Even on those rare occasions when members of our all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors actually attempt to represent their constituents, they are no match for the rest of the ideologues on the Board, or of the party hacks and “business” representatives that Chairman Scott York (R-At Large) has packed all of the government commissions with in his ongoing show of gratitude to the Loudoun Republican machine for readmitting him to the fold in 2011 — and to the commercial developers who dumped half a million dollars into the 2011 election, nearly all of that going to Republican candidates.
A case in point was the Board’s vote last week to accept the recommendation of the Government “Reform” Commission, packed with party hacks and “business” representatives, and abolish a volunteer fire company that serves a rural part of Western Loudoun. Despite a rare show of opposition by the three supervisors who represent Western Loudoun, they could not stop the rest of the Board from going along with this “reform.” Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin), Janet Clarke (R-Blue Ridge), and Ken “Ken” Reid (R-Leesburg) didn’t stand a chance against York’s ideological rubber stamp Board, which swiftly voted to abolish the Neersville volunteer fire company.
As York himself declared after the 2011 election when the Republicans swept into office following York’s stab in the back of all the Democrats and independents who had stuck with him over the many years that he bucked the GOP machine and resisted the development industry as an independent, “How sweet it is.”
Something to remember when Higgins et al. put on a show of representing the rural west. The fact is, no matter how much lip service they pay to caring about historic communities and the rural economy, they can’t deliver as long as the rest of the Board serves the developer-business-right-wing-wacko ideologues who control the local Republican Party machine with their backroom conventions, big bucks, and bullying tactics.
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