By DAN TELVOCK
Developers and real estate agents pumped more than $24,000 into the war chests of two Spotsylvania County supervisors who won re-election in November.
Most of the donations came in the final two months of the campaigns by Supervisors Gary Skinner and Benjamin Pitts.
The late donations boosted the two independent candidates' campaign coffers by about $10,000 more than their Republican opponents, D.J. McGuire and Chris Yakabouski respectively.
Fitz Johnson, president of Johnson Realty Advisors, gave $500 to both Skinner and Pitts. He said the support from developers and real estate agents was largely because both Pitts and Skinner supported the county's becoming a member of the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail service.
Johnson's company is a broker for more than 1,000 acres near where a VRE train station is planned at Crossroads Business Park.
"VRE was the driving reason, and I supported both of those candidates in the past monetarily," he said.
From Sept. 1 to Nov. 26, Skinner received about $12,000 from those two sectors. Pitts received about $12,750 during the same time period.
This election also marked the first time that the Realtors Political Action Committee took a stance on Spotsylvania politics, giving Skinner and Pitts $1,500 each. Realtors in the region have long supported VRE.
John Broadway, spokesman for the PAC, said there are 29 local associations in Virginia and the PAC manages the accounts for 26 of them, including the Fredericksburg Area Association of Realtors. He said the Fredericksburg branch requested the funds for Pitts and Skinner.
The local association also helped fund a study of gas prices at the pumps in the region to show that localities that are VRE members did not have higher average gas prices than Spotsylvania, which was not a member.
The Silver Cos. donated more than $5,000 to both Pitts and Skinner, by far the most of any developer or real estate agent or group. The development firm used entities such as Carter West LLC and Gardner Station LLC as the contributors.
Jud Honaker, president of commercial development for the Silver Cos., said the company chose to support pro-VRE candidates.
But another reason he said the company supported Pitts and Skinner was that they seemed to get along well with the other five supervisors. Honaker said he did not want to see the Spotsylvania board become contentious, as the Stafford board has been in recent years.
"That tension on that board, I don't think it was good for [Stafford County]," Honaker said.
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com