SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2010 ROBERT McCARTNEY Reform candidates’ wins could help Pr. George’s mccartney from C1
would encourage commercial development and other advances needed to narrow the imbalance in the region between the relatively affluent western suburbs and less prosperous eastern ones. “We want to see the same economic opportunities around Metro stations here as in Montgomery and Fairfax,” said Del. Joanne C. Benson, a Baker supporter who also was a big victor Tuesday.
She wrested the Democratic
nomination for state senator from controversial incumbent Sen. Nathaniel Exum. He is a Johnson ally who drew criticism for blocking a state funding package for Prince George’s Hospital and his ties to an auto repair shop.
Benson, 69, has served 20 years in the House of Delegates after making her name as a no-nonsense elementary school principal who battled drug dealers in Capitol Heights. Local thugs called her “the pit bull in high heels,” according to a front-page Washington Post profile in 1990. “People are thirsty for change.
They are not content with a county [government] that is doing business as usual, that has caused us to be in a rut,” Benson told me Friday in an interview at her Largo campaign headquarters.
She and others are hailing
what they see as a restoration of positive leadership seen under Wayne Curry, Johnson’s predecessor as county executive and the first African American to lead the county. During Curry’s administration from 1994 to 2002, Prince
George’s attracted national attention as a showcase for success for upper middle class and professional blacks. The county is one of the nation’s largest, richest jurisdictions with an African American majority. “This was a well-respected
jurisdiction in the region [under Curry] because we had strong leadership and we had a capable, competent government. We lost that. I think the feeling is that we’re going to get that back,” said Gregory K. Wells, a politically active trial lawyer who supported Baker but did not hold a post in his campaign. Baker, the focus of all this
attention, is a mild-mannered politician who lost to Johnson in the county executive’s primary in 2002 and 2006. This time, he crushed his closest rival — Sheriff Michael Jackson, who was backed by Johnson — by 11 percentage points in a five-person field. (Victory in the primary is tantamount to winning the office in the heavily Democratic county.) Baker’s immediate priority will be to professionalize the county’s administrative apparatus, which is widely described as dysfunctional. During the campaign, he called for reforming a culture where he said payoffs were often necessary to get projects approved. However, some of Baker’s closest supporters — including former county executive Curry — are concerned that in cleaning house, he won’t be ruthless enough about finding the most qualified people for top jobs. “It’s politics, so there’s some
patronage, but it’s got to begin with capable people. He’s got to be willing to demonstrate some toughness on that,” Curry told
me in a phone interview Thursday. Curry said it was important for
Baker to learn to act like an executive. “He really does have to build a coalition that he leads rather than he responds to. He’s been a legislator. He’s a herd animal. He’s now applied for and gotten a job that requires him to be the heavyweight. When the bell rings, there’s only one guy in that ring,” Curry said. A lot of people in the county and the region will be cheering him on.
Keep Rhee? In his column in Saturday’s
Washington Post, Colbert I. King respectfully disagreed with my call on District presumptive mayor-elect Vince Gray to keep Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. King singled out my point in an online column Wednesday that Gray should do so partly because it would reach out to voters who opposed him. He said Rhee should go because of her polarizing behavior. For the record — and for readers who only see the print edition — my column also said that Rhee should stay for other reasons. In particular, she would provide stability needed to make permanent some of the positive changes she has achieved. The discussion seems moot, though, given that Rhee has signaled that she plans to go. How else to interpret her denunciation of the election results as “devastating” for D.C. schoolchildren? Gray will probably need to find someone else to implement his vision of school reform that manages to be inclusive as well as aggressive.
mccartneyr@washpost.com
KLMNO Was Alexandria returned to
Virginia to facilitate the slave trade?
