Poll Fuels Debate Over Partisan Vs. Nonpartisan Elections In Fairfax

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“The results of the poll confirm City of Fairfax voters’ dissatisfaction with political party machines, especially in local elections,” said mayoral candidate Susan Kuiler. “Voters prefer independent candidates and elected officials who are responsive to voters’ concerns and who are not beholden to a small group of people in a local political party committee who select or endorse candidates. One reason tyrannical governments fail is that they set up political machines that prize loyalty and ideology over innovation, creativity, and exploration, which are especially important in developing alternatives and solutions to problems.”

However, when the 500 registered voters were asked if they were more or less likely to vote for a candidate on a partisan ballot, who declared themself as a Democrat, Republican or another political party, the results were not so clear cut.

“Fairfax City has ‘nonpartisan’ elections based on state code that says there are no partisan marks on ballots for local offices and constitutional offices,” said Mayor Catherine Read, who is seeking reelection in November. “The effort by this newly formed political party of ‘Non-partisan/Independent’ is conflating nonpartisan elections with nonpartisan candidates. These are two separate things.”

This past June, the city Democrats endorsed Read and Councilmember Billy Bates, who is also seeking reelection, and Stacey Hardy-Chandler and Taylor Geaghan, who are running for one of the six city council seats.
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On June 20, 2024, Fairfax Commonsense sent out a release announcing the formation of the Fairfax City Independent Ballot. Like the survey, the release was paid for by the PAC.

The announcement was linked to a slate of seven candidates identifying themselves as “independent candidates” — mayoral candidate Susan Hartley Kuiler and city council candidates Stacy Hall, Rachel McQuillen, Tom Peterson, and Anthony Amos, as well as incumbent City Council Members Jeff Greenfield and Kate Doyle Feingold, who are seeking reelection.

In the 2022 city election, the Fairfax City Democratic Committee endorsed a slate of candidates running for mayor and city council for the first time. Party volunteers handed out flyers at the polls listing the names of candidates the party endorsed.

“Endorsement by local party committees via sample ballot creates a partisan election,” said Doyle Feingold, who is running for reelection. “This affects all residents who are federal employees (and many contractors), not just those running for office. For example, federal employees can’t like/share/comment on posts from council and mayor candidates during work hours (without violating the Hatch Act) now that our city elections are partisan. This can also create problems for employees of nonprofits because of strict rules about involvement in partisan activity.”

Despite the disagreement over party endorsements and sample ballots being handed out by either side of the debate, a the official ballot voters will see on Nov. 5 will be same as it always has been in the city, according to Wannicha Rojanapradith, Fairfax City General Registrar and Director of elections. Candidates running for city office will not have a “mark” or political affiliation next to their names, as detailed in the city charter and the Virginia Code. They will all be independent candidates.

During the 2023 Democratic Party primary, Fairfax Commonsense PAC was used to fund Petersen’s unsuccessful reelection bid and the campaigns of Fairfax County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid and Ed Nuttall, who was defeated by incumbent Steve Descano in the commonwealth’s attorney’s race.

A person authorized to speak on Petersen’s behalf told Patch on Friday that the former state senator’s PAC commissioned the survey in order to gauge voters’ support for continuing the city’s tradition of nonpartisan elections.

Related: Former Fairfax City Senator’s PAC Backs Independent, Nonpartisan Group

Two candidates, Jack Ryan and Amini Elizabeth Bonane, have not aligned themselves with the Fairfax City Independent Ballot nor have they been endorsed by the Fairfax City Democrats. They are running as independent candidates.

Patch reached out to all of the candidates running for mayor and city council this year asking for their comments on Mason Dixon Poll. The following is the full text of each of their responses.

Councilmember Kate Doyle Feingold

his poll was news to me and I’m not surprised by the results – I hear this from residents regularly. I believe independent candidates and elections are best for our City. When someone runs for office as an independent, they have to work for the trust and support of City voters. And while in office they have to continue to work to maintain that trust and support. Candidates endorsed by a political party, via sample ballot or otherwise, may be more responsive to the handful of people in the local party committee who selected them for party endorsement.

Endorsement by local party committees via sample ballot creates a partisan election. This affects all residents who are federal employees (and many contractors), not just those running for office. For example, federal employees can’t like/share/comment on posts from council and mayor candidates during work hours (without violating the Hatch Act) now that our city elections are partisan. This can also create problems for employees of nonprofits because of strict rules about involvement in partisan activity.

Stacy Hall, Fairfax City Council Candidate

“I’m pleased to see that most residents surveyed have participated in local elections here in the City of Fairfax and support maintaining our non-partisan election system. Given that many of our residents are government employees or contractors, keeping elections non-partisan ensures that more people have the opportunity to run for local office. National party affiliations shouldn’t influence our local elections. A non-partisan system encourages residents to thoroughly research each candidate and make informed choices based on what’s best for our community. Local government decisions directly affect our daily lives, so it’s crucial to keep this in mind when voting.”

