It’s widely known that politics can be a dirty game, but outright lies and libel are entirely unacceptable.
You may disagree with me on some issues, and I may disagree with you as well, but at the end of the day, we are fighting for what we believe is right. We both live here together and share a common identity and responsibility as Americans, Virginians, and stewards of this beautiful district.
I truly believe my opponent would be a disaster for this district and for our Commonwealth, and in this campaign, I will tell you why. I will make the case for myself and our shared continued success.
What I will not do is lie to you about my opponent. Everything I say will be thoroughly researched and grounded in hard facts. This is for two reasons—one, because I respect you as an intelligent voter and do not believe you will be fooled by a lie; and two, as a God-fearing man, I believe lying is immoral and wrong.
What my opponent did in his first ad is dishonest, unacceptable, and I will not stand for it—he is lying to you and defaming me. Let me set the record straight, and you can decide for yourself.
I have never pushed data centers, I have never supported them where they do not belong, and I have never “profited” from any data center, in any way, shape, or form. In fact, as your Delegate, I am actively working on arming local governments with more tools for proper data center siting, addressing our power crisis, ensuring data centers are paying their freight, and preserving our rural district.
To begin with, I have spent my entire political career fighting to make sure data centers are not built where they do not belong, and any insinuation otherwise is false. I have never voted for or supported the building of data centers near homes, historic sites, conservation easements, schools, or land zoned for rural or agricultural uses. I do not support that, and I will never support that.
In fact, when I was a Supervisor in Loudoun, I voted against the True North data center project in Loudoun’s “transition zone” along the Dulles Greenway where it crosses Goose Creek. I also stopped a proposed rezoning assemblage just north of there that was brought to me and made it clear that I would not support any data center rezonings in the “transition policy area”.
My opponent filmed his commercial standing in front of, and giving me credit for, the Loudoun Meadows/Quail Ridge data center projects, where data centers have been built right behind single-family homes. What he doesn’t tell you is that this terrible zoning decision was made by a previous Board of Supervisors in 2005, seven years before I was elected, and the houses were not built until after the rezoning.
Anyone who knows me or my record would know that Quail Ridge is something I would never support—it should never have happened, and I would strongly oppose any similar project in the future.
Second, the accusation that I have “personally profited” from the Data Centers is categorically false and frankly libelous. I have never received any compensation, financial or otherwise, directly or indirectly, from the building of data centers.
From his shoddy “citations”, it appears my opponent is citing my career in labor relations for the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) for this absurd, false claim. I retired five and a half years ago from NECA, a trade association that represents electrical contractors employing union labor. My title was Vice President of Labor Relations, and my job was to represent the contractors in collective bargaining and arbitration with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
NECA member contractors perform residential, commercial, institutional, transit, communications, light industrial, and industrial electrical work. I brought the two sides together and helped negotiate good-paying jobs for hard-working men and women. I was a salaried employee focused entirely on labor relations, and my income was in no way related to the markets a member chose to pursue. No serious person would construe that I benefited from any data center. My opponent is not only attacking me with this claim, but he’s attacking hardworking, blue-collar laborers across our district.
Next, let’s talk about why data center square footage has exploded in Loudoun. Thanks to the current Democrat majority board, data center square footage has more than doubled since I left the BOS five years ago. This is the same story next door in Prince William County. Virtually all of the bad decisions on data center placement have been made by these two Democrat controlled Boards since I left Loudoun’s Board. Now, as data centers are falling out of favor with the public, they are running for cover, like cockroaches when the lights come on in the kitchen. My opponent would be no different. I have found no evidence of him opposing data centers until he decided to run for office.
My opponent likes to talk about our lack of power and blame the data centers, but he “proudly” proclaims that he helped to pass the “Virginia Clean Economy Act”. This legislation has caused Virginia to become the #1 state for importing power in the nation.
While they like to blame data centers for this dubious distinction, the main reason is that this law has forced our power companies to shut down 11,000 MW of power generation without a viable replacement. This is 33% more power than is needed to power every house in Virginia, and these shutdowns have caused us to import power from other states that have excess capacity, like WVA and PA. My opponent’s backers refuse to admit that this power originates from fossil-fuel plants and causes the collateral damage of having to build new power lines through our rural and agricultural areas to import it.
My opponent worked for Clean Virginia, the multi-million dollar left-wing climate group that has swamped our election with dark money, and he has been endorsed by every extreme environmental group that you can think of, including the “Jane Fonda PAC”. These extreme groups have produced this disastrous energy policy that eliminates all power other than renewables. Renewables are nice, and who doesn’t like clean energy, but they are just not reliable and absolutely cannot replace baseload power generation.
Further, I proudly voted earlier this year for HB2084, which directs the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to determine whether or not data centers should be paying more for their power, given the infrastructure upgrades they may require. We need to take a big picture look at the data center industry and weigh the tax revenue benefits they bring in against their costs on the grid. Then, we can make sure they are paying their own way, and not burdening rate-payers like you and me with their costs.
Finally, as I said above, I have never voted for or supported data centers in the wrong places and never will. No one has a better preservation and conservation record on the Board of Supervisors or in the General Assembly than mine, and I have always been committed to preserving the beauty of our rural district.
My opponent will try to argue that the state needs to take over zoning authority to stop data centers, but what he won’t tell you is that his backers are already using that same framework to force solar arrays on your agricultural lands and across your viewsheds. We have already seen and narrowly defeated bills in Richmond that would override local zoning and cover our rural and agricultural lands with big, ugly solar arrays. My opponent’s employers and donors were behind these bills to force solar arrays across our district.
Why should we believe John McAuliff won’t cover Western Loudoun and Fauquier in solar arrays to save his precious “Clean Economy Act”, when all of his top supporters are 100% behind this effort?
I firmly believe local zoning decisions should be made by competent officials elected at the local level and I voted for HB 1601 to give local governments more tools to prevent data centers from sprawling into places they do not belong. I do not believe that a bunch of unaccountable bureaucrats or politicians who live in Arlington or elsewhere should be making local zoning determinations out of Richmond on behalf of our district. Zoning decisions should not be based on political orthodoxy or rhetoric; they should be based on representing your constituents and facts, reason, and research. We need to elect local officials who have the courage to just say “No”!
By affirming strong local zoning, we can prevent bad data center siting and keep solar arrays out of our district. By eliminating the false power constraints in the “Virginia Clean Economy Act”, we can generate more clean power right here in our Commonwealth. By thoroughly analyzing the whole picture of data center power demands against tax revenues, we can ensure they are paying their fair share.
This is just common sense—and it’s what you elected me to do. This election cycle, I ask that you drown out the lies and the noise, and come to me if you have a question. I’m here to keep working for you. Together, let’s say no to the nonsense and keep working towards commonsense solutions.