W — Henry Bruhl, Annandale
ell, that depends. If you’d asked a white Alexandrian back then,
he probably would have said, “Of course not.” If you’d asked a black Alexandrian, he might have given you a different answer. In fact, here’s what two African American residents wrote to a Boston abolitionist not long after the day in 1846 when Alexandrians (white, male) voted to approve the return of their city to Virginia, an act called retrocession: “[The] poor colored people of this city . . . were standing in rows on either side of the Court House, and, as the votes were announced every quarter of an hour, the suppressed wailings and lamentations of the people of color were constantly ascending to God for help and succor, in this the hour of their need.” They knew they would no
longer have the protection of Congress, however scant that was.
Some background: When the
new capital was created from scratch, it included two existing cities, each a thriving port: Alexandria, in Virginia, and Georgetown, in Maryland. Over time, they didn’t thrive equally. The law creating the capital limited the construction of federal buildings to the formerly Maryland side of the Potomac. “This stricture meant both
that Alexandrians did not receive the advantages of being a part of the District that they anticipated and that Congress neglected the federally barren southern side of river,” said historian Ted Pulliam, author of the forthcoming “Historic Alexandria.” It was difficult to get Congress
LOCAL DIGEST MARYLAND
Bids extended for Glenn Dale Hospital Bidders interested in Glenn
Dale Hospital, the former tuber- culosis sanatorium that is up for sale, have until Oct. 15 to make offers. The Maryland-National Cap-
ital Park and Planning Commis- sion, which owns the 210-acre site in Prince George’s County, extended the process after re- ceiving several questions from potential bidders. The original deadline for the bids was Tuesday. Alvin McNeal, acting deputy
director for administration and development for the Department of Parks and Recreation, which oversees the property, said Thursday that six potential bid- ders asked questions that needed to be answered. “We will put out a compilation of all of the answers to the ques- tions,” McNeal said. He would not comment on the
specific questions asked by the potential bidders. He said they just want “to get a better feel for the site itself.” The facility, which the county lists as a historic site, opened in 1934 as a sanatorium for chil- dren with tuberculosis. By 1960, the hospital was used for District residents with chronic illnesses. It was shut down in the early 1980s, and the commission bought the property from the District in 1995.
—Ovetta Wiggins
Man in vehicle found dead in Landover
A man was found shot inside a vehicle in Landover early Satur- day in a suspected homicide, ac- cording to Prince George’s Coun- ty Police. Police responding to a call of
shots fired at about 4 a.m. found the man, whose identity has not yet been released, inside a vehi- cle in a parking lot in the 3400 block of Dodge Park Road, said officer Evan Baxter, a county po- lice spokesman. —Mary Pat Flaherty
THE REGION
Lawmakers feud over airports flights
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, in an escalation of the long-brewing fight among lawmakers over flights out of Reagan National Airport, said Friday that it would ask for a for- mal investigation and future hearings related to the govern- ance of the airport. Commerce Committee Chair- man Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV
(D-W.Va.) and Sen. Byron L. Dor- gan (D-N.D.) were both espe- cially critical of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which oversees Dulles Interna- tional Airport and National, dur- ing a Thursday afternoon public hearing on Capitol Hill. Dorgan said that the airports authority must either change or face tougher congressional oversight. The Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration’s funding bill has been stalled as lawmakers debate the proposed expansion of the num- ber of long-distance flights at Na- tional, which because of its small size and proximity to neighbor- ing Arlington communities lim- its the number of incoming and outgoing trips. Some senators from Western
states want to ease the “perim- eter rule,” which bans most flights to destinations more than 1,250 miles from National. Those long-haul flights can use larger, noisier planes than short ones. Rockefeller’s office said the Commerce Committee would ask for an investigation by the Trans- portation Department’s inspec- tor general, a comprehensive re- view by the Government Ac- countability Office and additional hearings “to bring clarity to [MWAA’s] relationship with Congress.”
