include making Stafford a better place for everyone. This has a lot to do with the partisan poilitcs in Stafford from both sides. What a shame and what a disgrace.
That was served up long ago to the highest bidder. Leadership today and yesterday follows the same thought, that he or she, at the end of any day you may wish to pick, with the most toys...wins. If your total involvement with how things are being run, bad, good or indifferent, you and a lot of others need to start showing up, before you start whining about what boils down to nothing more than speculation and the painful nature of heart burn, because deep down you know somethings wrong, but can't get close.
Unfortunately party politics only means one thing, "The worst candidate money can buy." With so much money involved, where will true leadership come from?
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
