We Now Have a Republican Candidate for the Fairfax County School Board Vacancy

Back on May 23, Blue Virginia reported (a scoop) that Republican School Board at-large incumbent Jeanette Hough (R) would be stepping down, setting up a special election for her seat. On the Republican side, I was hearing at the time that their likely candidate was going to be realtor Kyle McDaniel, the former Policy Director for Fairfax Supervisor Pat Herrity (R). Now, according to northern Virginia Tea Party blog The Bull Elephant, McDaniel appears out of the race, while Chris Grisafe is in.

There’s not a lot of information about Grisafe out there, from what I can tell, other than a few videos (e.g., his 2011 announcement speech for Fairfax County Board).  Other than that, in 2011, Grisafe ran against incumbent Fairfax County Board member Linda Smyth (D) and lost “bigly,” 63%-37%. Here’s what the Washington Post editorial board had to say at the time about Grisafe’s “tissue-thin” grasp of “policy and politics,” as well as his complete lack of “any experience or qualification for the job.”

So…yeah, there’s that. I guess we’ll see if the “tissue” has gotten any less “thin” since 2011, also whether Grisafe has gained “any experience or qualification for the job over the past six years.

Meanwhile, see here for Fairfax County Democratic Committee Chair Sue Langley’s statement regarding Jeanette Hough’s resignation, amidst “[t]roubling signs indicate that Republicans may have pressured Ms. Hough to resign early.”  No question, Hough was planning to resign due to her husband’s “job transfer overseas,” but by resigning now, instead of in a few weeks, that means the election will be this summer instead of in November, costing Fairfax County taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars and almost certainly resulting in (far) lower turnout than would be the case in November, when the state will elect a new governor, a Lt. Governor, an Attorney General and the entire House of Delegates. Gee, wonder why Republicans might want the lowest possible turnout in deep-blue Fairfax County. Hmmmm.

We’ll see who Democrats nominate endorse, but whoever it is, we definitely need to make sure we take back this School Board seat from the anti-government, anti-LGBT right wing.