Candidates for the Hunter Mill District Seat

Dear Ms. Hudgins, Ms. Butkus, Ms. Huhtala and Mr. Williams:

Inconsideration of your campaign for election to the office of Fairfax County Supervisor, Vienna homeowners will greatly appreciate you replying with your position on the following questions concerning the community:

1.) Please provide your personal statement regarding the status of illegal aliens residing in our community.

2.) Do you support/not support the use of tax payer funds to provide public services to those individuals with illegal status in the state of VA or county of Fairfax?

3) VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell has endorsed local governments to participate in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program 287(g). Do you support/not-support Fairfax County and surrounding local governments in participating in the ICE 287(g) program?

4) What specifically will you propose as measures to address the growing population of those who are of illegal immigration status in the County?

Don't hold your breath no response will be forthcoming because Cathy has it in the bag. That is why competition is a good thing.

Gotta go with a guy named "Spike". A great political name, if nothing else. And his website indicates that he actually works for a living--a rare thing for politicians to do.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR
NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Deborah Brehony
(703) 938-4305

OCTOBER 8, 2007

A Debate is scheduled at the Vienna Community Center on Sunday, October 28th, from 1:00 - 3:00 pm for the incumbent of the Hunter Mill District supervisory position and two of her three challengers.

Cathy Hudgins (D), the 8 year incumbent from Reston , VA , will debate challengers Marie T. Huhtala (I), also of Reston, and Spike Williams(I) of Herndon , VA.

A third candidate, Geraldine Butkus (IG) of Vienna , VA , is not expected to attend.

The public is cordially invited and encouraged to attend and participate in this event.

Elections for this position will be held on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007.

Thanks for pointing him out Pontif8tor.

Candidate Williams took the time and effort to respond:

Dear Vienna Homeowners:

Thank you for the great questions, this is an issue that is weighing heavy on the minds of people that approach me wanting to know what I will do to protect Fairfax County. The following are my responses to the questions posed to the Fairfax County Hunter Mill District Supervisor candidates.

1.) Please provide your personal statement regarding the status of illegal aliens residing in our community.

A: I am alarmed by the direction our current Board of Supervisors is going in. There is a conscious and deliberate agenda that Mr. Connolly, and those on the Board that support him, have to make Fairfax a Sanctuary County. Members of the community have reported hearing Cathy Hudgins announce that Fairfax County already checks the immigration status of persons that are stopped by police, yet makes it clear that the County does not verify the authenticity of the ID provided! What is the message to the illegal immigrants in Prince William and Loudoun County’s, where local governments are willing to make hard decisions? It tells them, come to Fairfax County, we will look the other way. It is just this type of complicit behavior that exacerbates our open southern border and contributes to the risk to our national security.

I consider people who are in our country illegally to be criminals, no matter what their economic, ethnic or religious background, just as I consider a person committing white collar crimes to be a criminal. Fairfax County needs to have strong leadership who will enforce the laws in a fair and compassionate manner; Fairfax County needs Gary Baise as Chairman and me as the Hunter Mill District representative on the Board of Supervisors.

2.) Do you support/not support the use of tax payer funds to provide public services to those individuals with illegal status in the state of VA or county of Fairfax?

A: I do not support the use of taxpayer funds to provide public services to illegal immigrants. We have a finite amount of resources to provide necessary and essential public services, and a responsibility to deliver them to our taxpaying legal citizens. We must not fail our taxpayers, or allow these resources to be depleted by people who have no legal or practical claim to access them.

Federal law entitles illegal immigrants to the use of our public schools and emergency medical care, both of which we all pay for, one way or another. Additionally, we implicitly endorse the use of our roads and infrastructure by providing drivers licenses to individuals without confirming the authenticity of their identity. Many such recipients do not contribute to the tax base that provides these services to them. I believe we owe it to our taxpaying legal citizens to put in place an effective protocol for verifying identity and legal status before extending public services beyond those I have identified as protected by the federal government.

3.) VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell has endorsed local governments to participate in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program 287(g). Do you support/not-support Fairfax County and surrounding local governments in participating in the ICE 287(g) program?

A: I support the involvement of Fairfax County in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program 287(g)

4.) What specifically will you propose as measures to address the growing population of those who are of illegal immigration status in the County?

