Fairfax County Chairman Gerald Connolly is expected to announce his bid for re-election Friday, launching a high-profile campaign to capture his second term as the county’s top local official.
The 56-year-old Democrat, who casts himself as a pro-business moderate, has raised a war chest of about half a million dollars. He faces possible GOP opposition from D.C. lawyer Gary Baise, who expects to announce whether he’ll run by the end of the month. The commonwealth’s now apparently ubiquitous third-party candidate — Gail “for Rail” Parker, who has redirected her efforts after a failed Senate bid last year to the Board of Supervisors — also will challenge Connolly.
Though Connolly hasn’t formally announced his intentions to run, he talks openly about his campaign and has actively raised money ahead of November’s election. He has also hired a campaign manager, James Walkinshaw, who recently managed two local Democratic campaigns, including Andrew Hurst’s unsuccessful attempt to unseat Rep. Tom Davis, R-District 11. Connolly, a former Providence District supervisor, first won election as chairman in 2003.
The Fairfax County chairmanship could be considered the most prestigious of all the commonwealth’s local positions. Fairfax has a population of nearly 1.1 million and a proposed budget of about $5.8 billion.
Connolly said he has overseen a period of unprecedented “bipartisan collegiality and cooperation,” and he touts the real estate tax reduction and the board’s overall strategy of transit-based development among his accomplishments. He will likely, however, face attacks over the amount of residential growth the board approved in recent years and over Northern Virginia’s transportation crisis.
Baise, a former chief of staff to the first EPA administrator who also held high ranking positions in the Department of Justice, said he is doing “final due diligence” on his possible campaign and would withhold comment. The 65-year-old lives outside of Falls Church.
