VSS/Committee of 5(00?) Announce Endorsements

So the endorsements of the anti-sprawl community came out yesterday, and the Free Lance-Star put its spin on things. Here is my favorite one from Democratic Committee Chairman Jim Smith:

Jim Smith, chairman of the county’s Democratic Party and a former county supervisor, said the endorsements can help draw attention to issues, but he’s not sure how much impact they will have.

“The people will judge each one of the candidates on what they stand for and their past actions,” he said.

Smith’s party is not running any board candidates. “Partisan politics doesn’t really have a strong place in local politics,” he said. The Democrats plan to direct their energies to state Sen. Edd Houck’s re-election campaign.

But the county GOP is taking a different approach. Four candidates are running as Republicans.

Hagan, one of the Republicans, said partisan politics don’t play a substantial role in local government, but the party label is another clue for voters.

“There are people who will vote for a Republican before they will vote for a Democrat,” he said, “because it does suggest a pattern of voting on size of government and taxes.”

Go git ’em, Bob!

The fact of the matter is – while growth is a strong issue in the county – it is only an issue insomuch as it effects standards of living. In other words, taxes, education, and traffic. Those are your real issues folks, and unfortunately the Committee of 5 really doesn’t have the issues to make much of a difference. Yesterday’s rally was the aggregate total of environmentalists from around the area, which is personally sad to me, because (a) there should have been 1000 people there rather than 100, and (b) it shows the true depth of the anti-sprawl movement in the County. The Spotsy GOP can get 500 people to an event without blinking. . . that should tell you how much the party label matters in Spotsylvania County elections.

Unfortunately, VSS lumped its endorsement with the Cof5, which in my opinion only waters down the impact of the anti-sprawl agenda on this election. Sure I think its important (I align myself more with the VSS rather than the Committee of 500, and even more so with the Spotsy GOP), but not as important as the Free Lance-Star wants it to be.