Susan Kuiler, Candidate For Fairfax City Mayor

“Mason Dixon is a highly respected polling company noted for their sound methodology, credibility, independence, and accuracy. The results of the poll highlight the long tradition that is embedded in the American commonwealth: Factions must not drive government. Alexis de Tocqueville, in his two-volume Democracy in America, published in 1835 and 1840, considered town government free from political factions to be a great strength of our democracy. He identified slavery and factions as the two greatest threats to our democracy.

“George Mason and George Washington in The Fairfax Resolves, published in 1774, argued for representative government not constrained by factions. Mason refused to sign the Constitution because he was concerned that, without a bill of rights, the new American government could descend into ‘a corrupt, tyrannical aristocracy.’ James Madison, in Federalist 10, described how the proposed Constitution would help deflect the negative effects of political parties, and Washington in his final address warned against the dangers of factions (as well as ‘foreign entanglements’).

“The results of the poll confirm City of Fairfax voters’ dissatisfaction with political party machines, especially in local elections: Voters prefer independent candidates and elected officials who are responsive to voters’ concerns and who are not beholden to a small group of people in a local political party committee who select or endorse candidates. One reason tyrannical governments fail is that they set up political machines that prize loyalty and ideology over innovation, creativity, and exploration, which are especially important in developing alternatives and solutions to problems.

“In short, City of Fairfax voters want to vote for their independence from political machines and local political party committees. Voters do not want to toe any political line that stifles innovation, creativity, and exploration in defining and solving local problems.”

Mayor Catherine Read

“The Mason-Dixon Poll as it was presented in the newly launched The Fairfax Independent excluded from their chart and story one of the questions asked in that survey:

“Question: Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a candidate if they ran on a partisan ballot, declaring them self as a Democrat, a Republican or with some other political party?

“Only 30% said less likely. The majority of those polled responded with: More Likely – 40%; No Effect – 17%; Don’t Know/Depends – 11%

“The reason this question was left off this polling data on this campaign mailer is that it does not support their narrative about “non-partisan” elections. This is the problem with those who tout “data” as the basis for better decision making – you must rely on the credibility of the data and also having access to all of it.

“Fairfax City has “non-partisan” elections based on state code that says there are no partisan marks on ballots for local offices and constitutional offices. The effort by this newly formed political party of “Non-partisan/Independent” is conflating non-partisan elections with non-partisan candidates. These are two separate things,

“In elections all over the Commonwealth of Virginia where the same non-partisan rules apply, candidates have been running with political designations for many years. The fact that Fairfax City did not previously engage in local political party endorsements or primaries prior to the first November municipal elections in 2022 was a tradition perpetuated by the 20% of voters who made up the electorate for the first 60 years of the city’s history.

“The effect of May municipal elections in Virginia resulted in de facto voter suppression. It was a system promoted by segregationist and Dixiecrat Harry Byrd, Sr. that allowed a literal minority of voters to decide who would run local government, thereby setting themselves up as “the” constituency of those elected. We had council members serving for 20 years with every-other-year May elections. Does that data reflect a system of competitive local elections? I believe it shows quite the opposite. It was more like a board of directors.

“This brings us to the issue then of “non-partisan” candidates. Do they exist? Of the last six mayors who served, three were Republicans and three were Democrats. Exactly zero were “non-partisan” – the first five simply didn’t make their partisanship part of their campaign. With so few people voting, those “informed voters” who came to the polls very likely knew the party affiliation of those running. Even those candidates who are governed by the Hatch Act from participating in partisan activities are not politically agnostic as a result of that prohibition.

“So, the real issue that is being promoted by a former state senator who formerly identified as a Democrat is the belief that declaring yourself “Non-partisan/Independent” makes you a politically agnostic candidate, even though there may be plenty of publicly available information to the contrary.

“Going back to that initial survey question left off this Mason-Dixon poll, the decision to leave it off should make those consuming information from this particular source at the very least skeptical. Do voters really benefit from having less information about candidates?

“Fairfax City has consistently voted for Democratic candidates in federal and state elections since Obama in 2008. Trump did not win here in 2016 or 2020 and neither did Glenn Youngkin. Yet Governor Youngkin was the headliner for a “non-partisan” mayoral candidate in 2022 who came very close to winning by simply declaring emphatically he was “non-partisan.” He wasn’t and he isn’t. The question voters need to consider is whether someone’s chosen political affiliation is a factor in how they will make decisions in local elected office.

:Democrats don’t run away from their beliefs, values, or their party. (With one notable exception that springs to mind.) We will tell you that common sense gun laws, public education, reproductive rights, an economy that works for everyone, investment in infrastructure projects, the urgency of climate change, and a commitment to basic human rights will be part of the decisions we make in whatever seat we are sitting in. We are not hiding our beliefs.”

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