Thank you.
I can’t put it more eloquently than that. The last six months have been a whirlwind for me, my campaign, my supporters and for all of us in Northern Virginia. We ran a solid campaign but we came up short. These things happen and before I decided to get into this race I made up my mind that, win or lose, this was the right thing to do, and it was.
In the last six months, I knocked on thousands of doors – the campaign broke through the 15,000 doors knocked threshold on Tuesday – and we raised over $160,000 for the campaign. And nothing made me prouder than to see that over 4,000 of my friends and neighbors were willing to cast a ballot with my name on it. It was a gratifying, humbling experience.
There are quite a few people I’d like to thank for their hard work and advice over the last six months. My campaign team of James Basile (and Tara!), Frank Puleo, Robert Melvin and Kiley Smith were invaluable. The support and guidance of Delegate Tim Hugo, Supervisors Pat Herrity and Mike Frey, Lt. Governor Bill Bolling and Governor McDonnell was also gratifying and I’ve learned a lot from them. My kitchen cabinet, particularly Dave Foreman, Becky and Matt Stoeckel, Jim Hyland, Marion Robertson, Ralph Hubbard and Will Nance were critical to our efforts. Special thanks to Speaker Bill Howell and Majority Leader Kirk Cox for all they did for me and for our campaign. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank Delegate David Bulova, my opponent, for making this race an example of how the democratic process can work when candidates focus on issues and ideas, not mudslinging and name-calling. I’m proud that my first campaign was a clean, issues based campaign that gave voters a true choice, not a drama filled exercise in egotism. I want thank all of our volunteers, folks like Steve Schaaf, Carol Sarkuti, Andrew Moore, Nick Geale, Phil Tran, Steve Lam, the entire City of Fairfax Republican Committee and many, many others who took the time out of their days and nights to help me run this race.
I also need to thank you, the readers of Bearing Drift, and my colleagues J.R. Hoeft, Shaun Kenney and the many other contributors for putting up with my lack of posting over the last six months!
Finally, I want to thank the two most important people to my campaign: my wife KayAnn, and my son Nicholas. KayAnn got to see the good, the bad and the ugly of the campaign process, and – as she has been over the last four years – she was with me the whole time. I couldn’t have done it without her, and I wouldn’t have done it without her. My son Nick took his first steps and said his first words during this campaign, and that’s something I’ll never forget. I know he didn’t get to see as much of his Dad as he would have liked but I’m looking forward to fixing that beginning yesterday.
This campaign is over but I intend to continue doing what I can to serve the people of Fairfax as best I can.
I want to thank each and every one of you for your hard work and support and while we came up short this time, I look forward to the next campaign with all of you.
