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Sun Gazette
GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA
VOLUME 40
NO. 13
DECEMBER 20-26, 2018
Smyth Preps For ‘19 Supervisor Plans for Busy Year as Tenure Nears End BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
U.S. Rep.-elect Jennifer Wexton (D-10th) tells the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce Dec. 13 about her preparations before taking office in January. Wexton defeated Republican Barbara Comstock and will be the first Democrat to hold the seat in 38 years. PHOTO BY BRIAN TROMPETER
Wexton in ‘Whirlwind’ as She Readies for Office BRIAN TROMPETER Staff Writer
U.S. Rep-elect Jennifer Wexton (D-10th) on Nov. 6 finished a grueling campaign to unseat incumbent Barbara Comstock (R), but the new representative has had little time to rest before taking office. “It’s been a whirlwind month since that time,” Wexton told Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce members at a Dec. 13 breakfast meeting.
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Incoming members of Congress have undergone three weeks of orientation on Capitol Hill, followed by a week of policy training at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. After being sworn in Jan. 3, they will undergo another week of policy orientation in Williamsburg, conducted by the Congressional Research Service. Wexton contrasted this extensive preparation with her bare-bones orientation in the state Senate, which occurred two weeks
into the 2014 session. “Here’s your desk. Green is yea, red is nay, yellow is abstain. Welcome to Richmond,” she said. The new freshman class includes the House’s first-ever pair of Muslim-American women, the first two Latina women from Texas and its two youngest members are 29-year-old women, said Wexton, who was among two female law-school gradu-
After nearly two decades of handling some of Fairfax County’s largest and most nettlesome land-use cases, Supervisor Linda Smyth (DProvidence) is ready to let someone else handle the burden. Smyth announced at the board’s Dec. 4 meeting that she would not seek another term next year. “It just seemed like a reasonable time,” she said. “My husband’s ready to retire. We will do all the things we’ve been putting off: traveling, things around the house. People don’t realize how much time a job like this consumes.” A former civic activist and Planning Commission member,
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