Ronald Reagan asked a very famous question “are you better now than you were 4 years ago?”

The wisdom of our founding state and local fathers incorporated into state laws and local charters the value of having nonpartisan elections. It was their intent to elect quality candidates that would focus on local issues and not party dogma (which includes our school boards) in building the quality of life in our individual communities They felt that at this level that partisan politics would only repress the communities’ ability to make good community decisions.

With the increased activity and influence of the WCRC endorsing candidates in our nonpartisan elections, are we better now in Front Royal than we were 4 years ago? What has the town council done to improve the lives of its citizens in that time? Over the last four years the Council has:

• Focused excess energy toward state and national concerns rather than on local town problems
• Ignored or delayed town financial commitments, creating a hostile environment among town and county officials (failure to pay for the new police station)
• Participated in activities that could be perceived to be conflicts of interest in their business relationships, causing a decrease in town tax revenue
• Fostered a hostile work environment by threats of staff terminations or actual firings
• Spent taxpayer dollars on useless lawsuits that went nowhere
• Reduced town revenue by eliminating our own Tourism department and outsourcing to an outside firm
• Failed to pursue a long-term solution to our water problems, stalling future growth of jobs and housing

Most of the elected Town Council were endorsed and financially supported by the WCRC. In the 2021 election cycle, this unfortunately has been extended to school board candidates as well.

Every day we become aware of more situations that confirm the influence of party politics, demonstrating the disingenuous character of the WCRC endorsed candidates past and present

It is my hope that the people in our community will choose the most qualified people running for these nonpartisan positions of which we have some great non-endorsed individuals running.

I have always been told that I am a glass-half-full guy but my expectations from our community changing are very low. Hope I am wrong.

Michael Graham
Front Royal, Virginia