—Derek Kravitz VIRGINIA
VRE surplus to fund some improvements The Virginia Railway Express
Operations Board voted Friday to dedicate a $5.1million fiscal 2010 budget surplus to new equipment and rail infrastruc- ture improvements. The surplus, VRE officials said, comes from an increase in fare revenue and a reduction in oper- ating expenses. Fares for VRE riders have gone up 16 percent since July 2008. VRE officials said they expected ridership to drop after the hike, but it is actu- ally on the rise. Of the $5.1million surplus,
$2.5million will go to acquire the last of 20 new locomotives VRE is adding to the fleet. Nine- teen units are already funded, mostly with the help of state and federal subsidy, and will be rolled out in the next year. A small portion of the surplus, about $500,000, will go toward the company’s insurance trust fund, while the remaining amount will go toward adding a third track in Spotsylvania Coun- ty and the capital reserve pot VRE has in place to eventually buy 30 new railcars. VRE officials said $1 million from the surplus will allow them to complete the design phase for the additional track and move into construction in less than a
Old 1
FAIRFAX CO.
VIRGINIA 626 628 235
Fort Hunt Park
Mount Vernon
Start Race route 0 MILE M.K. CANNISTRA/THE WASHINGTON POST ANIMAL WATCH REDEEM AT ONE OF OUR EXPRESS LOCATIONS: LEESBURG, Sycolin Road,
Sept. 10. A caller reported seeing a dog on the roof of a building un- der construction. An animal con- trol officer found that the dog, which was healthy and unin- jured, belonged to a worker at the site. The owner agreed to keep the dog off the roof.
Among cases handled by the Loudoun County Department of Animal Care and Control
Alexandria 420 S. Van Dorn St. 703-751-4138
(Corner of Van Dorn & Edsall Rd.) TIRE SHINE NOT AVAILABLE IN ALEXANDRIA
Merrifield/Falls Church 3013 Gallows Rd. 703-205-0777
(On Gallows Rd, Between Midas & McDonalds)
Kensington 3817 Dupont Ave. 301-933-4858
(On Dupont Ave., 1 Block South of University & Conn. Ave., Behind Savannah’s Restaurant)
Silver Spring 7996 Georgia Ave. 301-495-9335
(On Georgia Ave., 1/3 Block South of East West Highway) $ 99
2010 BEST OF WASHINGTON
Outside Ultimate Car Wash Includes: All Cloth Exterior Tunnel Wash Air Dried by High Tech Blowers • 3-Color Clear Coat Treatment Clear Coat Protectant • Undercarriage Wash • Wheel Cleaner
6 EDSALL RD 95 495
Present original coupon prior to wash. Valid only at Express locations. Not valid with any other offers. No copies accepted.
www.mrwash.com Expires 9/28/10. CODE 2501.
Alexandria 420 S. Van Dorn St. 703-751-4138
LANDMARK MALL
Outside Ultimate Car Wash 1 MARYLAND
Washington Park
Fort
PRINCE GEORGE’S CO.
Town
W. WILSON BR. Finish
629
year. Putting $1.1 million toward railcars, VRE officials said, will help leverage an estimated $12million in state and federal grant funding. Representatives from Stafford
County and Manassas voted against the proposal. Instead of putting $1.1 million toward new railcars, opponents of the proposal said they wanted the money returned to the juris- dictions that support VRE — many of which are strapped for cash.
—Jennifer Buske
Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon
Expect street closures from 7 to 11 a.m. Sunday. George Washington Memorial Parkway will be closed in both directions from Mount Vernon to Belle Haven Boulevard. Te Express Lanes of National Harbor Boulevard will be closed to vehicular traffic from 7:30 to 11 a.m.
ALEXANDRIA 1 400 295 210 D.C.
MD. 95
495 Nat’l
OXON HILL RD.
Harbor
REPLACEMENT WINDOWS $
Any Size White Double-Hung
Window INSTALLED!* *3 Window Minimum Up to 4ft Wide x 7ft Tall
Qualifying products up to $1500
Energy Tax Credit! 703-378-7999 189
Designer Kathy Ireland brings new stylish window design options to our customers.
