[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 26 (Thursday, February 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1538-H1539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO KATE HANLEY ON HER ELECTION AS CHAIRMAN OF FAIRFAX COUNTY
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, the first election of any consequence, maybe
the only one, but there may be some that I have not heard about, but
the first
[[Page H1539]] election of any consequence since November 8 occurred
this week, and guess what, a Democrat won.
Fairfax County is larger than any of our congressional districts. It
has almost a million people. The chairman of the board of Fairfax
County had been a Republican. He is now a colleague in the House of
Representatives.
{time} 1930
So there was a special election to fill his place. Kate Hanely, the
Democrat, rose to the position of chairman of one of the largest
counties in the country through the usual way. She had no bumper-strip
slogans, there were no cliches in the campaign, she had been an officer
of her civic association, president of her PTA, she had invested
enormous amounts of time in child care, health care, transportation,
she chaired the regional body which develops policy on transportation
for the Washington region.
In other words, she had invested much of her adult life in serving
her community.
She was not an advocate of no government or in any way suggested that
government is the problem. In fact, what she would say time and again
is that good government is the solution to the problems that we have in
developing the kind of quality we want for ourselves and our families.
She was successful in that approach.
Mr. Speaker, this is a county that has one of the highest educational
levels in the country, and people who are very much involved in civic
activities. They agreed with her message, someone who has devoted
themselves to the community, who believes in the spirit of community
and believes in the Democratic Party's principles of opportunity,
responsibility, and yes, community.
That is the kind of person they want to lead them.
So Kate Hanley was elected to chair the Fairfax County Board of
Supervisors, where many of us live.
I know all of us will benefit from the good government that Kate
Hanley will bring to Fairfax County.
I do not know whether this is a harbinger of things to come; I would
certainly like to think so. But it certainly is a testament to the fact
that if you do things right, particularly when you localize elections
to the point where you are offering yourself to people who know you,
who know how much you care about their community and their quality of
life, you can win.
Kate Hanley did win, and I applaud her for her commitment to her
community and the fact that she was proud to run as a Democrat on
Democratic principles.
She was victorious. I think we are going to see more victories like
Kate Hanley's in Fairfax County.
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