Supervisor Linda Smyth Follows The Rules?

By: Lee Diamond
Published On: 6/9/2007 11:41:09 PM

I have great news.  The Providence Report from Supervisor Linda Smyth hit our mailboxes at the end of this week.  Supervisor Smyth wanted to get the issue out around June 7 or 8 in order to get the jump on Summer.  She's ahead of summer with a front page article about the Cool Counties Initiative.  Thats the big election year initiative to take our minds off sprawl, gridlock, absence of mass transit solutions that can bring results faster than a humongous capital project, lack of funding for the current Metro and all that boring stuff Republican losers whine about.  By the way, have you ever taken a Metro ride to work on a hot day without AC?  It is so refreshing.  You don't need to do the sauna in the gym that day.  Even better is when you get the slow train without AC as I did on a recent morning.

Well, at least we have Supervisor Smyth's The Providence Report to tell us what a cool county we live in.

Oh, I almost forgot.......
The reason I am mentioning receipt of The Providence Report that I and other Fairfax County taxpayers paid for is explained in a notice on page 11:  "This edition is the final edition of the Providence Report for 2007 due to a Board of Supervisor's policy that restricts the distribution of newsletters after June 30 via US Mail during a Board of Supervisors election year."  Call me weird,  I just find that interesting five days before an election.

Comments



This is only one of a number of taxpayer-sponsored mailings (Hiker Joe - 6/10/2007 10:41:04 AM)
that Smyth has sent out in the last week or two. I personally know of other ones regarding hot lanes (which she favors) and her "Sidewalks for Oakton" campaign.

This definitely smells bad - like she's using taxpayer money to support her campaign effort.



Reminds me of Tom Davis (Eric - 6/10/2007 12:24:00 PM)
Last year we had a number of official government mailings appear from TD just before the cut off date - suddenly he needed to tell us how great things were going in the 11th thanks to him.


Bad policy using taxpayer money to finance campaigns (HerbE - 6/10/2007 12:49:03 PM)
You're absolutely right, Eric. Davis did do this and I recall a Letter to the Editor apprearing in the WashPost from a Providence Dem decrying the action. Guess it's ok for your incumbent Prov Dem candidate, as I haven't seen any complaints from the District Committee. As Connolly would say, "I'm not doing anything different than Tom Davis would do." What a role model!


Is there a BOS policy restriction requiring mailings before 6/30? (OaktonResident - 6/11/2007 11:38:03 AM)
Lee, although you point to Supervisor Smyth's mention that there the BOS policy restricting mailings to prior to June 30th, you do not indicate whether there is such a policy or not. 

If there is such a policy, then she is playing by the rules.