The Woodbridge Magisterial District has a Republican seeking the seat on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors for the first time in eight years.

Republican Jeannie LaCroix announced today that she is running in the 2023 general election for the Prince William County (PWC) Board of Supervisors for the Woodbridge District.

LaCroix, a Realtor, a Prince William County resident for over a decade, and a Northern Virginia native, will challenge Supervisor Margaret Franklin in the November 2022 election. 

Her priorities include smart growth, supporting law enforcement, growing the police department, and repealing a meal tax enacted in 2022 without a citizen referendum. She also aims to preserve neighborhood character, beautify the Route 1 corridor, and fix sidewalks.

No other Republican has announced a run for the seat.

Democrat Margaret Franklin has held the seat since 2020. She ran unopposed in 2019. Steven Chapman was the last Republican to seek the seat in 2015. Former Democrat Supervisor Frank Principi won the election in a landslide with 62% of the vote and served three terms (2008 to 2019) before losing a Primary Election to Franklin in 2019.

A change in state law gave the Prince William Board of County Supervisors the option to approve a new 4% meals tax to generate about $25 million more for the county government, which was already flush with a $35 million surplus. Supervisors said the meals tax would fund schools.

Bryan Dolieslager, a former member of the county’s tourism board and manager of Evergreen Country Club near Haymarket, resigned from the tourism board in protest of the new tax.

Several restaurant owners wrangling with rising costs and supply shortages begged the Board of County Supervisors not to enact the tax.

As for public safety, Prince William County Assistant Police Chief Major Kevin Hugart said crime is up across the county, as it is across the state and the U.S. The Woodbridge area has seen a particular increase in violent incidents, including murders. Hugart made the comments during a public safety town hall meeting at Potomac Shores Middle School near Dumfries on Thursday, February 1, 2023.

Due to recent violence, the Virginia ABC pulled a liquor license from a 7-Eleven on Route 1 at Prince William Parkway. The number of murders in the county doubled, from 10 in 2021 to 20 in 2022.

Franklin is seeking a second term on the Board of County Supervisors.

Here’s the full press release from LaCroix: Read More

A long-serving Prince William County School Board member won't seek re-election.

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Deshundra Jefferson said she's about policy, not politics.

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Ian Lovejoy, the former Manassas City Councilman, announced a bid for the Virginia House of Delegates District 22 seat for the November General Election.

Lovejoy (R) had been seeking the Virginia State Senate seat for District 30, which encompasses Manassas. With the announcement, Lovejoy withdrew his bid for the District 30 seat, leaving it without a Republican vying for the seat.

Democrat Delegate Danica Roem, who represents portions of Prince William County and Manassas and Manassas Park cities, is running for the District 30 seat, opting not to seek re-election to her House of Delegates seat.

Lovejoy is set to be married, and he and his wife recently purchased a house in Bristow, which prompted the decision to run for the House of Delegates, he told PLN. In 2019, Lovejoy failed for the House of Delegates, losing to incumbent Lee Carrer (D).

District 22 has no incumbent and leans Republican. It includes portions of Prince William County, south and west of Manassas, including Bristow, Buckhall, and Nokesville.

Lovejoy said he’ll campaign on economic issues, including the rising costs of groceries and other goods taking its toll on residents, keeping parents engaged in education, and on land-use issues in the face of the ongoing debate over data centers being built in Prince William County.

Roem and State Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) have introduced bills this General Assembly session to slow the development of the Prince William Digital Gateway — more than 800 acres next to Manassas National Battlefield, where data center construction has been approved by the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

Roem says she’s “adamantly opposed” to data centers, while Petersen wants the study on the adverse effects server farms will have on the region’s water quality. The centers require massive amounts of water to cool servers, while conservationists argue data center construction requires leaving forested areas, prompting more sediment to flow into the region’s drinking reservoir.

Lovejoy told PLN the Prince William Board of County Supervisors should pay attention not only to these bills but also to the angst among county residents who opposed the data center project and suing to overturn it.

“Unfortunately, it’s rising to the level of state action,” said Lovejoy. “The local leaders should pay attention or risk losing some of their land-use authority to the state.”

Here’s Lovejoy’s campaign announcement.

Ian Lovejoy announced his intention to seek the Republican nomination for the 22nd District in Virginia’s House of Delegates.

“Virginia needs leaders in the General Assembly who will fight to make our communities safer, work to lower taxes, and put parents first when it comes to their children’s education,” said Lovejoy. He added: “In the House of Delegates I will always put my constituents before special interests, opposing legislation that leads to overdevelopment, working to cut taxes, and expanding opportunities for Virginia families.”

