To the Editor:
The single most important lesson to be taken from the Nov. 3 election, it seems to me, is that Allison Silberberg’s message of good governance, transparency and ethical conduct resonated with a lot of people of all political stripes. People saw a need for a change in direction.
Although Mayor Silberberg will be leading essentially the same group of council members as those who served over the past three years, let us hope that they have understood the message sent by the voters in the race for mayor and will support her efforts.
The amount of money that flowed into Mr. Euille’s “write-in” campaign literally was astounding. His financial report for mid-September indicated that his contributions, largely from developers and others doing regular business with the city, totaled more than contributions to Ms. Silberberg and all the council candidates, Democratic and Republican, combined.
Big money like that is new in Alexandria local politics and scary. It points up the need for a reexamination of council’s ethic standards and regulations. Ms. Silberberg has proposed an Ethics Commission to begin that work. If the new council is paying attention to the recent vote, they will put their minds and hearts fully behind the effort.
Jack Sullivan
Alexandria