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Well, it’s not really an exclusive since Roz Helderman at the WaPo [2] beat me to making the announcement. The word got out this morning thanks to VPAP’ [3]s update that I’d filed the preliminary paperwork necessary to begin a campaign for House of Delegates. But since you’re getting the information from the horse’s mouth, I think that’s good enough to warrant the “exclusive” tag.
I’ve been writing about Virginia politics for almost two years now, and I’ve been involved in local politics here in Fairfax for about 5 years. Like many politicos, I had always toyed with the idea of running for elected office, and my experience in the Bush Administration definitely whetted my appetite for public service. But I wasn’t sure when, where or how I would get back into the public sector.
As my wife can tell you, the process I use for writing a piece for Common Sense [4] orBearing Drift usually begins the same way – I start telling her about the latest injustice or issue that I’ve seen and what I think about it. Often I’ll cut myself off in mid-rant and say “I’ve gotta write a post about this,” and a half hour later it’s on the site.
A few months ago, I started off on one of my usual rants and KayAnn cut me off – “You’ve been talking about this stuff for years now,” she said to me. “Why don’t you stop talking and start doing something about it?”
My first reaction was that I was doing something about it – I was blogging! But after a few seconds, what she told me sunk in. As my political hero Theodore Roosevelt related so famously in his “Man in the Arena” speech, it’s very easy for us to criticize what our elected officials do because we never have to make the decisions they do, even if we do live with the consequences. As I am fond of saying – criticizing is easy; governing is hard. And while I love blogging and I love sharing my opinions with all of you, the time has come for me to translate those opinions into action. And that’s why I’m running for the House of Delegates.
My campaign is going to focus on the three most critical issues we face here in Northern Virginia. These are the complaints and the concerns that I hear from my friends and neighbors here in Fairfax on an almost daily basis: transportation, jobs and education.
There is no greater quality of life issue for those of us in Northern Virginia than transportation. The time I spend in my car every morning is time that I don’t get to spend with my wife and son, time I don’t have to spend working, and time I don’t have to spend doing the things that make life worth living. Transportation should be the top priority of every member of the Northern Virginia delegation. It will certainly be my top priority, and having spent the better part of my career working on transportation issues at the federal level, I am confident that I have what it takes to help fix the problems we face locally, regionally and across the Commonwealth.
While Northern Virginia has been spared the full force of the recession, we remain the economic engine for the rest of the Commonwealth – much of which hasn’t been so lucky. It is incumbent upon our elected officials to ensure that government is helping strengthen our economy. I recognize that government doesn’t create jobs – only the private sector does. It is the private sector that creates the well-paying, long-term jobs that workers across Virginia need and want. We owe it to all Virginians to ensure that government regulates properly, does not overburden job creators, yet still protects the public and our communities. It is those job creators – small businesses in particular – that are the backbone of our economy. In Richmond, I will be an advocate for a government that governs smarter, regulates fairly and helps promote job creation and economic growth.
Like many parents, I have been highly critical of the way the Fairfax County School Board has handled itself recently. From shutting down Clifton Elementary School under questionable pretenses, to withholding public records from parents and forcing them to sue to see them, to the zero tolerance policy that has created so much stress for so many of our kids, I see a lot of room for reform in education. Many of these reforms don’t have to cost a dime, and they aren’t unique to Fairfax County – if they can happen here, they can happen anywhere. That’s why I think we need a student and parent’s bill of rights in our schools. We need to ban the forced transfer of students as part of the disciplinary process. We need to limit the amount of time kids can be left dangling in the disciplinary process. We need to ensure that parents are notified and students know they can talk to their parents before they talk to administrators. We need greater independence for School Board members so they aren’t beholden to the FCPS staff for the information they need to do their jobs. And we need to reform the way the School Board is constituted so we can ensure that those who serve on the board have the best interests of their constituents at heart.
I know it’s going to be a long and a hard campaign, and I am looking forward to the challenge. I know I can count on my family, my friends and the many folks who have read my work and who have worked with me locally and in Washington over the years for their support. And I look forward to meeting the voters in my district and earning their trust, their support and their vote.
We should know where exactly I will be in terms of redistricting sometime in the next few weeks. Whether I remain in the 35th District or I end up in the 37th – or some other district – remains to be seen. So long as I face a Democratic incumbent (or an open seat), I intend to campaign to the finish on November 8th. I filed my paperwork this early because I recognize that the resources needed to win a race in Northern Virginia are substantial and I am not independently wealthy – I’m going to have to earn every dime I spend on this campaign and I couldn’t start that process until I’d filed my paperwork to run.
Will 2011 be the year of the blogger? I don’t know. What I do know is that this blogger is ready to give up that mantle, pick up the new title of “candidate” and step into the arena. I want to thank you all for your love and support. It means a lot to me, KayAnn and Nick.
But now, as my wife said, it’s time to stop talking – it’s time to start doing.