With Nearly $270,000, Fairfax Chairman Strengthens Position for '07 Reelection
By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 28, 2005
The corned beef and potatoes spread moved down the street this year to the Shriners' temple, a space cavernous enough to handle the overflow crowd of Democrats who traditionally stop by Gerald E. Connolly's house outside Fairfax City on St. Patrick's Day.
Hours before the annual $35-a-head fundraiser, the County Board of Supervisors chairman shared filet mignon and cabernet sauvignon with 120 corporate titans and other high rollers at the swish Tower Club, the top-floor, members-only restaurant with a sweeping view of Tysons Corner. The lunch donors wrote checks for $1,000 and up.
Connolly (D) said he expects to collect a total of $130,000 from both events, boosting his campaign war chest to close to $270,000 two years before his race for reelection.
Midway through his first term, Fairfax County's top leader is raising his profile as a fundraising powerhouse, demonstrating the power of incumbency, lifting the stakes for the chairman's race in 2007 and setting records for campaign cash.
Connolly, 54, said he is preparing for a reelection campaign that he expects would cost him $1 million against a Republican.
"Democrats have to be competitive financially, and I'm not about to engage in unilateral disarmament," he said, expressing satisfaction with the "breadth and depth of support from big and little rollers."
The Gerry 2007 campaign is well in gear, with a Web site listing progress on policies he established as priorities when he took office in January 2004: affordable housing, gang prevention, cleaner water and air, road improvements and the extension of Metro through Tysons Corner to Dulles International Airport.
Connolly's predecessor, Katherine K. Hanley (D), held an annual breakfast fundraiser that brought in as much as $30,000. "It's not unusual to raise money throughout your term," Hanley said. "It's smart politics. The races are far more expensive than they used to be."
Both Democrats have made a mark as regional leaders, observers say. But in some ways Connolly has basked in the spotlight more, reviving Hanley's brief practice of giving an annual State of the County speech and taking the political risk of defining goals for his first term.
"Once you state goals and clearly articulate them, you open yourself up to failing to accomplish them," Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee) said. "The onus is on the chairman to stand and deliver."
Some political activists and officials say Connolly has an ambition beyond reelection: a run for Congress in the 11th District. Such a scenario would depend on falling dominoes: If Virginia Sen. John W. Warner (R) decided to retire in 2008, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R) widely would be expected to run for his seat. Connolly, a former staff worker on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, would be the leading Democrat to run in Davis's House district, which includes most of Fairfax and corners of Prince William County.
"Gerry realizes that this is a competitive county," said Davis, who declined to speak about his plans. "Having money in the bank preserves your options. He's in the catbird seat right now."
While the 11th is a GOP-friendly district, thanks largely to Republican redistricting in 2001, Fairfax Democrats say they were buoyed by Sen. John F. Kerry's 32,000-vote edge over President Bush in the county last fall.
Connolly, who leads a board dominated 7 to 3 by Democrats, said he is focused on his reelection campaign. But he acknowledged that in politics, "everything's timing, and opportunities obviously open."
Connolly has been a prodigious fundraiser since his days as supervisor in the Providence district, where he drew heavily from builders, developers, real estate agents and technology firms in Tysons. He also enjoys strong support from the firefighters union, which bought a table at the Tower Club fundraiser this year. And he notes his small donations from Democratic activists. More than 300 supporters showed up at Kena Temple in Mantua for this year's St. Patrick's Day fete.
"Gerry's going to be formidable," said Stuart Mendelsohn, a Republican from Great Falls who retired as a Dranesville supervisor in 2003. "He's scaring people off. He's telling prospective opponents, 'You're going to need all this money to take me on.' "
Connolly took in more than $700,000 in his race for chairman against Republican Mychele B. Brickner.
County Democrats say a challenge from within the party in 2007 is unlikely. On the Republican side, no likely opponent has emerged, Davis and other party leaders say.
Even with an empty GOP field, Republican activists say, Connolly is vulnerable on the same issues Brickner tried to use against him: traffic, development and, most prominently, rising real estate assessments.
"There's still a lot of anti-tax sentiment out there," said Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), noting that he hasn't "closed the door" on his own candidacy. The Board of Supervisors is likely to cut the property tax rate by at least 10 cents this year, but homeowners still will pay several hundred dollars more on average.
Some political activists say Gerald E. Connolly might consider running for Congress in the 11th District if the seat were to become open.