|
-
- |
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.
The last Fairfax supervisors general election, in 2007, had 22 candidates vying for 10 board seats. Party affiliation was mixed among Republicans, Democrats and independents. No independents won.
Candidates who receive $50,000 in donations are commonplace in Fairfax, and highly contested races can feature candidates who spend well over $100,000.
Stafford has not reached those financial heights yet, but it has come much closer than Spotsylvania.
CHANGING TIMES
The 2011 supervisor elections could show whether Stafford remains a high-priced political battleground.
"It probably is a sign of things to come," said Supervisor Gary Snellings, who won the Hartwood seat. "I don't see it going back to the old days where you maybe spend a few thousand dollars. It's unfortunate that it costs so much to run for a local office. It might dissuade qualified people from running."
This year's expensive Stafford campaigns may have been an isolated case, precipitated by a recent quirk in the county's political history.
Republicans lost control of the board for the first time in 2007, a change that ushered in a business tax along with a number of environmental regulations opposed by developers.
Those actions appeared to rally Stafford's business community to support Republicans who vowed to repeal the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax and reverse what they saw as restrictive land-use decisions.
Each of the four Republican candidates received at least $1,500 from the Virginia Association of Realtors, for example. No other candidate received donations from the association.
According to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project, Stafford Republican candidates received $53,974 from the real estate, construction, retail and service business sectors. The other seven candidates received a total of $3,050 from the same sectors.
"I think 2009 was a perfect storm between BPOL, the 2008 national election and a few other things," said Casey Angel, who managed Snellings' campaign. "I'd like to see it, but I highly doubt campaigns will be as structured in 2011."
MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
Angel was one of several well-paid campaign consultants hired by Stafford candidates last year. Snellings paid Angel $17,850 to run his campaign from March through November.
"Campaigns have gotten very complicated from what they were," Snellings, who last won a board race in 2001, said. "In the old days, you put up signs and knocked on doors. Now you have Web sites, e-mail lists, television, radio. To have a full-time manager to guide me through all that worked out well for me."
Snellings was not alone. Mark Osborn spent $8,700 on campaign management, Joe Brito paid former supervisor David Beiler $1,837.78 for consulting work and Paul Milde paid $11,500 to consultant Jeff Ryer for writing.
Stimpson received $8,000 in campaign-management services from the Howell for Delegate PAC. State officeholders occasionally get involved with local races in larger counties such as Fairfax, but it is rare in the Fredericksburg region. Howell lives in Stimpson's Falmouth District.
Milde cited the need for help from someone with campaign experience, while Brito, who lost the Hartwood seat, said that a full-time manager could have helped his campaign by freeing him up to knock on more doors.
Sterling countered that "Anybody who hires an outside consultant to run their campaign is nuts. Family and friends are always going to be far more helpful."
Tom Byrnes, a campaign manager who worked with Spotsylvania incumbent supervisors Gary Skinner and Benjamin Pitts last year, is not convinced that such extensive organization is necessary in the region.
"I don't think there are enough registered voters yet," he said. "But if campaigns are hiring people with real professional experience, they will bring more money into the campaign. That kind of help is moving closer to Stafford."
Arch Di Peppe, a former Stafford Planning Commission member, has worked for a number of local candidates in the past. He said campaigns are changing, but he is not ready to give up on the idea of a successful, low-cost independent campaign.
"I think politics gets more and more sophisticated," he said. "Candidates with resources look to try to package themselves in a positive way. But in the end, if you have a message people will respond to, if you can honestly address their concerns and do the legwork, you can win."
Jonas Beals: 540/368-5036
Email: jbeals@freelancestar.com
Most money spent: Paul Milde, Stafford, $58,607.15
Most money spent per vote: Mark Osborn, Stafford, $32.60
Most money spent in
Most votes received: Gary Snellings, Stafford, 2,681
Most money raised by
Most money raised by
Most money spent by
Most money spent by
