RK Endorsement: Charlie Hall

The end result is this: Raising Kaine is strongly and enthusiastically endorsing Charlie Hall for Supervisor of the Providence District, Fairfax County.

First and foremost, this is a strong positive endorsement of Charlie Hall.  Over the past few weeks, as we've interacted with Mr. Hall, we have found him to be refreshingly approachable, forthcoming, open, honest, agreeable, intelligent, level-headed yet passionate, and extremely well-informed.  His stances on the issues that matter to us - smart growth, openness in government, Metro to Dulles, Tysons Tunnel, the environment, and many others - are highly agreeable to our way of thinking. 

In addition, Charlie's background is impressive, particularly his leadership in co-founding Fairfax Citizens for Responsible Growth (FairGrowth) - "a nonpartisan, countywide citizens group concerned with development and land-use decisions and their impact on traffic, transportation, schools, the environment, and other infrastructure and public services." 

If there had been any doubts at all regarding this endorsement, Charlie's performance at the League of Women Voters debate the other day completely laid them to rest.  Despite trying circumstances, including a wildly unfair and biased format - which his opponent did not raise a peep about, we must point out - Charlie won that debate hands down.  One of Hall's best moments were when he declared that "the best local government is a 'we' process not an 'I' process," adding that he would be a "proactive leader" in bringing people together. 

In addition, Charlie talked about the need for Fairfax County to move away from a "build first, plan later mentality,"  a concept that Raising Kaine strongly supports.  While praising Gerry Connolly's "Cool County" program, Hall emphasized that the challenge was funding the programs to make sure they become reality.  That's a crucial point, namely the difference between rhetoric and results.  We believe that as Supervisor, Charlie Hall will prove to be short on the former, long on the latter.
We were also impressed by Charlie's declaration in the debate that there's only one place the public business should be carried out, and that's in public. Charlie promised that as Supervisor, he will "refuse to support closed door meetings" or the "abuse" of this practice, and we believe him.  That issue - secrecy in government - has, of course, been one of the main criticisms we have heard expressed over the past week or so, as we have opened up RK to this public endorsement process in the Providence Supervisor's race.

As far as Linda Smyth is concerned, the members of RK were deeply disappointed by both her actions and tone with regard to competing for our endorsement.  On numerous occasions, we offered both Linda and Charlie the opportunity to come on Raising Kaine and on Blog Talk Radio to make their cases directly to the netroots, and to the voters.  Charlie Hall accepted eagerly, as have so many other candidates (Donald McEachin, Margi Vanderhye, Rip Sullivan, Morris Meyer, Henry Light, Dan Bowling, etc., etc.) previously.  In contrast, Linda Smyth claimed that she was her schedule was "packed" through June 12.  She consistently attempted to avoid a joint forum with Charlie Hall, raising the obvious question, "what does she have to hide?" 

It's not just RK or the blogosphere, by the way. It's also Linda Smyth's refusal to agree to another debate with Charlie Hall, this one sponsored by the Vienna Little League, among others.  It's her unwillingness to intervene and demonstrate leadership at the League of Women Voters debate the other day, even when the audience was enraged at the clear breach of rules and fundamental unfairness of the moderator.  The fact that this breach - forcing Charlie Hall to go first on every single question - favored Linda Smyth, since she had more time to consider a response as well as the opportunity to get the last word on Charlie, did not go unnoticed by the RK community.

For all these reasons, as one prominent member of the Raising Kaine community wrote yesterday, "the choice for Charlie Hall is easy."  According to our good friend "teacherken," aka Ken Bernstein, there are three main areas of concern with regard to Linda Smyth:

1) Land use - Linda's record is, to put it mildly, disappointing.

2) Willingness to engage / listen -  Smyth has refused to engage this community.  We were willing to listen to what she had to say, but she had nothing to say to us.  That is also a factor.

3) Clear manipulation of the debate, both in the ground rules that were supposed to exclude this community, and the failure to abide by the ground rules in a fashion designed to assist Smyth.  She could have pointed out that the questions were not being alternated, but chose instead to keep the advantage she was being given.  That to me bespeaks someone afraid of letting her opponent have the opportunity to rebut was she says.

Sad to say, because we're sure that Linda Smyth is a good person, but the comments "teacherken" made about her have been ones we've heard over and over again: too much secrecy, too little citizen input, too much influence by powerful interest groups. We're not sure if this is specifically a critique of Linda Smyth, or of the Connolly-led Board in general, but it's worth noting that Smyth votes with Connolly essentially 100% of the time.

Another Fairfax resident, Lee Diamond, weighed in with his thoughts:

We need a change in Fairfax County.  We need fresh thinking.  We need a real commitment to the environment we are so dependent on.  That means, by the way, addressing environmental issues at the level of public policy.  The greenness of one Supervisor's office building in a County of over ONE Million people is irrelevant.

What did the Board do prior to this election year?  They may have a decent record on parks, but they fail in every other area.  They have been PASSIVE on mass transit.  I do not believe that any of the last three Providence District Supervisors did much of anything to address community concerns about land use and sprawl.  I cannot take a Providence District Supervisor who claims to be against sprawl seriously.  There is no record to back up such a claim.

I am surrounded by McMansions crammed into Idylwood Rd between Leesburg Pike and Gallows Rd.  Most of these homes have little room for nature.

Lets do what we can to improve the situation as we look ahead.  Lets put some new folks on the Board of Supervisors. Lets have balance.  Lets go out of our way to give those of us who work 40+ hours a week (Not in Real Estate Development and Not people who attend County Planning meetings for a living) a chance to have input on what happens to our neighborhoods, our quality of life, our streets and our air.

Please take a look at Charlie Hall. If you share these concerns, please vote for Charle Hall on June 12th.

At Raising Kaine, we strongly agree with our friends Ken and Lee, as well as with the dozens and dozens more who have expressed their feelings on this blog for Charlie Hall over the past week or two.  In the end, we are very confident about this endorsement, and strongly urge everyone in the Providence District to vote for Charlie Hall on June 12.

As a result of our unanimous endorsement of Charlie, RK will now do several things. First, we will announce this endorsement with an e-mail to the RK list (nearly 500 of the most politically active and engaged people around).  Second, we will provide Charlie Hall with front-page coverage of his events and other news. Third, there's the snazzy logo that Charlie Hall can add to his web page, literature, etc. if he'd like.

Thanks to everyone for participating in this contest, and congratulations to Charlie Hall on the unanimous endorsement of the RK community! 

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