As one of the moderators, I had a front-row seat for last month’s Prince William Chamber of Commerce debate between Board of County Supervisors at-large chair candidates Deshundra Jefferson and Jeanine Lawson.
While the debate was heated – and at times confrontational and even uncomfortable – what struck me the most was both candidates’ professionalism, poise and passion for our community. This was epitomized when the candidates were asked to say one nice thing about their opponent.
Jefferson, the Democrat, praised Lawson for what she said she had heard was Lawson’s outstanding constituent service during her years as Brentsville District supervisor. And Lawson, the Republican, said the best thing about Jefferson was that she defeated incumbent Board Chair Ann Wheeler in the Democratic primary.
Lawson no doubt was less happy about Tuesday night’s results, as Jefferson defeated her in the general election, but in a Democratic-leaning county, that wasn’t a big surprise. And if Lawson truly wants to help the county, she will put her disappointment aside and accept Jefferson’s invitation to meet and work together.
For Jefferson, her hardest work is ahead. She is still a newcomer to local politics. She will take over a board that has been splintered along party lines. Wheeler’s term was marked by Democrats using their 5-3 majority time and time again to push through initiatives and projects over fierce Republican objections – at times appearing to even ignore citizen input.
Four of those five Democrats will be back on the board for the next four years, and they will still be in the majority. When Jefferson takes the helm in January, the board will be coming off its most contentious decision perhaps in county history if it goes through with plans to vote on the PW Digital Gateway rezonings next month. Jefferson has said she will listen to all stakeholders – Prince William voters will be watching to be sure she keeps her word.
She can start by following through on her pledge to put a hold on all data center rezonings – as much as legally possible – until the county can complete what should be a comprehensive and holistic review of data centers and all their impacts. Tuesday’s outcome was not a repudiation of data centers – but nor was it an endorsement of them.
Data centers have their benefits and their drawbacks. County professionals and politicians – with feedback from the public – need time to determine where it makes the most sense to build them, how their impacts – from environmental to aesthetic – can be mitigated, and how they should be taxed to ensure the county is receiving maximum value to reduce the burden on residential taxpayers.
That work will require a detailed focus, it will require attention, and it will require a leader with the ability to put aside politics, get beyond the NIMBY-ism (Not In My Backyard), and listen to all stakeholders – not just those with big pockets and five-figure campaign contributions.
Time will tell whether Deshundra Jefferson can be that leader. But if she accomplishes nothing else, bringing some sanity to the data center debate will make her term a success.
Bruce Potter is publisher of InsideNoVa. He can be reached at bpotter@insidenova.com.
(5) comments
This is just an attempt to do damage control after Lawson's defeat.
Inside Nova has provided a credible rational perspective around the unrestrained push for data center development from the outset. Good land use proposals balance the negative impacts of development on individual communities AND the broader wider benefits.
NIMBY has been an oft abused term. For those who will benefit personally from literally selling their "back yard" far beyond market value could certainly be accused of an inverse NIMBY, caring ONLY about their windfall profits. While those who see what was intended to be rural policies, instead developed into the most polar opposite use of intense industrial uses with associated impacts- tranmsission lines and substations, these people accused of NIMBY have learned Data Center development has impacts far beyond their backyard when it comes to power, water, and climate change.
The distorted narrative of the intended purpose of the rural crescent as a land use tool has been divisive and hurtful to those in the smart growth and conservation community. There was a time that the rural crescent played a unique role in bring people from all political ideology together, marrrying protecting green space with protecting critical infrastructure tax dollars.
I have said for more than three years, while the consequences of bad land use decisions can have incredibly detrimental long term impacts, the cynical sowing of division of PWC residents for political power gain has been the most dangerous and depressing result of Ann Wheeler's reign.
I believe the future has not been written and Chair Deshundra Jefferson has an opportunitity to knit this community back together. We are one Prince William, and we will rise ,or sink, together. The eyes of the world are watching what happens next..................
Thanks to Inside NOVA publisher Bruce Patter for his excellent editorial on the near-term prospects for repairing political discourse in Prince William County.
Ann Wheeler’s term as Board Chair has been a lesson in autocracy, where her Democratic majority was repeatedly used as a bludgeon to quash dissent and employ un-democratic tactics to railroad through unpopular projects that rewarded her “pay-for-play” donors. Despite the rejection of her discordant leadership by her own party, she is determined to remain true to form until her last day in office. Shameless and pathetic.
Wheeler’s scorched earth policy continues to exacerbate the profound damage she has already done to the fabric of our county government. Cynicism and distrust abounds, largely because she consistently demonized large swaths of her constituency and deliberately exploited geographic and demographic divisions to advance developer ambitions. Now that the county desperately needs healing from her divisive tenure, her intention is to widen and deepen the chasm in her last weeks.
The remaining Democratic supervisors need to turn the page on the Wheeler regime and give her successor a chance to repair the damage. In a recent letter to the editor in Inside NOVA, I wrote: “Democratic supervisors need to follow Ms. Jefferson’s lead and pivot from their discredited developer-centric focus to a more citizen-friendly one. No more unnecessarily expending time and political capital on fealty to corporate donors while basic issues in their districts are neglected.”
The new Democratic majority needs to turn away from their troubled past, embrace Democratic principles, and help pave a brighter path for Prince William County.
The publisher is Bruce Potter. Apologies for the typo.
Love your selected reading.
Here is the most important part of Bruce's article.
"That work will require a detailed focus, it will require attention, and it will require a leader with the ability to put aside politics, get beyond the NIMBY-ism (Not In My Backyard),"
Claiming Wheeler's loss, in an off year election, is the majority standing against data centers is like claiming Youngkin's election turned VA into a red (or even purple state).
We have four pro-data center candidates on the ballot in election this month and all four of them got re-elected.
Jefferson can't stop any approvals between now and January. By the time she takes office, the issue will probably be moot. And she is not committed to protecting the rural crescent. So development will likely continue to happen on her watch. Haymarket/Gainsville is just about out of space. Next will be Nokesville.
Looking forward to the data centers being completed near Haymarket. Most local residents will yawn as they pass them on the way to Virginia Gateway. Life will move on, but with more tax revenue and critical IT infrastructure.
At the end of the day, people prefer their cat videos to the skylines of a tiny, tiny, sliver of PWC voters.
Wheeler will do well once she leaves office. But then again, she had a successful career prior to politics.
I worry about Lawson. She never had much of a career before politics and she does not have Wheeler's academic pedigree.
My bet she will be the new Chair for Moms for "Liberty" with a focus on banning award winning books that discuss critical ideas like racism.
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