WE SELL ENERGY STAR
www.windowworlddc.com of DC
Inc. “Simply the Best for Less” MHIC #1222286 VA License #2705274538 Class A 4116 Walney Rd., Ste. - J, Chantilly, VA 20151
to focus on things such as chartering banks and funding canal construction in Alexandria, things the Alexandrians couldn’t do on their own. These were some of the points raised by R.M.T. Hunter, a Virginia congressman, in a speech he gave before the House. If you overlook the fact that he
was a racist, Hunter’s arguments made sense. Alexandria was languishing. Furthermore, if our country stood for liberty, for the right of free men to vote, how
S
C3 Slave trade and Alexandria’s ‘retrocession’
ALEXANDRIA ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM
A slave dealer’s establishment in Alexandria during the Civil War era.
JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON
could anyone be happy that some citizens were denied representation in Congress or a voice in presidential elections? Said Hunter: “Mr. Chairman,
[Alexandria] has been treated like a child separated from the natural, and neglected by the foster, mother. After a long and bitter experience of the fruits of a connection with us, she asks to return to her ancient allegiance. She asks to be restored to right and privileges, the very names of which are sacred to American feeling, and dear to every American heart.” Convincing, right? Not so fast says A. Glenn Crothers. “This was political subterfuge of a high order,” said Crothers, a professor at the University of Louisville and author of “The 1846 Retrocession of Alexandria: Protecting Slavery and the Slave Trade in the District of Columbia.” In the 1840s, there were three
slave-trading firms in Alexandria. Alexandria had a surplus of slaves. The Deep South had a deficit. There was money to be made shipping slaves from Alexandria to New
Orleans. Of course, slavery and slave-trading also were legal in Washington. As early as the 1830s, abolitionists were petitioning Congress to end slavery in Washington. The issue became so heated that a gag rule was put in place to prevent the issue being discussed in the House. It was all too clear to Virginians what could happen next. Congress might not be able to end the slave trade nationwide, but it could end it in the one place it controlled: Washington, including Alexandria. “This is a hot topic,” Crothers said, so hot that supporters of retrocession rarely referred to it directly. “You try to slip it through,” he said. Virginia state law forbade the
education of African Americans and so when Alexandria retroceded, their schools in the city were closed. And when Congress ended the slave trade in Washington in 1850, slaves in Alexandria could only look across the river in anticipation.
Questions? Answers:
answerman@washpost.com.
Prince William man fatally shoots wife, self
by Mary Pat Flaherty Days before a scheduled court
appearance on a domestic vio- lence charge, a Nokesville man fa- tally shot his wife early Saturday before turning the gun on him- self, Prince William County po- lice said. The final argument of Robert
W. Bates, 42, and Jennifer Bates, 38, ended in the apparent mur- der-suicide at about 7:30 a.m. Sat- urday outside their vehicle on a cul-de-sac in the Montclair neigh- borhood of Prince William Coun- ty. It was not known why the cou- ple were driving in the 15700
block of Widewater Drive, police said. They lived in the 8100 block of Erika Drive in Nokesville, where on June 26 Robert Bates had been arrested on a charge of domestic assault and battery after police responded to a call, said Officer Jonathan Perok, a county police spokesman. Robert Bates had a court date set for Friday in that case, Perok said. After the June incident, both of
the Bateses were served with an emergency protective order bar- ring contact between them, but that order had expired and was not extended, Perok said. Typically, Perok said, the or-
ders last for 72 hours after a do- mestic assault arrest although a victim in the case could seek an extension. Information about the hand- gun found at the scene and whether it was registered to ei- ther Bates was not immediately available, police said. Robert Bates was dead at the scene after shooting himself in the head, police said. Jennifer Bates died Saturday
shortly after being taken to a lo- cal hospital with a shot to her up- per body. She was an employee of the Prince William County Serv- ice Authority, according to police.
flahertym@washpost.com
M P
o
t E o m R
ca Riv
H N U
Te
VANDORNST
r M T
KING ST.
DUKE ST. aC
W F
.
O
R
.
P K
WY. D .
m
e
r
o
n
R
u
n
G .
Payment Options
Available
LITTLE RIVER TURN PIKE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192