Lovejoy resides in the Victory Lakes subdivision of Bristow with his fiancée Nancy Edmundson. Previously, Lovejoy served on Manassas City Council, and is owner of Reliant Hiring Solutions – a national recruitment firm specializing in law enforcement recruitment.

About House District 22

House District 22 is a new district – with no incumbent – drawn as part of the Commonwealth’s 10 year redistricting process. It combines portions of the former 50th, 51st, 13th and 31st House Districts- with he 50th being the largest contributor.

Ranked as a Republican Leaning district, HD22 will be crucial in securing the House of Delegates this year. It encompasses the the communities of Nokesville, Bristow, and portions of Manassas.

Correction: Lovejoy lost his 2019 bid for state office to former Delegate Lee Carter. 

Kim Short kicked off her campaign for the Potomac District seat on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

The Democrat welcomed supporters and those interested in learning more about her to the Montclair Community Library on Saturday, January 14, 2023, where she outlined her platform.

While there, she addressed residents’ concerns over data centers, The Rose gaming resort under construction in Dumfries (also in the Potomac Magisterial District), lengthy delays in the development of Potomac Shores and its Virginia Railway Express station, and vowed to do more to provide mental health services.

Short, 53, is a political newcomer appointed to the OmniRide board of commissioners, overseeing the region’s transportation system. She’ll face one-term incumbent Andrea Bailey during a June 20 Primary Election, one of Northern Virginia’s multiple Democrat-party party primaries in 2023.

Short spent 25 years in the Army and settled in the county. “Love of country is what I know, and love for our county has motivated me to get off the sidelines,” said Short. “Time for change is now.”

Short praised the soon-to-open, $10 million crisis receiving center inside an old Gander Mountain store at Potomac Mills, providing 16 temporary beds for those experiencing a mental problem.

Her opponent championed the new center. However, Short says 16 beds is not enough given the rising mental health case numbers following the pandemic.

She vowed to work across party lines and with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration to bring home some of the $230 million in new funding the governor announced to help treat mental illness.

“So as I understand it, the governor has appointed someone over the mental health crisis, quite honestly, that we’re experiencing. And I sat in one of those meetings, and we had some great ideas talked about. They’re not quite ready yet for what they want to do. But I think it would be remiss if we didn’t all come together and come up with some good solutions,” said Short.

Short also said she would do more to boost teacher pay and morale for employees who work in the county’s local government. She said it concerned her to hear many county employees’ unhappiness during the ongoing collective bargaining process that started last year, with complaints of employees being overworked and over-stressed.

In education, Short says she’s visiting area public schools in the Potomac District to ensure they’re equally funded, have the same materials, and provide the same opportunities as others in the county. This past year, the Board of County Supervisors passed a historic $4 billion budget which included more funding for the county’s public schools.

Short says it will take more than money to ensure schools and other aspects of local government produce a return on investment for taxpayers. “You must be present. You can’t just write a check. You must inspect what you expect,” said Short. “Establishing taskforces is not enough. We need action forces to establish the outcome.”

She also said she would work to increase the salaries of fire and rescue employees to match those of county police officers who, this month, received a 17% pay increase. In the coming weeks, she said she’ll be talking with Christopher Shorter, the newly hired county executive, to gain a deeper perspective on the issues.

On data centers, Short said she’d toured western Prince William County, the hub of construction activity for the new facilities that power the internet. There are at least 20 more data centers in the county’s development pipeline, and supervisors approved the Prince William Digital Gateway — more than 800 acres of land next to Manassas National Battlefield approved for data center construction.

Short walked a fine line as to neither support nor oppose data centers in the county. However, she did accuse sitting supervisors of not listening to the concerns of those who opposed the Digital Gateway’s approval.

“People deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, whether you share my opinion or not…there is absolutely no reason we should not respect the fact that people had questions and concerns,” said Short.

On January 2, several Democrats crossed party lines to support Bob Weir as the Republican nominee for the vacant Gainesville District Supervisor seat on the Board of County Supervisors. Weir joined multiple HOAs and conservationists opposed the Digital Gateway project, which led to the registration of former district supervisor Peter Candland, who agreed to sell his home in the Digital Gateway area to data center developers.

Weir will face Democrat Kerensa Sumers in a February 21 Special Election. The winner will complete Candland’s term ending December 31, 2023.

Short also focused on the long-planned Virginia Railway Express station at Potomac Shores near Dumfries. Then Gov. Terry McAuliffe and local officials broke ground for the new commuter rail station in 2014 (PLN was there), but construction work on the station has yet to begin.

“People have no more patience for VRE station delays,” said Short.

