Primaries proved that a political career has its limits

Primaries proved that a political career has its limits
by James Simpson

Potomac News
Friday, Date, 2003

Now that the Primaries are over perhaps some of the candidates will begin "de-branding" the county. Frankly I was getting a little tired of "Wassenberg" stickers on lamp posts and trash cans throughout the community. Someone working with his campaign went so far as to staple or nail campaign signs to a number of trees, which brought campaign-sign blight to new lows.

I believe Tuesdays election results were quite revealing. To those politicians who continually raise our taxes and reduce our liberties, it would be in your best interest to take note; Americans are becoming fed up with your antics and are not going to sit around and take it any more.

Jeff Frederick, a supporter of the right to self-defense and a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, defeated the entrenched 18 year Delegate, Jack Rollison, who had an enormous war chest of cash… much of it from developers. Corey Stewart, also a signer of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, defeated Mike May who was supported by big-government Republicans Tom Davis and Michele McQuigg.

A landslide victory went to Marty Nohe, who defeated Mary Hill by more than a two-to-one margin. My guess is that her constituents were disappointed in the ongoing personal problems she had to deal with and felt that things should not have been as politicized as much as they were. I personally hope that she can use this time to take care of her family issues and get her son the help he needs.

I should mention that the numbers I provide in this column are based on "unofficial" election results. Not that I anticipate a Florida-like debacle to rear it's ugly head, but these days you never know.

It looks like Chairman Connaughton and Sheriff Stoffregen will be able to continue their squabble over what role the Sheriffs Department should perform in Prince William County.

Which brings me to the Democratic races. It is interesting to note that the combined vote totals between both Democratic Sheriff candidates (4594) and both Democratic Occoquan Supervisor candidates (795) don't total the number of votes received by the Chairman Connaughton (7180) or the winner of the Republican Primary for Occoquan Supervisor, Corey Stewart (969).

I can't decide if this is due more to apathy within the Democratic Party or if the Republicans in Northern Virginia are such big-government proponents that many Democrats are happy with the outcome either way.

On a completely separate subject; can someone tell me why so many candidates refuse to use current photos in their campaign literature? If they are concerned about scaring off younger voters they have nothing to worry about, their lack of interest in politics has nothing to do with the belief that older representatives would be unable to relate to them. Younger citizens are voting less frequently these days because they don't believe anything they do will change the way the system works, and to a great extent they are correct.

I have mentioned this before and I will keep promoting it - elected office should not be a career. Politicians usually become bureaucrats rather than statesmen when they work more toward staying in office then defending liberty and freedom. As citizens we should recognize when someone is in office more as a job then as a civic duty and vote them into a different line of work. However, our county is now filled with people who have been taught (or rather deceived into believing) that the government exists to take care of all of our problems. Most candidates who run for office have no problem perpetuating that belief. After all, when they satisfy the whims of special interest groups they are more likely to be re-elected.

This loss of integrity has even worked its way into advocacy organizations that should know better. All one has to do is look at which candidates the NRA supports and it is clear that they are more interested in working the system then supporting true Second Amendment candidates. They don't mind bending their principles in exchange for greater access to certain politicos.

If we want true change, campaign finance reform is not the way to fix the problem. What (we) voters need to do is to start electing candidates into office who will reverse the trend of government dependence by reducing the programs that government offers. Once there are fewer tax dollars redistributed, less money will be donated by special interest groups in the hope of keeping big-government politicians in office. I pray we have begun to see this trend in Prince William County. As the candidates meet with you from now through November be sure to ask what they plan on doing to cut dependence on government and how long they plan on remaining in office.

James Simpson lives in the Occoquan District. In one of his upcoming columns he will provide analysis and commentary on a recent, personally funded, telephone poll conducted in the Occoquan District.