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Showdown Over
Loudoun
With Growth at Issue, Builders' Cash Fuels Races
By Michael Laris
Four years ago, voters turned
Now development interests, dismayed by the subsequent passage of some of the Washington region's toughest growth controls, are pouring cash into local campaigns on a scale they hope will transform the nation's second-fastest-growing county into a symbol of their industry's staying power.
Since July 2002, builders and other real estate interests have given candidates running for Loudoun's Board of Supervisors more than $460,000 -- seven times what they dispensed during the same nearly 16-month period before the 1999 election, according to a Washington Post analysis of reported campaign contributions. Among the donors are four of the nation's 10 biggest home builders.
The builders say their surge in spending is aimed at replacing the board with a development-friendly majority Tuesday and securing a high-profile victory in one of the nation's nastiest brawls over growth and the environment.
At stake: the image of power of an industry that has long held sway in
"The way you get elected is by outspending your opponent," said Craig Havenner, chairman of the political action committee run by the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association. The group, called the Affordable Shelter PAC, had given $66,200 to Loudoun candidates by Oct. 22.
"We feel kind of like farmers. We're providing for basic human needs," said Havenner, who is president of the Fairfax-based Christopher Cos., builder of 75 to 100 houses a year. "It's an honorable profession, not a dishonorable one. . . . We like candidates who say, 'I like what they are doing.' "
The rush of donations marks the culmination of a four-year campaign by landowners, builders and developers after the 1999 election. Over the past four years, the board has moved to radically alter county plans and zoning rules to reduce by 80,000 the number of homes that could be built in coming decades.
The strictest of the new regulations, which were approved in January, affect
the county's rural west and require 10, 20 or 50 acres
per home, depending on the homes' locations and whether they are clustered to
preserve open space. Other measures would limit development around
Almost as soon as the supervisors took office, property owners worried about the future value of their land joined developers to fight the anticipated assault on home building. They formed groups with such names as the Coalition for Prosperity and Citizens for Property Rights to lobby against land-use restrictions. And nine months ago, more than 200 lawsuits were filed against the county seeking to roll back the new rules.
Self-described defenders of Loudoun's rural landscapes and some of the people who own them have sparred with a showman's flair.
One advocate of property owners' rights, dressed as revolutionary Patrick Henry, led pro-growth compatriots at the county government center in a version of the Irving Berlin favorite: "God bless our property," they sang, "Land that we love . . . "
An opposing activist came to a hearing armed with nine shopping bags full of little red plastic Monopoly houses, just under 100,000, and had them dumped on a large county map to demonstrate projected construction.
Such passions, and theatrics, are now focused on Nov. 4.
"Despite the fact that the slow-growth folks prevailed last time, they
still have an uphill battle," said Thomas R. Morris, president of
In most communities in
In Loudoun this year, the political action committee called Voters to Stop Sprawl has raised $115,400, the group reported. Backed by a coalition of wealthy hunt country landowners, high-tech executives and environmentalists, the group is widely credited with engineering the slow-growth triumph in 1999. Most of the money raised for this year's races will go not to candidates but to ads and mailings supporting those the group says are against sprawl.
Loudoun's population doubled in the past decade, and residents are facing increased traffic, costly school construction, rising tax bills and basic choices about how big they want the county to be. Those issues have been the focus of ominous-looking, often mocking ads mailed to tens of thousands of residents this fall.
Such campaign tactics have been underwritten by a sharp increase in contributions to local races that mirrors the surge nationwide.
From July 2002 to Oct. 22 of this year, contributions of more than $100 to supervisor and chairman candidates in Loudoun reached $1.18 million -- nearly three times what they were in the run-up to the 1999 election, according to a Washington Post analysis of campaign finance reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit political research group.
"Fundraising is just taking off wildly," said Steve Calos, director of the Richmond-based Center for Open,
Ethical and Accountable Government. "It starts out at the presidential
level and goes all the way down to the courthouse, especially in a place like
The building community has found eager recipients in Loudoun candidates, including Republican Bruce E. Tulloch, who is still smarting from his loss in 1999 -- by 12 votes -- to a candidate supported by Voters to Stop Sprawl.
Standing before a builders' breakfast in a chandeliered ballroom near Dulles last month, Tulloch sought to atone for his past.
"In 1999, I pledged not to take any developer money. I was roasted on my petard and have regretted it every day [since]," he said. "I'm proud to take your money this year. . . . You have a voice, and it's Bruce Tulloch."
The bulk of the contributions from the development industry has gone to Loudoun's nine Republican candidates, who have been sharply critical of the growth controls passed by the current board and have vowed to relax or reverse many of them. But most of those who say they support the new rules have also received contributions from real estate and construction sources, generally in much smaller amounts.
Real estate and construction interests had contributed $339,000 to Republicans, $76,000 to Democrats and $60,000 to independents by Oct. 22, according to the analysis of finance reports. Real estate and construction interests include a wide range of businesses and individuals that not only develop land and build homes and commercial projects, but also support those enterprises with supplies, legal advice and manpower. Nine independents and Democrats, including five incumbents, were endorsed by Voters to Stop Sprawl and have pledged to keep the controls.
Chris Miller, president of the Piedmont Environmental Council, which has
backed slow-growth efforts statewide, said observers across
"It's basically a conservative, Republican-leaning jurisdiction that has taken a strong stand on the growth issue," Miller said. "Everyone's trying to measure whether that change was long-term or an anomaly."
Havenner, of the building industry's PAC, expressed ambivalence about his role in doling out large sums to politicians. Too much money is spent on American political campaigns, he said, and candidates -- including those his group supports -- sometimes offer misleading marketing jobs rather than a high-minded search for solutions.
"It's totally unfair, but I think everybody does it," Havenner said.
He believes his candidates have the public interest at heart, he said, so he'll do what it takes.
"This is how things are done in
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
