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LETTERS PAGE 68
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DECISION TIME
Four-Way Race Will Decide County Board’s Leader Jonathan Hunley
nyone who says that local politics is boring must not have been paying attention to this year’s race for Loudoun County
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not only the county’s marquee elected office but also the unofficial title of being the last candidate standing in what’s been a rough-andtumble election season. The back-and-forth has included charges
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There’s a reason we’ve been family owned for over 30 years. Ask your neighbors or visit us and find out why?
and allegations that go beyond the simple Democratic-Republican divide, though maybe that’s to be expected in a race featuring two independents. It seemed as 2015 opened that York, a political veteran who was last elected in 2011, as a Republican might face a challenge from King for the GOP crown. But then the incumbent rocked Loudoun’s political world by announcing at the first Board of Supervisors meeting of the year that he wouldn’t seek re-election. Speculation then landed on board Vice Chairman Shawn M. Williams (R-Broad Run) and Supervisor Ralph M. Buona (R-Ashburn). Wouldn’t one of them take the baton from York? Buona decided he wouldn’t. Then Williams got in the GOP race for chairman, but he would later drop out of that contest after news of past run-ins with the law came to light. A coalition of York supporters, meanwhile,
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chairman. Rumors about who might challenge incumbent Scott K. York started before 2014 ended, and the field, now with four candidates, wasn’t even set until June. Between those endpoints, York got out of the race as a Republican and then back in as an independent. Leesburg lawyer Charlie L. King prepared for at least two potential opponents for the GOP nomination only to end up taking the party nod without a challenge. Phyllis J. Randall secured the Democratic nomination, and Thomas E. Bellanca, the Dem nominee in 2011, decided to field his own independent bid. Got all that? It’s indeed been a busy political year, and the summary above doesn’t even get into everything that’s happened during the campaign. But
the election is Nov. 3, so Loudoun is now only days away from picking a chairman from the field of York, Bellanca, King and Randall. Who will win is a matter on which even some astute observers of Loudoun’s political scene can’t agree. Nonetheless, the victor will claim
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he three suspects in the fatal Sept. 4 shooting of a Park View High School student are now the focus of a Congressional inquiry concerning federal immigration enforcement. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, put the spotlight on the Loudoun murder case. In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, Grassely demanded answers to questions about the handling of the suspects’ immigration cases after they were apparently ordered to be deported one month before the shooting. A 17-year-old Mexican national has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Danny Centeno-Miranda, who was shot near a bus stop in his Sterling neighborhood while on his way to class. Charged as accessories are Henry Dominguez-Vasquez, 20, and Juan Aguirre-Zelaya, 18, both from El Salvador. The three are scheduled for preliminary hearings in Loudoun court next week. According to Grassley’s letter, his committee was told that the three suspects entered the United States at the Texas border as unaccompanied alien children in 2013 and had been served notices to appear for a status hearing in August. When they failed to show, deportation orders were issued. “Had these suspects appeared for their mandatory court date, they would have likely not had the opportunity to murder a 17-year-old high school student from Loudoun County,” Grassley wrote. The senator said the case is illustrative of frequent failures with federal policies and procedures. “Unfortunately, incidents such as this have become too common,” he wrote. “It is now customary to hear stories of undocumented or gangrelated criminal aliens who are discretionarily released from custody, fail to honor their [notice to appear], and receive protection in sanctuary jurisdictions. As a result American citizens have been
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OCTOBER 29, 2015
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Grassley Probes Federal Failures In Sterling Murder Case
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