He’s a serious-minded, Chamber of Commerce-style Republican in the mold of former congressman Tom Davis. That’s why several prominent Democrats have endorsed Mr. Herrity, including state Sen. Chap Petersen and former Fairfax County commonwealth’s attorney Raymond F. Morrogh. He’s a good complement to the 9-1 Democratic majority in a county that traditionally values pragmatism.
“It’s unhealthy to have just one side presented,” Mr. Herrity explains. He was one of two supervisors to vote in March against 30 percent pay increases for themselves. He pushed to reopen public schools during the coronavirus pandemic when the Democratic establishment and teacher unions wanted to keep them closed. A certified public accountant, he has long championed fiscal restraint. He helped shepherd two rounds of much-needed pension reform for county employees, raising the retirement age and fixing warped incentive structures that prompted early retirements. He proposes detailed alternative budgets every year and explains his thinking in newsletters to constituents. Mr. Herrity’s bean-counting expertise would be especially valuable in the event of a harder-than-expected economic landing.
In a region famous for road traffic, Mr. Herrity can boast of more than $600 million in road improvements underway in the district to reduce congestion, including the widening of Fairfax County Parkway, as well as Routes 28 and 29. He was an early booster of the HOT lanes on the Beltway and helped draft the Northern Virginia Transportation Compact in 2000. After two 16-year-old girls died in January while in a car that was speeding over 100 miles per hour on a treacherous stretch of Lee Chapel Road, Mr. Herrity quickly got $5 million in county funding redirected and then worked with Democratic legislators to get $4 million in state money to remove two hills that teens often use to try catching air in their cars. Mr. Herrity also has better relationships with Republicans in Richmond than his colleagues, which allows him to lobby more effectively amid divided government.
His father, Jack Herrity (R), who passed away in 2006, was a legendary county board chairman who helped lay the foundation for Fairfax’s development boom in the 1970s and 1980s, including the transformation of Tysons Corner from dairy farmland into a commercial center. The younger Mr. Herrity now chairs the 50-Plus Committee on the Board of Supervisors, which addresses issues related to the aging population.
To be sure, we do not always agree with Mr. Herrity. For example, he voted against a tax on plastic bags that makes sense on budgetary and environmental grounds. And he sometimes votes no on legislation he helped shape rather than back final passage because he knows it will pass without him.
Democratic challenger Albert Vega has lived in the county for less than three years. “Springfield is changing,” he says, as he argues for throwing out the old guard. After earning a PhD in electrical engineering in 2010, he spent 10 months in Afghanistan working for a government contractor in a mobile prototyping lab to help improve soldiers’ use of technology. In 2015, he co-founded a company that trains people on how to use technology.
Despite this intriguing record, Mr. Vega seems to lack an in-depth understanding of the complex issues facing Fairfax County, answering substantive questions by repeating clichés about being a “problem solver.” On an issue such as transportation, for instance, he says he will be “more proactive than reactive.” His big idea is to create a chief technology officer position across county departments, an idea worth considering, but not one that truly distinguishes him.
Mr. Vega has tried to gain traction by raising culture war topics. After the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Mr. Herrity voted with all the other supervisors to put a list of reproductive resources on the county’s website — but he also wanted adoption agencies to be included alongside abortion clinics. Based on votes such as this, Mr. Vega claims broadly that Mr. Herrity is running on “fear and frustration.” In fact, Mr. Herrity has an admirable record of decades of public service.
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