A: I propose to clean up my own back yard first. Fairfax County should be ensuring that the employees of the contractors the County hires are legal residents. I will also hold the private sector to the same standard. If we take away the appeal of employment from illegal immigrants they will go elsewhere to find work.

I will support our police to receive 287(g) training so that they can better work with ICE officers to remove illegal immigrants from Fairfax County. I look forward to closely assisting Patrick McDade as our new Commonwealth’s Attorney, to address the additional criminal activity symptomatic of illegal immigrants, such as gang activity, illegal residential boarding houses and tax evasion.

BRgds,

Spike

Michael Williams

www.vote4spike.org

Williams Realty

Mobile: 703-244-0006

Spike:

I have not yet decided whom I will vote for but I am very impressed that you have the "nerve" to post your responses. You definitely cut through a lot of proverbial bulls%&t.

I don't know much about the candidates, but I'm sure going to look at someone other than Cathy Hudgins. What I do know is that Cathy Hudgins couldn't care less about Vienna. Have any of you ever seen her email Newsletters? There is seldom anything about the Vienna area. She doesn't care about Vienna. We are not her constituents. They all live out Hunter Mill Road and beyond and Vienna is beyond her view of her constituency. Vote for anyone except Cathy Hudgins!

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors: Throw the incumbents out!

The Washington DC Examiner
2007-10-26
WASHINGTON -

Choosing among candidates for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is easy this year. Incumbents who voted for the $4.5 billion Dulles Rail project do not deserve re-election. That leaves only retiring Sup. Dana Kauffman, D-Lee, and Sup. Linda Q. Smyth, D-Providence, who is running unopposed. Something is clearly amiss when the former chairman of the Metro Board and the supervisor whose district includes Tysons Corner can’t vote for this boondoggle. The other supervisors should have taken the hint.

They didn’t, so here are The Examiner’s choices:

Chairman: Gary Baise

Board Chairman Gerald Connolly’s failure to recuse himself on a critical vote that placed Metro stations right next to land owned by his employer in both Tysons Corner and Reston disqualifies him from another term. Under Connolly, traffic has gotten much worse, and property taxes have spiralled. It it will only get worse if he is re-elected.

Unfortunately, Republican challenger Gary Baise has run a lackluster campaign, but he has offered long-overdue reforms to make transportation the county’s No. 1 priority, subject all spending to an outside audit, make grants and contracts publicly available online, and vigorously enforce housing codes.

Braddock, Mount Vernon and Sully: Nobody

Dulles Rail supporters Sharon Bulova, D-Braddock, Gerald Hyland, D-Mount Vernon, and Michael Frey, R-Sully, face only token opposition from Independent Green candidates who want even more inconvenient, prohibitively expensive rail for Fairfax County commuters.

Dranesville: John Foust

Dranesville voters should retire Republican incumbent Joan DuBois, who voted for Dulles Rail and then claimed that traffic in Tysons “isn’t that bad” at 11 a.m.! DuBois was also conspicuously silent on the county-funded Herndon day labor center that made national news.

Democrat John Foust understands the Dulles Rail Project’s many serious shortcomings. A construction lawyer and former McLean Citizens Association president, Foust calls the no-bid, no-fixed-price contract with Bechtel “a potential disaster” for taxpayers. His clear-eyed assessment of the future financial liability imposed by Dulles Rail on county taxpayers contrasts starkly to the current board’s willful disregard of the public interest.

Hunter Mill: Marie Huhtala

Instead of rewarding Sup. Catherine Hudgins, D-Hunter Mill, for her follow-the-chairman support of Dulles Rail, voters should give the nod to Independent Marie Huhtala, a retired ambassador-turned-civic activist who led the charge against Hudgins’ secret plan to put high-density housing near the South Reston Park & Ride despite vociferous public opposition. Hunter Mill residents deserve a supervisor who fights for them — not against them.

Lee: Jeff McKay

Dana Kauffman has immense political courage, and his retirement is a great loss. Chief of Staff Jeff McKay, who has worked side by side with Kauffman for 11 years, can’t fill his boss’ shoes, but such day-to-day experience will prove invaluable in managing huge disruptions from the Base Realignment and Closure initiative and proposed redevelopment of Springfield Mall now on the horizon.

