Virginia has been built on the tradition of the citizen-legislator. I think its an important reason why, as a commonwealth, we have seen so little corruption in our public officials (by and large), and why our campaigns are very tame compared to the rest of the country, and especially other parts of the South. The other important part of this ideal is that it brings out people from the community and they are never allowed to leave. They have to work in their communities whether as doctors, lawyers, pastors, engineers, CEOs, CFOs, small business owners, in tech companies, or even as lobbyists. The fact is, they have to work. Our system in Virginia has made it so we do not have a professional political class that is focused on taking care of themselves before the folks - go to New York and see what a full-time professional political class gets you.
So with that being said, I was surprised that the Janet Oleszek campaign has decided to go with the John Cook-is-a-part-time-supervisor meme given the tradition both in the state and in the county of supervisors holding day jobs. I mean, Gerry Connolly worked for SAIC for most of his entire run as chairman before getting elected to Congress. I believe Jeff McKay also has a professional career outside of the Board, as does John Foust. Public service is suppose to be about sacrifice, its not something you should do just to accumulate power. For those who don't know, John Cook has SIX kids and a wife and home to pay for. He's a lawyer, which is a nice job to have if your running for public office because its something you can do that you have control over your hours. Oleszek and the various Edgar Bergens behind her telling her what to do and say at every stop are clearly running on empty. John is clearly a full-time supervisors, if anything he's hurting is professional life more than anything else by choosing to service his community. What has Janet done? At the last debate, someone asked a question about the terrible state of community pools in Braddock and how nobody was going there anymore . . . she had NOTHING. Because she didn't know anything about it. Her campaign manager and chairman are from Virginia Beach and Arlington . . . her entire campaign is made-up of outsourced progressive who know nothing of the current community needs of Braddock District. "Put Braddock First," her shady fundraiser arm, is run out of her chairman's apartment in Arlington. Intentional distortions like this reflect an act of desperation. Tom Davis and Gerry Connolly and a whole host of others had outside employment. The citizen legislator is the desired norm because its provides more diversified points of view.
But here's the kicker and why Oleszek and her out-of-county progressive/hack handlers keep throwing these issues up. Its because the main requirement for being on the Board of Supervisors is competence. I dislike Gerry Connolly as a politician, but he's certainly competent. If one is not competent it doesn't matter how much time they promise to spend on the job, they won't get the job done. In John's case, he brings skills and knowledge of his local communities that is, frankly, not replicated on the Board right now. Nobody on the board has build relationships with community organizations, HOAs, and has brought citizens into their decision making more than Cook. Not one. As for Janet, she clearly is not within the planetary orbit of Cook when it comes to knowledge of the community and the ability to bring people together to answer problems. To steal a phrase, she's a divider, not a uniter. Her entire campaign has been a scorched-earth attack. If she's done so great, why doesn't her blogger chairman put up all these videos of how "GREAT" she's doing at these debates?
Janet has now put out two mailers, and I'm hearing some serious intel that the feedback has been remarkably negative. But they don't care, because her campaign isn't about serving the community, its about serving her out-of-county progressive masters that know nothing - nor care about - Braddock district.
And besides, I'm not sure it helps Janet that she's telling people she will be doing the job full time. Does she really want people to look at her competence and then say, "I'm going to be doing this full time!"
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