by Ken Reid

Following up from my article on partisanship in town and city elections…. Voters in Fairfax City opted for the non-partisan slate backed by former State Sen. Chap Petersen (D) and Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity (R), but the Democrat-endorsed candidate for mayor and two of her Democrat-endorsed council candidates won.

Voters were tasked with choosing six of the 11 council candidates running on the Nov. 5 ballot. 

Mayor Catherine Read and Councilmembers Billy Bates and Stacey D. Hardy-Chandler, the Democrat-endorsed candidates, won. Voters also selected four from the non-partisan slate, but only three were decided because the other race is still too close to call.     

They are:

• Stacy Hall
• Thomas Peterson (no relation to Chap)
• Anthon Amos (aide to Herrity and a Republican)

Incumbent Kate Doyle Feingold  leads Rachel McQuillen, who was on the same non-partisan slate, by four votes. Incumbent Councilmember Jeff Greenfield, a Republican, lost re-election.

Read will no longer have a pure partisan Democrat majority, although Petersen’s attempt at revenge to defeat Read for helping defeat him in the State Senate primary in 2023 failed.  

Voters choose the mayor and council every two years, so there will be another election in 2026.

The local Electoral Board has until 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, to ascertain election results, and the State Board of Elections will meet on Monday, Dec. 2, to certify the results, the Patch online news source reported    

The election shows that non-partisan candidates not on the Democrat or Republican ballot can win, but the non-partisan candidates spent the most money to overcome the Democrat sample ballot (Amos spent over $25,000).  Voters in Fairfax City voted overwhelmingly for up-ballot candidates for president, US Senate and US House.

Ken Reid, lives in McLean. He has served on the Leesburg Town Council and Loudoun Board of Supervisors (2006-2017). He has attended numerous Republican county and state elections and was a Trump delegate to the 2016 and 2020 Republican National Convention. He is the author of “The Six Secrets to Winning Any Local Election – and Navigating Elected Office Once You Win.”