Friday, October 14, 2011

The Far Left in Fairfax

Last night in Fairfax County Virginia, the far-left wing of the local Democrat Party convened in Bonnie Brae precinct to help their beloved, but failing candidate for the county Board of Supervisors, Janet Oleszek. State Senator Chap Petersen, and School Board candidate Megan McLaughlin did most of the talking for Oleszek, since debating, explaining, and having ideas are not her strong points. In 2007 when she ran for the Senate against Ken Cuccinelli the Washington Post wrote that she was "embarrassingly short of substance." Just last Sunday when they evaluated her current performance against John Cook, they labeled her "lackluster," which must be Post speak for dumb.
The format for the contest last night, the fifth of ten such events, was that each of the three candidates had 30 minutes to introduce themselves, explain their programs and take questions. The incumbent, John Cook went first and answered many questions with exacting detail. He is quite plainly the best supervisor this magisterial district has ever had, and is the best on the current board. The Independent candidate, who often serves as a foil for Oleszek, meaning she only has to talk 1/3 of the time and not half,while he lobs the bombs, commented on Cook's answers and took some questions as well. Oleszek then calls up her friends to do most of the talking for her, and all of the talking was about the school board. Almost none of it had to do with issues that the Board of Supervisors would deal with, and she took no questions.
The most interesting thing about the evening was not that Janet did not talk much--that was actually a blessing for those in the audience. The interesting stuff was what candidates McLaughlin and Petersen had to say, and the fact that they are so closely allied with the candidate furthest to the left probably in the entire state and that their remarks were often at odds with their campaign speeches in other venues with other audiences. McLaughlin portrays herself as a reformer, advocating transparency and an audit of the school budget. Clearly her political party is more important to her than good governance, because no one would say that having Janet Oleszek on the BOS would mean good governance. So, her claim as a reformer is in doubt. And, she also agreed with the implied premise that taxes should be raised and that the school budget should go up automatically. Petersen was then asked to explain the State retirement system for teachers, a subject over which the county board would have no jurisdiction. Petersen was happy to help out since he is the one who recruited Oleszek to run in the first place as they are ideologically sympatico.
The bottom line is that the school board, dominated by Democrats, and indeed the school system has serious issues and a vote for a Democrat like McLaughlin is a vote for the status-quo. With half of the board resigning, everyone in the county understands the status-quo is no longer tolerable.
The same is true of the Board of Supervisors where the current leadership, if we can call it that,is ignoring the under funded public employees pension funds and the projected $100 plus million short-fall beginning a year from now. One of the more astonishing things McLaughlin said last night was that the county has pulled out of the recession. This county has never been in a recession., but it is coming with hundreds and maybe thousands of lay-offs from the federal government. It's just hard to imagine where she has been, but not difficult to understand where she wants to go and that is not a place that would be good for the Fairfax school board or school system. The only logical vote in the Braddock race is for retired Navy Captain Nell Hurley.
As for Petersen,the Virginia version of Huey Long, his left-leaning politics were evident though he constantly poses as a "moderate." No one can push someone as far to the left and yet as totally incompetent as Janet Oleszek, and keep up that pretense. The vote here is for Gerarda Culipher.