Late in the race for Fairfax County’s Springfield District, Pat Herrity’s opponent warned the Republican would return the 10-member board to “the divisiveness of the past” if elected.
The prediction may prove true; Herrity, who promises to keep illegal immigration as a priority issue for the Board of Supervisors and form a citizen task force to review the county’s spending, seems primed for four years of butting heads with the board’s 8-2 Democratic majority. His presence also could present a new thorn in the side of Chairman Gerry Connolly, whose first term was marked by overwhelming unanimity and lack of public contention.
Recommended Stories
“It’s not about me, it’s not about Chairman Connolly, it’s about getting the best answer for the citizens of Fairfax County, and we should both be on the same page there,” Herrity said.
Both Herrity and Connolly won election Tuesday by wide margins.
The son of late Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Herrity, Pat Herrity has been enmeshed in county politics his entire life. However, he enters his first term as a supervisor wading into uncharted and shaky territory, and faces an uphill battle in pushing a series of policy goals that contradict the board’s current strategy.
He vowed not to enter the position in December with “guns blazing.”
“I’m not going to come in there with the purpose of grandstanding or upstaging the board,” he said.
Vice Chairman Sharon Bulova, who represents the Braddock District, hoped to continue the board’s collegiality, though she expects disagreements ahead.
“We’ve had an extremely collegial board, it has been a bipartisan board, and there have been very few votes that have fallen on partisan lines,” she said.
Herrity isn’t the only newcomer likely to diverge from consensus. John Foust, a Democrat who defeated Republican incumbent Joan DuBois in the Dranesville District, has promised to push for competitive bidding and a tunnel under Tysons Corner for the 23-mile extension of Metro to Washington Dulles International Airport, two issues the board has long since abandoned in favor of moving the project forward.
