05/05/2006
From: Vincent Chiarello:
Re: Brenda Walker’s Blog: Heads Up To Politicians
In a local election that may have national repercussions, the residents of Herndon, Virginia, elected a new mayor and five new members of the town council. In so doing, they reversed a voting trend that has held fast for at least the past decade in which no incumbent mayor or town council member has lost an election.
The new mayor, Steve DeBenedettis, who held no previous public office, and the newly elected town council members campaigned on one issue: the baleful impact of illegal immigration on this suburban town in northern Virginia.
Herndon received national attention earlier this year when a Minutemen branch was formed there. It sought to alert federal and local authorities to the illegal hiring practices that were being carried out on its main thoroughfare, but Herndon’s outgoing mayor and the majority of the town council members decided that they would do nothing: immigration, they claimed, was a federal responsibility.
Over strong citizen opposition, a new day labor site was selected, and the problems of nearby home owners dramatically increased. The town’s residents, clearly disturbed by this "hands off" attitude, began to coordinate their efforts: in addition to the Minutemen, they set up a "Help Save Herndon Committee" with its website, held town meetings, and chose a slate of candidates, all of whom were victorious in the election on May 2. Clearly, this was a sweeping grass roots victory for the residents of Herndon.
Granted, each locale can face different problems, but if Herndon’s success story demonstrates that, working together, citizen groups can be heard. Further, local politicians have been shown once again that campaigning on the issue of the disastrous problems created by illegal immigrants because of non-enforcement of immigration laws is a winning strategy.
Finally, this: might a similar scenario, tried by coordinated statewide groups, succeed on the federal level, too?
VDARE.COM note: Chiarello is a retired Foreign Service Officer, whose tours included U.S. embassies in Latin America and Europe. His last, and most memorable, assignment was to the US Embassy to The Holy See.
Currently, he is on the Board of the American National Council for Immigration Reform of northern Virginia, (ANCIR) whose members offered assistance and advice for the people of Herndon during the recent town elections. Had candidate for Governor Jerry Kilgore also followed ANCIR’s advice last November, Chiarello believes that Virginia would have a Republican, not a Democrat, in Richmond.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Chiarello’s real claim to fame is that he still vividly remembers the numbers of post World War II Dodgers.
Read the May 4th Washington Times editorial confirming Chiarello’s views on the Herndon election here.
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