Candidates Argue Campaign Donations, Immigration

Prince William County, Va. — Sparks flew Wednesday night with the issue of home foreclosure.

Prince William Chairman Corey Stewart (R, At large) faced democratic challenger Babur Lateef and Independent John Gray at a candidates’ debate near Manassas.

Stewart asked Lateef how he could continue making more than $25,000 in political donations while his $1.2 million estate of Hoadly Road near Dale City that he bought in 2006 was in foreclosure. Lateef, an ophthalmologist, still lives in the home and credits a family member for stepping in, purchasing the home at auction, and allowing his family to continue living there.

Lateef didn’t answer Stewart directly, but he did blame the foreclosure on the economic downturn and now wants explore a plan to let underwater homeowners use money they would have paid in property taxes and put it toward their mortgage.

“It’s been a long and difficult recession, it has affected many folks in the community across the spectrum including me, and so those are the kinds of issues that as a chairman, when you go through a tough time in your own life, when you go through the struggles and you survive and get through them you learn a lot,” said Lateef.

Lateef not only criticized Stewart for his handling of  recent flood victims in Woodbridge and funding a new baseball stadium for the Potomac Nationals, he also questioned him on receiving more than $328,000 in campaign donations from real estate developers.

“Before I was chairman, the Board of Supervisors was approving about 5,000 residential units per year. Since I’ve been chairman the average number of homes approved and the average number of homes that have been built [in Prince William] has been about 500,” said Stewart. “To say that my support from the industry and business in general is resulting a massive explosion of new homes is just simply false.”

Stewart defended his decision to fund a new baseball stadium to keep the franchise from leaving Prince William County.

Since being elected Chairman in 2007, Stewart has ridden high on the illegal immigration issue. He saw the implementation of 287g, a partnership between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials, which allows police to check the immigration status of anyone who’s been arrested.

While Lateef denounced 287g, Gray said it solved a problem.

“I would support leaving the resolution as it is. 287g needed to be implemented back then. We did have an illegal immigration problem and it was addressed…We should be checking the immigration of anyone who’s arrested, but at the same point we need to be checking all the legal people who are arrested,” said Gray.

Gray said there is no correlation between 287g’s implementation and dropping crime rates, saying the crime rate in Prince William had been going down prior to 287g’s implementation.

The chairman post represents all seven magisterial districts in Prince William County, in addition to an elected supervisor in each district. Voters will go to the polls Nov. 8.