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ELECTION GUIDE
Evan D. Macbeth is a husband and father of two from Leesburg. A Democrat active in our community, Evan holds degrees from UVa and George Washington University. He and his wife both work for Loudoun-based companies and their children attend Loudoun County public schools.
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Sports
As in Catoctin, the Dulles District race has heated up quickly over the past few weeks. Businessman Anjan S. Chimaladinne, a Democrat, was one of the last supervisor candidates to get in this year’s race, but he’s recently fired off a string of allegations at incumbent Republican Matthew F. Letourneau, who chairs the Loudoun board’s finance and economic development committees. “In politics, your record is up for debate,” Chimaladinne said in a statement issued a week ago. He has questioned his opponent on campaign contributions, the overhaul of a county government computer system and on when he
The Leesburg seat on the Board of Supervisors is another post that’s open as Supervisor Kenneth D. Reid, a former Leesburg town councilman, decided not to seek a second term. The Republican announced January Name: Gary Clemens for in Clerk that he wouldn’t run just as he was about to Number: face Ad another elected00012711 official well known in Loudoun’s county seat: Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd. The popular town leader is the Democratic nominee in the district, and she will face William A. “Will” Estrada, a Republican who is making his first run for office. Estrada, a lawyer who works for the Home School Legal Defense Association, said he knows that he faces an uphill climb if he is to be elected. Though she is running as a Democrat, for example, Umstattd has touted a belief in fiscal conservatism. Political observers, however, have said recently that Estrada is waging a good campaign, and the candidate noted that he’s raised more money than Umstattd in this election
Like Supervisor Buona in the Ashburn District, Koran T. Saines already had to score one win this year just to get to the Nov. 3 ballot. Buona defeated nomination challenger Joe Scalione at a GOP convention May 2, and Saines that same day bested two other Democrats, Tony Barney and Bahri “Barry” Aliriza, for his party’s nod. That victory pushed Saines to a matchup against Sterling District incumbent Eugene A. Delgaudio, a Republican. Delgaudio is arguably Loudoun board’s archconservative and almost certainly its most controversial member. He has been denounced for anti-gay political stances and faced an effort last year to remove him from office over alleged ethical violations that resulted in formal sanctions by the board. Delgaudio withstood those criticisms, though, and is seeking a fifth term. Saines counters that electing a new supervisor is appropriate. “People are just ready for some change,” he said. To win, the challenger may need a strong turnout from Sterling’s Hispanic community, a demographic group that other candidates haven’t successfully attracted. And Saines said, “We have been reaching out to them.” The Democrat also has had to weather Republicans’ calls for him to exit the race based on drunken-driving convictions in 2003 and in 2007. Those calls came first last month and have continued. Last week, Delgaudio took a shot at Saines in an email newsletter announcing to constituents and supporters that the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office would hold a weekend sobriety checkpoint. “I strongly condemn irresponsible behavior, and I forgive people who have corrected their behavior,” the Republican wrote. “But I cannot condone candidates in either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party or any party who don’t know when to stop partying.” Saines remains undeterred, though. “I’m not letting my past determine my future,” the challenger said. n
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This district seat also is open because Williams hadn’t planned to seek re-election even before he resigned last month. The contest is between Republican Ron A. Meyer Jr. and Democrat Al R. Nevarez, and much of the talk in the campaign has been about transportation, particularly on toll roads. The main plank that Meyer, a media executive, is running on is providing an alternative for drivers who don’t want to use the Dulles Greenway. He proposes extending Shellhorn Road to connect to Sterling Boulevard, creating one path all the way to Rt. 28. The new route would parallel the Greenway, and it is one that county staff members are examining on their own, or, in other words, regardless of who wins in Broad Run. Meyer and Nevarez both also have decried a plan by Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration to charge tolls on I-66 inside the Beltway during rush hour. That idea has been roundly criticized even by McAuliffe’s fellow Democrats, such as Nevarez, who said he understands all too well the plight of com-
The political atmosphere in this district, which stretches from central Loudoun all the way to the county’s northern border, was relatively quiet this year until early this month. That’s when incumbent Supervisor Geary M. Higgins, a Republican, and his Democratic challenger, Hamilton Town Councilman Craig M. Green, began exchanging barbs about a simple matter: attendance at meetings of their respective governments. First, Green said that Higgins has missed 12 percent of all supervisors’ meeting since taking office in 2012. “You’ve got to be there and push and advocate for your issues,” Green said. However, Higgins said that his research shows that the Democrat has missed lots of meetings of the Hamilton council. Green has an overall absence rate of 26 percent, the Republican said. Higgins also said that no constituent has ever complained to him about his attendance record. And the incumbent has talked to a lot of Catoctin residents lately, saying earlier this month that he had campaigned at 3,000 or more homes. “I’ve been working hard,” he said, “doing a lot of door-knocking.”
season: $41,471 to date, according to state campaign finance records, compared with the mayor’s $30,628. “It’s been a lot of hard work,” he said Monday.
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knew about a controversial project in which Dominion Virginia Power wants to put power lines along Rt. 50. On the latter, Chimaladinne said that Letourneau has a conflict of interest because the Republican works for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, of which Dominion is a member. “This is unacceptable and speaks volumes about Matt’s ethical standards,” the challenger said in a prepared statement. Letourneau, however, has been a vocal opponent of Dominion’s preferred route for months now, and he noted in a response to Chimaladinne’s charges that he has confirmed with the county attorney’s office that his work on Dominion projects as a supervisor is not a conflict. “My work in communications for the world’s largest business trade association— with over 300,000 members—has nothing to do with my service on the Board of Supervisors,” the incumbent said. “I do not work for Dominion, have never been paid by Dominion or have ever received a political contribution from Dominion.” Indeed, Letourneau said that the whole Dulles South community is involved with opposing Dominion’s placement of the lines along 50. “It is a shame that my opponent is seeking to capitalize on this issue to try to score points for his campaign, and it is disgraceful that he has decided to attack my integrity in the process,” the supervisor said.
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is not seeking a second term, so the race pits GOP nominee Tony R. Buffington Jr., who works in federal law enforcement, against independent Richard A. Jimmerson Jr. Both candidates say they’d like to increase the reliability of broadband access, especially because it affects lots of different parts of life in western Loudoun. Students sometimes have a hard time completing homework because they can’t get as good of an Internet signal at home as they do at school, Jimmerson noted. And Buffington pointed out that some rural businesses have a hard time processing sales, which, obviously, could harm their bottom line. As many as 30,000 Loudoun households are estimated to be underserved in terms of Web connection, and most of them are in the rural western part of the county. Why has this happened? The small number and low density of homes in that area makes getting a good return on investment challenging for Internet service providers, and the natural landscape can hamper wireless signals. How bad is it? Jimmerson, who works in the Internet industry, said he heard from a married couple who used to live in Africa that they had a better broadband signal there than in Middleburg.
muters. “I’m on 66 every morning,” said the economic researcher, who works in Washington, DC. And while the hopefuls see eye to eye on this negative, they also each said it’s good that their race has been one of policy stances, not personal attacks. Too many of the other contests this year have grown nasty, Meyer said. “I think that’s really unfortunate,” he said.
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