Rhetoric Aside, Retail Politics Will Decide Supervisors Elections

OPINION 

Those we elect to serve us in Prince William have been taking quite a beating on the local blogs lately. Either they not collecting enough taxes, they want to collect too much, they are spending it on stuff we don’t need, or they are not spending enough on things we do need.

If one believed the blogs, none of our sitting Board of Supervisors have a chance in hell of getting re-elected in 2015. Purcell Road reminded me this is not the case. More on that later.

I suspect that a few hundred folks who truly play “insider baseball” actually read all of the principle blogs in Prince William County, get excited by the content, and leave passionate comments on one side or the other of whatever the topic might be. There are probably a few hundred more that stop by occasionally to see what’s going on.

The rest of he folks in Prince William probably aren’t aware that these blogs, including mine, even exist.

Blogs have influenced public policy. We take credit for ending discretionary funds, derailing attempts to defund funding for local arts groups, perhaps contributed to the call for a more transparent budget process, and definitely changed the nature of the dialog in front of the live stream camera that covers the Dias.

This is all well and good; however, at the end of the day it’s retail politics that will drive who gets another turn in a Supervisor’s chair. For the uninitiated, retail politics is a type of political campaigning in which the candidate focuses on local events, meeting individual voters, walking around neighborhoods knocking on doors, old-fashioned shaking hands and kissing babies. It is best typified as “bringing home the bacon”, or delivering a Magisterial District its share, preferably more, of the revenue collected via taxes and fees.

That’s the conundrum facing local government. Residents pay for retail politics. The trick is to collect enough money to continue to give it back to us as things we like while not reaching that tipping point of collecting “too much”.

Convincing those of us who pay the bills that government is collecting the right amount is as much stagecraft as it is math. Government must get the public to “suspend disbelief” that perhaps not even a penny more or less is being collected.

There is another flavor of “bacon” to bring home: public policy favorable to the Magisterial District one represents.

Supervisor Marty Nohe brought home the bacon when he ensured that the Coles District beloved Purcell Road was not turned into a four lane highway that connected Va. 234 to Prince William Parkway. Those of us who live in Mid-County, the semi-rural residential region bisected by Purcell Road, are grateful.

Good job, Marty!

This reminded me where votes really come from. In the case of Nohe, they come from a lot of one-on-one help to his constituents that we never hear about. I heard about them when I collected signatures for his last campaign door to door. There were plenty of stories. They come from public policy victories such as Purcell Road.

I once visited a senior community in the Potomac District and remember members of their board of directors telling me that Maureen Caddigan, the Magesterial Supervisor for the District, is “their gal.” She takes care of this community of hundreds of folks, and they take care of her, they said.

I attended a town hall hosted by Supervisor Pete Candland at a senior community in the Gainesville District. What I witnessed was a couple of hundred folks treated to a flag ceremony, the National Anthem, a local choir, government officials there to respond to resident’s questions and issues, and Candland at his best.

I could draw examples from all of the Magisterial Districts; however, I think you get the point. Any one of these constituencies could easily derail the dreams of any challenger hoping to replace an incumbent on our Board of County Supervisors.

At the end of the day, its retail politics, its taking care of constituents who show up and vote, its the hundreds of kindnesses, the public policy decisions favorable to a community, an HOA, or a neighborhood that determines who stays in office… and who doesn’t.

I’m not complaining. Marty brought home the bacon when he stopped Prince William County Government from tinkering with Purcell Road. I may have to buy another Roadster just to enjoy driving the length of it with the top down (at legal speeds, of course).