The Post's choices for state delegate and school board in a Fairfax election
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/23/AR2010022305336.htmlWednesday, February 24, 2010; A12
FAIRFAX COUNTY on Tuesday will hold special elections to fill a vacancy for the House of Delegates and to elect a school board member to represent the Mason District.
In Burke, Springfield and parts of Fairfax Station, voters will fill the vacant seat for the 41st District in Virginia's House of Delegates, replacing David W. Marsden, who's now in the state Senate. Each candidate has run for the seat before -- Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn in 1999 and Republican Kerry D. Bolognese last year.
Both candidates voice slogans about opposing new taxes and protecting public schools from budget cuts. That those positions are mutually incompatible in the current fiscal environment seems to bother neither of them. Nor does either candidate have much of a real-world idea about how to ease the region's crippling traffic jams in the absence of new revenue.
Nonetheless, Ms. Filler-Corn, who worked as a liaison to Capitol Hill for former governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, would be the more effective delegate. She has a much more fluent grasp of Virginia issues than Mr. Bolognese, having been deeply involved in education issues in Fairfax County. In addition to having served five years on the PTA Board for the county schools, she helps develop after-school programs as a member of the school system's Child Care Advisory Council.
By contrast, Mr. Bolognese's main claim to involvement in state and local issues is that he pays taxes. A higher education lobbyist and former congressional staffer, he has little personal experience in public affairs in Fairfax or Richmond. That shows in his vague pronouncements about state government, which follow a doctrinaire script (cut waste, shrink government) unburdened by facts.
Voters in the Mason District will fill the school board seat left vacant by last fall's election of Kaye Kory to the House of Delegates. It's ostensibly a nonpartisan position, but political parties are allowed to make endorsements. Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) is backing attorney Samantha Rucker, while Fairfax's Democratic establishment has embraced former journalist and school activist Sandra Evans. Both candidates rightly identify the budget shortfall facing the schools as the top issue, but Ms. Evans has more experience and better ideas.
Ms. Evans, a former reporter for The Washington Post, has a consistent track record of work on school issues linked to her two daughters, who graduated from the public schools. As a leader of an effort to change high school starting times, Ms. Evans spent years scrutinizing the school budget; a result of that work was transportation efficiencies that saved the system millions of dollars. When she talks about cutting administrative costs, she is specific in where she would cut and how much she would save.
Mason is the county's most diverse area, with the most students coming from low-income families; Ms. Evans speaks knowledgeably of their needs and the importance of the county doing a better job to serve their interests.
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