During a question and answer session, residents shared their concerns about The Rose — a 320-room hotel and conference center complete with video slot machines to open late this year. Increased traffic and the strain on police resources are concerning, and they said they felt the Bailey ignored their concerns and provided outright support for the gaming hotel, approved by the Dumfries Town Council in 2021.

Bailey announced her intention to seek re-election to the seat and noted successes like economic development, increased mental health services, and a new public works agreement between the county and Quantico Marine Corps Base.

Bailey has been a member of what attendees of today’s political kickoff event called the most politically partisan Board of County Supervisors. In 2021, Bailey and her husband, Cozy Bailey, the Prince William County NAACP Chapter President, were criticized for sending a cop to a constituent’s home after the resident questioned the supervisor during a public comment during a meeting.

Critics accused Bailey of using the police to silence her opposition. The supervisor declined to comment on the matter to PLN.

“The Prince William County Board of Supervisors is stifled by politics and influence, and that needs to change,” said Short.

Republicans have not announced a candidate for the Potomac District. Bailey won the seat in 2019 in a landslide victory, with 64% of the vote.

Incumbent county board chair at-large Ann Wheeler also faces a Democrat challenger, Deshundra Jefferson, who announced her campaign earlier this month.

The Democratic Party charter states: “What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people – individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens.

Bound by the U.S. Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people.”

Those principles have been repeatedly violated by the current Chair of the Prince William Board of County supervisors, Ann Wheeler.

Her blatant servitude to business interests has undermined a just society.  Wheeler inhibited meaningful citizen participation by hastily scheduling community engagement meetings at the height of the COVID pandemic, refusing to delay them, and then barely acknowledging resident concerns.

Her disregard for due diligence proves she is insufficiently responsive to be worthy of the responsibility. Under Wheeler’s “leadership,” the county failed to conduct even a basic cost analysis of infrastructure and public services required for the Prince William Digital Gateway, nor did they conduct a noise study or assess electrical power needs.

The board also deliberately deferred a water study recommended by the county’s own Watershed Management branch and neighboring Fairfax County.   Wheeler’s aversion to transparency for the sake of political expedience demonstrates she can neither openly nor honestly conduct public affairs in a manner worthy of her constituents.

County staff and supervisors repeatedly hid behind non-disclosure agreements to obscure the truth about the land under development or available for data center use and neglected to respond to multiple inquiries from citizens and their attorneys for essential information to inform the public debate.

Ann Wheeler’s tenure has been dominated by contentiousness, divisiveness, and suspicion.  Every day she spends in the office further damages the Democratic brand in Prince William County.  She needs to be removed.

It is our civic duty to reject public officials who have betrayed our trust and replace them with better candidates that will restore it. With Deshundra Jefferson’s announcement last Wednesday, Prince William voters now have both a fine candidate and an opportunity for redemption.

Vote for Deshundra Jefferson in the Democratic primary on June 20.

Bill Wright
Gainesville
Former Treasurer, Gainesville Magisterial District Democratic Committee

PLN accepts letters to the editor on issues of local importance. Submit your letters to news@potomaclocal.com.

Ann Wheeler will seek a second term as chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

She’s led the governing body for Virginia’s second-largest jurisdiction since January 2020. Since that time, she’s pushed a progressive agenda that has been applauded by her supporters who wish to grow the county’s tax commercial tax base and vilified by others who have mounted a recall petition for the Democrat.

Fellow Democrat Deshondra Jefferson will challenge Wheeler for her seat.

Here’s more in an announcement from Wheeler:

In my 2018 campaign announcement [for her first term], I promised to ensure our school system was adequately funded and that, when elected, I would make it one of my primary missions to build the schools we need, to pay our teachers what they deserve and to make sure the school system has the resources it needs to be successful. I kept that promise. In our FY23 County budget, we funded our schools over $100 million more than when I took office, representing a 17% increase over prior years.

I promised to make Prince William County more attractive and welcoming to prospective large and small businesses, thereby relieving our homeowners from the burden of making up over 80% of the County real-estate tax revenue. I made good on that promise.

Over the last three years, Prince William County has enjoyed a surge in large business investments, steered significant CARES and ARPA funds towards small businesses and created new business grants to incentivize local business growth. In that same time, we secured funding for over $1 Billion in active and new projects to improve our transportation infrastructure.

I also campaigned on bringing an inclusive and a welcoming culture to all Prince William County residents. I saw the opportunity to address the unique issues of the large and diverse population of the County and to enable a bright and prosperous future for all. I delivered on that promise. Over the last three years, we have embraced as a strength our place as the 10th most diverse county in the nation, and experienced a palpable positive shift for our immigrant communities. We also invested $2 million in federal recovery funding in an immigration Welcome Center and hosted numerous cultural events celebrating our diversity.

