Dem LG Candidate: Fairfax Casino a "Backroom Deal," "Con Job," "Boondoggle"
"Let’s be clear: the people of Fairfax didn’t ask for this, their elected officials don’t want it, and it won’t fix what’s broken in Virginia."
On Tuesday, the Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 9-6 to advance Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell’s (D-Fairfax) bill to authorize a casino process in Fairfax County. As I outlined before, this bill is of questionable constitutionality.
2025 candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi (D-Chesterfield), voted for the measure - so I asked all of the candidates for lieutenant governor how they feel about this bill and a casino in Fairfax broadly.
The first candidate to respond was Alex Bastani (D-Falls Church), attorney and former local union president and economist. You can read a bit about him in Anna Bryson’s recent survey of the lieutenant governor candidates in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Bastani’s statement to me:
Thank you for reaching out to us.
This casino scheme is nothing more than a backroom deal cooked up by the same power brokers who think Fairfax should take what Richmond gives it, no questions asked. Let’s be clear: the people of Fairfax didn’t ask for this, their elected officials don’t want it, and it won’t fix what’s broken in Virginia.
They tell us a casino is the magic answer to funding our schools, but that’s a lie wrapped in flashing lights and empty promises. The real problem is Richmond’s refusal to fix the broken school funding formula that leaves Northern Virginia taxpayers carrying the weight while our schools still struggle for resources. Instead of giving our kids the education they deserve, they want to hand over a golden ticket to the gambling industry and hope some of the scraps trickle down. That’s not policy, that’s a con job.
Casinos don’t build wealth, they extract it, especially from working people. They won’t fund our schools, but they’ll fill the pockets of developers and out-of-state corporations who will take their cut and leave us with the social and economic wreckage. If Richmond really wants to help Fairfax, it should stop treating Northern Virginia like a piggy bank for the rest of the Commonwealth and start sending our tax dollars back into our classrooms where they belong.
I stand with the people of Fairfax against this boondoggle. The politicians pushing this know the voters don’t want it, that’s why they’re trying to force it through in Richmond instead of letting the people decide. That’s not democracy, that’s a rigged game.
It’s time to stop selling out Virginia’s future for quick cash and start making the right investments in our schools, our workers, and our communities. The people of Fairfax deserve better, and I won’t stand by while Richmond tries to roll the dice on their future.
Sincerely,
Alex Bastani
Democratic Candidate seeking nomination for Lieutenant Governor
As you can see, Bastani’s position is crystal clear, and to my knowledge he’s the only candidate in his race who’s opposed to this bill. We’ll know state Sen. Aaron Rouse’s (D-Virginia Beach) position later this week when the bill hits the floor of the Senate.
In the 2021 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, nearly 82,000 votes came from Fairfax County - about 17% of the total statewide primary electorate (481,365). In a crowded primary race for lieutenant governor this year, setting aside the merits of the position, it could make strategic sense to oppose this legislation if there’s any substantial bloc of Fairfax voters opposed as well.
Presuming, of course, that a candidate can finds ways (and afford) to inform the public of their position.
Stay tuned for responses from other candidates.