Volpe Hopes Campaign, Political Experience Help Win Board Seat

Suzanne Volpe hopes her years of experience working on local Republican campaigns will help her win her own elected office. Volpe has lived in Northern Virginia her whole life and is running for Algonkian District Supervisor because she believes the residents need a voice.

“I saw the way the County was going, and this area had been overlooked,” she said. “There are many issues that the residents here are facing, including horrible traffic and increased crime.”

If elected, Volpe said taxes and jobs would be among her top priorities, sounding off a common theme in this year’s election.

“We need a strong business tax base to lessen the burden on the residents as well as providing good jobs here in the county for the residents,” she said.

And while Volpe supports the Metro extension into Loudoun as a way to boost economic development, she said the federal government should play a bigger role that it has up to now in paying for the multibillion-dollar project.

 “I would like to see Metro happen, but not at the expense of the taxpayers of Loudoun County and [Dulles] Toll Road users,” she said, referring in part to the current plan to use toll fares to help fund the project. Localities and the state are on the hook for the cost of the extension from Wiehle Avenue in Reston to Ryan Road in Ashburn, with no assistance from the feds.

“I think there needs to be a balance,” Volpe said, to take the burden off of Loudoun and its commuters.

As a long-time Sterling resident, Volpe understands that traffic is a major frustration for area residents. She supports a proposal to widen Route 7, a plan currently under consideration by the state. She advocates a thorough review of transportation allocations, including available proffer money, as well as retiming lights on Route 7 to help ease traffic congestion.

The board of supervisors “needs to look at existing proffers on the books and see if those can be expedited,” she said, adding that supervisors should “review all the plans and look at missing links and see if there are ways to allocate funds for missing links that have no funding.”

Volpe also sees increased crime as a major problem in the area, particularly gang violence. It’s a topic she feels particularly passionate, since her own house was vandalized in 2008.

“Here in Sterling we have gang activity,” she said. “This is not a new problem. There were lots of crimes committed in the Cascades area just in the last couple of months. It’s organized, and the police are piecing these crimes together.”

She said that crime – including nonviolent crime – has increased 46 percent countywide in recent years, with recent incidents of gangs “tagging” Seneca Ridge Middle School.

“I would work with Congressman Wolf and the task force he set up,” Volpe said, adding that the community must undertake a coordinated effort. “I’d also work with our sheriff’s department to get them the resources they need to combat this, and I’d work in the community to help development more neighborhood watch programs and to help educate residents.”

Overall, Volpe hopes that her strong community ties and previous experience workers on the campaigns of other Loudoun Republicans will give her a victory next Tuesday.

“I’m running because I love my community and if I’m elected, I will work diligently and tirelessly to improve the quality of life for residents here,” Volpe said.

When asked about an accusation from her opponent, Denise Moore Pierce (D), that Volpe fabricated information to prove a point about government waste – namely that the county allocated $500,000 to the Northern Virginia Bike Association. Pierce said she unaware of any such organization.

Volpe said she’s looking into the matter and suggested the name of the organization may have changed, but denies fabricated the information.

“I’m researching it with Supervisor [Eugene] Delgaudio right now,” she said, referring to the current Republican representing the Sterling District.