In addition to these promises kept, I have led a Board of County Supervisors that has celebrated many other achievements, while also successfully navigating a pandemic.

We funded and established a Crisis Receiving Center for those experiencing mental health crises, which is opening in early 2024.

We created a Racial and Social Justice Commission to address community issues that needed to be addressed.

We committed to long-term Climate and Resiliency Goals and created an Office of Sustainability with over $1 Million in funding in FY23 and a Sustainability Commission for community input.

We adopted Prince William County’s first ever Collective Bargaining Ordinance to give our public sector employees, Police Department and Department of Fire and Rescue a seat at the table at their urging.

Finally, we adopted the long-overdue Prince William County Comprehensive Plan Pathway to 2040. This bold vision document updates and modernizes our land use policies and robust transportation network plans, and adds brand new affordable housing goals and policies to make sure the people who work here can afford to live here.

I am grateful for everything we have accomplished, but we still have much work to do. I look forward to serving Prince William County for another four years as your Chair-At-Large and earning our residents’ vote on November 7, 2023.

Margaret Franklin will run for a second term on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.  She’s represented the Woodbridge District since January 2020.

During her time in office, Franklin has secured half a billion dollars worth of investments into the Woodbridge District, including the Riverside Station Town Center, a new I-95 distribution center, and investments in small businesses, particularly those impacted by the coronavirus.

Franklin advocated for more affordable housing by creating a housing assistance program, adding affordable housing to the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, and advocating for an affordable housing trust fund and an affordable housing ordinance.

Franklin advocated and supported the approval to build a new elementary school on the Route 1 corridor and allocated over $90 million to the school system supporting programming and resources. She also led the effort to establish a Child Advocacy Center in Prince William County, providing assistance for victims of child abuse. Lastly, she led the charge to rename Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway.

“When I ran for office, I promised to help revitalize the Route 1 corridor, provide for more affordable housing and support our schools,” Supervisor Franklin said. “We’ve done just that with several initiatives that help to modernize the Woodbridge District while also providing resources for our most vulnerable communities, but there is more work to do.”

Franklin says she’s working to build a new community center for youth along the Route 1 corridor. Franklin says the center would be a safe place for children to play.

In recent years, the Woodbridge District has been plagued with shootings. Last year, a nine-year-old girl was shot while playing outside her home. The girl suffered life-threatening injuries but will recover. A 15-year-old teenager from Triangle was charged with her shooting.

Franklin and fellow Supervisor Andrea Bailey became one of the first two African-American women to serve on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

Supervisor Franklin has served as the Past Chair of OmniRide and the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and is the current Chair of the Economic Development Committee for the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO).

She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Prince William County Chapter.

Democrat Deshundra Jefferson announced today that she is running for Chair of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 2023.

Jefferson will face fellow Democrat Ann Wheeler, who’s held the position since 2020. So far, there’s no Republican challenger for the seat.

Jefferson said her priorities include increasing funding for the county school system, promoting homeownership, and making home ownership in the country more affordable.

“One of my biggest dreams was to become a homeowner and to provide my son with the same stable, loving home that I grew up in,” said Jefferson. “Prince William County allowed that to come true. This community has welcomed me and allowed me to thrive. That’s why I feel compelled to serve.”

Jefferson was an outspoken opponent of the Democrat-controlled Prince William Board of Supervisors in 2022 and opposed the Prince William Digital Gateway that was approved in November. The approval clears the way for data centers to be built on more than 800 acres of land next to Manassas National Battlefield Park.

Gainesville District Supervisor Peter Candland resigned over the controversial issue on December 16, with one year left on his term. On Monday, January 2, 2022, Republicans selected Bob Weir to run in a February 21 Special Election to replace Candland. He’ll face Democrat Kerensa Sumers.

“Far too many Prince William residents feel marginalized, particularly following the controversial votes for the Prince William Digital Gateway and the Pathway to 2040. Our voices matter, and we will make that clear at the ballot box.”

Jefferson lives in Montclair and is a senior communications strategist with over 20 years of experience in politics, public affairs, and journalism. She specializes in strategic planning and crisis management.

She was the traveling press secretary for Governor Deval Patrick’s 2020 presidential campaign and a former regional communications director for the Democratic National Committee in 2016.

Jefferson is a former co-chair of the Potomac Magisterial District Democratic Committee and a 2020 Biden Delegate.

She earned her BA in political science from Columbia University and a MA in communication from Johns Hopkins.

Jefferson considered a run for the Board of County Supervisors in 2019 but later backed out.