OPINION: An Alternative to the CBC?

The Falls Church New-Press started an important discussion today with an article concerning next year’s City election.  An effort now may be underway to build a new “political party” in our city.  The news raises a serious question:  do we need one?

The words of one Washington area media organization may provide some perspective.

For as long as many of its residents can remember, living in the city of Falls Church has meant three things:  a highly regarded independent school system, irksome traffic backups on the city’s two main arteries, and a City Council majority under the umbrella of the Citizens for a Better City.  The nonpartisan CBC, which labels itself “Your Homegrown Political Party,” has been by far the dominant force in city politics since its founding   .  .  .

Those sentences, which might have been written yesterday, actually are the lead of an April 1998 story in the Washington Post. 

Traffic now surely is worse than it was then, but nothing else has changed.  City schools are still highly regarded and the City Council remains under the firm control of candidates endorsed by the CBC.

However, over the past two years some Falls Church citizens have come to question whether the CBC’s continued dominance is in their best interests.  Largely through their efforts, independent candidate Nader Baroukh won election to the council in 2008, demonstrating that the CBC can be successfully challenged. 

But any study of politics, local or national, shows that independent candidacies are seldom successful and that independent office holders are rarely re-elected.  The council likely will remain under CBC control until a well organized group is prepared to step forward and offer an alternative vision for Falls Church.

That time may now be at hand.

According to the News-Press story, former councilman and current school board member Kieran Sharpe recently met with other concerned citizens in an effort to recruit worthy candidates.

This may herald the start of the first serious challenge to the CBC since the demise of the Falls Church Citizens Organization (FCCO), which briefly won control of the council in the early 1990s.

Since then, Falls Church has been a one party democracy.  CBC candidates usually have been either unopposed or faced with only token resistance from under-financed independents.   This was most evident in 2006, when three CBC-endorsed candidates ran unopposed for three vacant council seats.

Times have since changed.  Falls Church faces serious financial and legal issues in the years ahead that might affect its very independence.  The officials who lead the City should reflect the views of the voters, but our current one-party system may not deliver such representation, given the lack of a true debate and the absence of alternative visions.   
 
Whether Mr. Sharpe’s work will result in an alternative “party” one cannot say, but his is a worthy effort.  The challenges facing the City cry out for a genuine choice on election day next May.

Readers unfamiliar with the CBC may enjoy “Ace” Miller’s “Member’s Perspective” articles which appeared on April 9 and April 10.