Fairfax County Supervisor Sharon Bulova stood amid some of Northern Virginia’s most powerful Democrats Wednesday to announce her candidacy for county chairman, picking up an early endorsement from the county’s influential firefighters union.
In the widely expected announcement, the board’s budget chairman touted Fairfax as among Virginia’s best-managed jurisdictions and promised to shepherd the county through the ongoing economic slump.
Bulova is vying for a seat left open by Chairman Gerry Connolly’s election to Congress last week. She will compete for the job, which is elected countywide, with Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, a freshman Republican who has frequently butted heads with Connolly and the board’s Democratic majority.
Bulova made her announcement outside the Backlick Road Virginia Railway Express Station in Springfield, highlighting her work helping establish the transit system. VRE “probably wouldn’t be here today” without Bulova, said Virginia Senate majority leader Richard Saslaw.
The Fairfax County Professional Fire Fighters and Paramedics, a top donor to Democratic candidates including Bulova, handed her their endorsement.
