LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
LoudounNow
[ Vol. 4, No. 47 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ October 10, 2019 ]
■ PUBLIC AND LEGAL NOTICES - PAGE 32 ■ RESOURCE DIRECTORY PAGE 48 ■ NOW HIRING LOUDOUN PAGE 51
Supervisors Push for NVTA Funding Fix BY RENSS GREENE
Renss Greene/Loudoun Now
Del. John J. Bell (D-87), Supervisor Geary M. Higgins (R-Catoctin), Democratic House of Delegates candidate Mavis Taintor, county Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) and her Republican challenger John Whitbeck, here pictured at a forum in Lucketts, are among the candidates locked in historically expensive races for local and state office in Loudoun.
Candidates Have Raised $6.9M for 2019 BY RENSS GREENE This year’s November elections are on track to be some of Loudoun’s most expensive yet. Four years ago, there were four candidates on the ballot vying to be Loudoun County’s Chairman At Large. Between them, Phyllis Randall, Scott York, Charles King, and Thomas Bellanca spent $548,681 on the race, and Randall won having spent $86,698. This election cycle, Randall’s challenger for the seat, Leesburg attorney and former state Republican Party chairman John Whitbeck, has already raised more than all four 2015 candidates spent combined. And that cost is not restricted to board races. Excluding the nominally non-partisan School Board races, candidates for Board of Supervisors, local constitutional offices and the Virginia General
Assembly in Loudoun have collectively raised $6,863,295, according to the most recent campaign financial disclosure reports. In the races for Board of Supervisors alone, candidates have raised almost $2.3 million. According to the Virginia Public Access Project, incumbent County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) has raised $333,482, and Republican challenger John Whitbeck has raised $557,190, putting contributions toward that race close to $900,000. As of the September filings, Randall’s campaign has $213,639 on hand, and Whitbeck’s has $309,543. Both races have been buoyed by large donations from outside of Loudoun. $261,058 of Whitbeck’s fundraising has come from outside Loudoun—47 percent of his total contributions—and $178,701 of Randall’s contributions—or
54 percent of her total—have come from outside the county. Whitbeck’s largest donors have been the Virginia Republican Victory Fund at $97,500; a political action committee called Loudoun First at $65,000, almost all of that PAC’s donating; and Whitbeck himself at $34,700. Meanwhile, Randall’s largest donors are another political action committee, Better Together, at $30,000, which was mainly funded by MRE LLC and has given almost exclusively to Randall; and Del. John J. Bell (D-87)’s campaign for state Senate at $25,000. Independent candidate for Chairman Bob Ohneiser is not doing any campaign fundraising. Other races are still bringing in large donations, too. Some supervisors fund-
County supervisors and regional elected representatives are gearing up once again to press their case to restore transportation funding from the state. In 2018, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, a major planner and funder of regional projects, saw a chunk of it diverted by the General Assembly to instead support Metro. The NVTA is expected to lose out on more than $100 million per year, affecting projects in Loudoun that were scheduled to get some of that money. Last year, a bill to establish new fees and taxes in the Interstate 81 corridor to fund improvements on the highway also included a provision that would distribute some of that revenue—estimated at $20 million a year—to the NVTA. But the region is still coming up short on the local transportation funding that the NVTA was created to collect and allocate. Supervisors at their meeting Oct. 2 authorized County Chairwoman Phyllis J. Randall (D-At Large) to sign on to a letter from the elected heads of Northern Virginia localities calling on Gov. Ralph Northam and the General Assembly to restore all funding to the NVTA, using state money. “We urge you to restore the remaining $82 million in the budget by considering substantial use of state-wide funding sources that would limit additional burden on Northern Virginia taxpayers already paying for extensive transportation projects, including WMATA, in the region,” the letter reads. “This money is critical to ensuring that the region can address critical transportation challenges needed to support economic expansion and growth.” Randall, the current vice chairwoman of the authority, said her own statements would be much stronger. However, supervisors also acknowledged at their meeting that it is unlikely the state will pick up the burden of regional transportation funding—a state responsibility. Supervisor Matthew F. Letourneau (R-Dulles) said the region’s leaders and lobbyists should also be working toward
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