Special Election in Gainesville District is tomorrow, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023

Tomorrow,  Tuesday, February 21, 2023, is Election Day in Prince William County’s Gainesville Magisterial District.

A Special Election will decide who will serve the remainder of Peter Candland’s term on the Board of County Supervisors ending on December 31, 2023. Democrat Kerensa Sumers and Republican Bob Weir are vying to replace Candland, who resigned in December 2022 after ten years serving on the board.

You can find out where to vote here. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Saturday, February 18, was the last day to vote early.

The election is widely seen as a referendum on developing Prince William County’s last rural areas and growing the county’s commercial tax base.

Sumers, largely funded by labor unions and the Democratic Party of Virginia, aims to open up the Haymarket and Gainesville areas to the continued development of data centers — large server farms that power the internet – becoming more prevalent throughout the county.

Sumers said the development would create more tax revenue for the county and bring “equity” between the Sudley Road corridor near Manassas and the area, which has been slower to develop.

In contrast, Weir is funded largely by small donations from residents who live in the district. He promises to be a brick wall when it comes to bringing more data centers to the county, which require large amounts of electricity (which may now be scarce in summer months, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality), use large amounts of water to cool the servers, and produce noise imitating from cooling fans on rooftops.

Both candidates met at Battlefield High School near Haymarket on February 9 for a forum, which morphed into a debate. PLN was there, and members may read our coverage.

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After tomorrow’s Special Election, the political attention in the county will shift to all Board of County Supervisors members who are up for re-election in 2023. Multiple supervisors, including Chair At-large Ann Wheeler, have Primary Election opponents from their respective political parties vying to unseat them.

In December, PLN gave you an exclusive interview with Candland to reflect on his time in office. Candland agreed to join his neighbors, offering to sell their homes to data center developers who are now vying to build server farms on 800 acres next to Manassas National Battlefield Park as part of the Prince William Digital Gateway Development.

Candland recused himself from all data center votes, including November 2, 2022, vote in which a politically divided board approved the Digital Gateway project.