Despite a relatively slow month of fundraising in which his opponent out-raised him almost 4 to 1, Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald Connolly remained at the top of the heap in campaign cash at the end of June, according to the county’s latest reports.
But of the Connolly campaign’s 31 cash contributions in June of more than $100, 14 came from firms or employees of firms involved in land use, development, property management or other related fields.
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Those contributions, though they added up to less than $5,000 of the $16,499 Connolly raised in June, went into a war chest for which the “real estate/construction” sector is the single largest contributor, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which lists state campaign finance data online. That sector, as of May, accounted for $327,750 of the about $900,000 Connolly has raised this election cycle, according to VPAP.
Connolly had $797,335 on hand at the end of June, according to Fairfax County.
Republican challenger Gary Baise raised $61,523 last month. Baise has pledged not to take any development money from firms doing business in the county, and has attacked Connolly for creating “an appearance of” a conflict of interest in his role as supervisor approving land-use decisions.
“We’ve obviously assumed [Connolly] is going to get good development support,” said John Pudner, a consultant for Baise’s campaign. “The concern is there are more developers that have business in front of the Board of Supervisors.”
Connolly’s campaign counters that Baise does accept money from companies that aren’t explicitly developers, but nevertheless are involved in real estate. Baise’s largest donor in June, mortgage broker Global Financials Inc., gave him $6,500.
“We’re certainly aware that people will try to make a political opportunity out of the fact that [Connolly] has support from the business community,” said Connolly campaign manager James Walkinshaw. “But I think especially in our opponent’s case, that opportunity shows through when they’re taking more [real estate] money than we are in this particular month.”