Republican Doug Boulter, a retired Army officer, has run an excellent, issues-oriented campaign, but the next Lee District supervisor needs to hit the ground running. McKay already has the experience and staff contacts to make the coming transition as painless as humanly possible.

Mason: Vellie Dietrich Hall

Despite 12 years on the board, incumbent Sup. Penelope Gross is ineffectual. Gross studiously ignored constituents’ many complaints about illegal boardinghouses — including one near Gallows Road with three front doors. She spends more time rubber-stamping votes on various regional bodies than dealing with issues that directly affect her constituents.

Republican challenger Vellie Dietrich Hall is the kind of immigrant Northern Virginia needs: Legal, hardworking and patriotic. She is an energetic campaigner who promises to pay closer attention to quality-of-life issues like crime and overcrowding (several single-family homes in Mason District she visited had been turned into flophouses) while representing the county’s growing Asian community.

Springfield: Pat Herrity

Retiring Republican Sup. Elaine McConnell sat on her hands as Connolly and the Democratic majority radically altered Fairfax County.

Republican Pat Herrity’s top three issues are transportation, protecting neighborhoods and keeping taxes low. The technology executive is determined to use the tough negotiating tactics he learned from his late father, Jack Herrity, who wrangled more money for transportation from private businesses when he was chairman of the board than all local, state and federal sources combined.

The younger Herrity points to a $10,000 offer to offset the impact of two 10-story condo towers near his office in Merrifield as a perfect example of “Condo Connolly’s” failure to demand significant impact investments by developers before approving their high-density rezoning applications.

Fairfax Times newspaper:

Hunter Mill candidates focuses on Vienna - (first sentence follows)

"Much of the discourse in the race has focused on the issues confronting the Reston area, and questions on the Reston initiative and Lake Anne revitalization even made their way into Sunday's forum"

I went to a Vienna meeting and a debate about Reston broke-out.

http://www.fairfaxtimes.com/news/2007/oct/30/hunter-mill-candidates-focuses-vienna/

Candidate Connolly response (sort-of) via WaPo:

Vienna, Va.: Mr. Connolly:

I recently (10/05/07) requested your public response to the following questions:

In consideration of your election campaign for the office of Fairfax County Board Supervisor, the Vienna Citizens Group has the following questions concerning the community:

Do you support/not support the use of tax payer funds to provide public services to those individuals with illegal status in the state of VA or county of Fairfax?

VA Attorney General Bob McDonnell has endorsed local governments to participate in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program 287(g). Do you support/not-support Fairfax County and surrounding local governments in participating in the ICE 287(g) program?

What specifically will you propose as measures to address the growing population of those who are of illegal immigration status in the Commonwealth?

The voters of Vienna, Va., are very interested in your reply.

Thank you.

Gerald Connolly: In Fairfax, we are focused on illegal behavior and getting results. That's why I formed the Strike Force to crack down on illegal boarding houses. That's why I started the gang prevention initiative almost four years ago. That is why our Sheriff participates in the immigration program that detains illegals already incarcerated and transfers them to federal officials. We already deny more than two dozen services to those who cannot prove they are here legally. We have an aggressive program that has produced results for our neighborhoods and our citizens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/10/31/DI2007103102204.html

Candidate Baise response:

Dear Vienna SE/SW Homeowners:

I believe in enforcing all laws and when elected you can be sure I will request the Police Chief and his entire force to do so. If a person is here illegally and the police find this out, that person should be arrested and turned over to the federal government (ICE) as quickly as possible. If you break into my car, that is illegal. If you break into my house, that is illegal. If you break into my country, that is illegal.

I support what Prince William and Loudoun Counties are trying to do. I think Fairfax should join them and not become a sanctuary county. The current Chairman has stated the “welcome mat is out” and I don’t think that should be the answer.

Tax dollars should not be used on illegal aliens. Congestion and taxes are related to the illegal alien issue as these people are draining our coffers and creating hazards on the roads.

I support the 287 (g) training that is being done in the Sheriff’s office and in the town of Herndon . I am against racial profiling but if the police have probable cause to stop someone, then the police should.

Please go to my website for more information.

Thank you.

Gary Baise