Chairman Andrew Lund’s Letter to the Editor on Alexandria 2018 Election
In this week’s edition of the Alexandria Gazette Packet, our Chairman Andrew Lund penned a letter congratulating our YR candidates on running their races and positing ways that the newly elected City Council could work with us to make Alexandria a better place to live with better representation for all.
You can find the letter in its published format here. It starts on page 12 and is entitled “Value All Viewpoints”, the editorial board chooses the title not the writer. The text of the letter is also pasted below.
As Chairman of the Alexandria Area Young Republicans (AAYR), I would like to congratulate the young candidates of both parties for running for office this year. While the races for City Council and U.S. House District 8 did not turn out precisely the way we wanted, Kevin Dunne and Thomas Oh are two young Republicans who are committed to representing the City of Alexandria. They have shown us that the next generation is ready to seek and hold elected office for the benefit of us all. We hope they return to the ballot very soon.
Even though they are not Republicans, we at AAYR look forward to working with the young members of our newly elected City Council (Elizabeth Bennet-Parker, Mo Seifeldein, Canek Aguirre) on the issues of mutual importance in our City. These include: ending the “Tale of Two Alexandrias” where we have some of the very best schools in the same city as schools that are failing or are unaccredited; instituting better transparency and accountability within the City Council; not waiting until the City is in violation of federal standards to fix our infrastructure (water and sewer specifically);creating a better business climate in our City; looking to manage city expenditures before raising taxes; and helping those most in need of medical care, food, and housing with non-governmental solutions, to name a few.
We at AAYR would also like to explore a more direct form of representation so that all citizens of Alexandria have a member of council that is local to them. As champions of democracy, we should all strive for a city that represents all viewpoints in positions of government rather than having one political party controlling everything.
Congratulations again to all and we at AAYR look forward to working with the young people of Alexandria on these and other issues that matter to the people of our fine city.
-Andrew Lund, Chairman of AAYR