City Council Incumbents Win And Are Joined By Newcomer Litkenhous

By Stephen Siegel
Falls Church Times Staff
November 7, 2017

The popular Marybeth Connelly remains popular. And so does the longest-serving City Councilor, Dave Snyder. The two candidates easily won re-election to the Falls Church City Council Tuesday, with Ms. Connelly easily receiving the highest number of votes with Mr. Snyder finishing a strong second.

It’s the second overall win in two tries for Ms. Connelly, who also received the largest share of the vote when she initially ran for the Council in 2013. She clearly is doing something right. Incumbent Dan Sze also won re-election, and newcomer Ross Litkenhous topped former city councilor Dan Maller and newcomer Spencer Parsons to claim the final spot.

Ms. Connelly gained 3,707 votes to Mr. Snyder’s 3,254, a huge margin of victory. But it also was an impressive result for Mr. Snyder, who continues to demonstrate that longevity doesn’t have to be a four-letter word in politics. Mr. Sze was third with 2,889 votes, while Mr. Litkenhous, who presented himself as a knowledgeable yet fresh face, earned 2,695. Messrs. Maller and Parsons were far behind with 1,796 and 782 votes, respectively.

Mr. Litkenhous, who will replace the retiring Karen Oliver, suggested he has a valuable background to help manage the George Mason High School construction project, which was approved today. He works at Altus Group as a real estate consultant, advising on state and local taxes and economic development projects, and he said during the campaign he thought City property taxes could ultimately be reduced.

That would be music to ears of City residents, who have endured the double whammy of repeated tax rate increases along with increased property assessments in recent years.