Albo Puts Ideology Before Northern Virginia

Delegate Dave Albo loves to pretend like he cares about Northern Virginia more than keeping his leadership position in the Republican Party.

See, he has a little problem. His law partner - Majority Leader Morgan Griffith is Chairman of the House Republican Caucus. AMG, Announcing Albo & Griffith, Attorneys At-Law (June 24, 2008). We've frequently questioned how can Delegate Albo can exercise independent judgment or represent Northern Virginia when his business partner is his boss in the Republican Caucus.

Part of his misinformation strategy is to introduce bills that he knows have no prayer of passing like HB 1669. This bill requires the Commonwealth to return 50% of the growth of all income taxes to localities. How likely do you think it is that the rest of the Commonwealth will let the highest income jurisdiction in the Commonwealth keep half of its income growth?

Our Delegate thinks he can introduce these bills and then come back and pretend that he "did something" while he was in Richmond. It's an interesting strategy. Perhaps it is why he has been rated as one of the most ineffective legislators in the General Assembly.

So when the rubber hits the road and it comes time for Delegate Albo to buck his caucus so that we can actually seat a duly elected member of the Fairfax County delegation who does it go with? Northern Virginia or his law partner? He votes with his business partner and refuses to seat a duly elected State Delegate for four days in a row.

Is this behavior new? Well this may be the first time Delegate Albo has actually disenfranchised voters. Time to put that on his political resume. However, it's not the first time he's put the Republican Party before Fairfax County. In 2006, when it came time to vote for some minor budget amendments to restore funding for subsidized Fairfax County childcare for needy kids did he vote with this rest his delegation?

Nope. Check out this Oldie but Goodie - AMG, Is Dave Albo Offering to Babysit 1900 Children (Apr. 7, 2006) or this one - AMG, Albo Nixes Poor Kids (July 6, 2006). The South County Chronicle called his behavior a mean, partisan cheap shot." The Mount Vernon Gazette editorial said "Last week, Republican members of the General Assembly voted down 20 of 36 of Kaine’s priority budget amendments. Even Fairfax County members of the General Assembly voted to hurt local children with the partisan maneuver."

Looks like some things never change.