A QUIET ELECTION?

Can you imagine a special election scheduled to take place on December 23, 2014? That is just two days before Christmas, but here in the Brentsville District of Prince William County, we will have one. Will anyone pay any attention?

Well, we, the citizens of Prince William County’s Brentsville District, should be paying attention. We will be replacing our member on the Board of Supervisors.

When I looked up the Ballot Information, here are the candidates I found listed at the Virginia State Board of Elections.

As the table shows, we have a contested election.

Oddly, Scott Jacobs does not have his website listed at the Virginia State Board of Elections, but he does have one => http://www.scottforbrentsville.com/.

Perhaps Jacobs tendency to foul up administrative details is part of a pattern. Earlier, he attempted to secure the Republican Party’s nomination. However, he could not get the paperwork in on time (see Scott Jacobs disqualified in GOP primary for Brentsville seat). Therefore, Jeanine Lawson secured the nomination, and the convention turned out to be a celebration with over 600 of Lawson’s fans in attendance. That was a huge turnout, and the nomination wasn’t even contested. So there is not much doubt Jacobs would have lost the vote.

Nevertheless, Jacobs has not given up (see Jacobs Launches Independent Bid for Supervisor Seat). Instead, he launched a campaign as an independent candidate. Since Jacob was still on the roster of the Prince William County Republican Committee, and he had signed a statement that he would not oppose the party’s nominees, at its last meeting party members voted to remove him from the roster. If he did intend to abide by the party’s rules, he should have joined the party.

What about the Democratic Party’s candidate? If Democrats actually bother to look beyond the label and check into his politics, I expect they will find Eric Young something of a political opportunist.

Young will run as a Democrat in the Dec. 23 special election. He was the only candidate to enter the local Democratic committee’s selection process, which means he’ll automatically get the party’s nod, committee chairman Harry Wiggins said Wednesday.

Wiggins said Young is a member of both the Brentsville and Prince William Democratic Committees, but when asked about his involvement with the local party, Young declined to elaborate.

“I’m going to refrain from commenting on that because I don’t think it matters what party you belong to,” he said.

Young also showed little interest in talking about some traditionally Democratic issues, such as affordable housing and alleviating homelessness. Affordable housing, he said, is not a top-tier concern among Brentsville residents. (from here)

If you don’t take what the party stands for seriously, then what is the point of running as a Democrat? If Jacobs can, at the last minute, decide to run as an Independent, what is stopping Young from doing the same thing?

Anyway, on December 9, 2014, we will have a great opportunity to meet the candidates and hear what each of them has to say. The Bristow Beat and Potomac Local have sponsored a debate 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, at Linton Hall School in Bristow. Here are the announcements from each publication.

• Brentsville Supervisor Candidates to Debate at Linton Hall School (potomaclocal.com)
• Brentsville Supervisor Candidates Agree to Debate (bristowbeat.com)