Chairman Hopefuls Offer Stark Contrasts

Republican Newcomer With Hands-Off Approach To Office Challenges Aggressive Political Veteran

One is a seasoned politician and a restless, kinetic policy maven, most comfortable when he's juggling a dozen ideas or initiatives. The other is a cool and confident man of the courtroom and the boardroom, who sees government service as a civic obligation, not a calling.

That only begins to describe the differences between incumbent Gerald E. Connolly (D) and Gary H. Baise (R), the two major-party choices Fairfax voters will have for chairman of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Also on the ballot is Independent Green candidate Glenda "Gail" Parker.

Although the chairman is the sole member of the 10-person board who is elected countywide -- the other nine supervisors run from magisterial districts -- the position has no extra statutory authority. The chairman's influence rides on the power of persuasion and the advantages of geography: The chairman is the only board member with an office on the fifth floor of the Government Center, near County Executive Anthony H. Griffin, who is responsible for day-to-day operations and executing policies framed by the supervisors.

Connolly, 57, a former U.S. Senate committee staff member and Providence District supervisor, is seeking his second term. A business-friendly moderate, he is campaigning on the six-point agenda he brought to office in 2003: affordable housing, education, transportation, environmental stewardship, anti-gang enforcement and tax reform. The Boston native and onetime Catholic seminarian, who describes his approach as "mission, passion, metrics," can measure some progress in most of these areas.

He championed the board's decision to set aside one penny of the tax rate to pay for improved storm water management and another for preservation of affordable housing, pouring millions of dollars into both objectives. He aggressively promoted environmentalism, collaborating with the Sierra Club to launch a national "cool counties" initiative aimed at reducing local greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. His blunt talk about gang violence in Fairfax helped lead to the creation of a task force that recently reported gang-related crime down by a third over the past year.

Under Connolly, the board has also deflected pressure to follow the lead of Prince William County in taking measures to cut off illegal immigrants from some services.

Critics say that some of Connolly's programs, such as the affordable-housing initiative, have been more sizzle than steak and that traffic has worsened while the centerpiece of his transportation program, the Metrorail extension to Dulles International Airport, remains mired in federal bureaucracy amid concerns over its escalating multibillion dollar cost. His relationship with SAIC (Science Applications International Corp.), a huge national security contractor and Tysons landowner, for which Connolly serves as vice president of community relations, has created concerns about conflict of interest. And even his friends say that his occasionally irritable manner with adversaries undermines his ability to lead.

Baise, 66, is a Falls Church trial lawyer running for his first political office, but he is no stranger to government. The Illinois native began his career in the Nixon-era Justice Department and then served as the first chief of staff to founding Environmental Protection Agency administrator William Ruckelshaus before following his mentor back to the Justice Department and ultimately rising to acting deputy attorney general.

For the past three decades, Baise has been a top trial lawyer, representing mostly corporate and agricultural clients before state and federal environmental agencies. Critics say he has been an enabler for polluters; Baise says he has only tried to combat the excesses of government regulators.

Baise says he is making his first -- and only -- run for office relatively late in life because he is concerned about the direction of the county. He often poses his version of Ronald Reagan's classic campaign question for audiences: "Is traffic better now than it was four years ago?"

Baise contends that road construction has been neglected in favor of such expensive mass transit projects as Dulles rail and that the county's spending in general has lacked discipline and accountability. He calls Connolly a "classic tax-and-spend liberal" and Baise says if elected, he would form a Fairfax "Grace Commission" to examine government operations from top to bottom.

Baise views the chairmanship as a part-time job, much like membership on a corporate board, offering oversight and direction to management. That would be a departure from Connolly's approach, which has been characterized by long work weeks and numerous weekend appearances.