Tulloch in the News again

Supervisor Tulloch has been in the news lately, perhaps more often than any other supervisor. Since most of the publicity is negative, pundits are often wary of negative publicity directed at politicians as we get closer to the elections and as would be expected there has been a lot of reaction from fellow local bloggers in response to the front page article in yesterday’s edition of the Washington Post.

I agree some sections of the article had some “old news” that had already been published before, but there was significant new information regarding Tulloch’s relationship with philanthropist and Managing Partner of Washington Mystics, Sheila Johnson and developer Hobie Mitchell which I believe is relevant to the on-going investigation and should be in the public domain. I am not saying any wrongdoing has been established, but it is important to put the facts out there and let the citizens of Loudoun, most especially the constituents of Tulloch in the Potomac district determine if they are satisfied with the conduct of their representative.

I also agree that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a politician leveraging contacts developed in his official capacity for personal business, but politicians are elected to office to serve the general public, consequently when the interest of the public is at variance with their personal interest or the interest of their friends, the interest of the public should prevail, that is the oath they took when they assumed office. Also leveraging contacts with individuals or organizations who have on-going cases before the Board of Supervisors should be avoided, except the supervisor has recused himself or herself from the case brought by the individual. I must quickly add that the current salary of the supervisors is grossly inadequate and makes a mockery of the enormity of the responsibilities of the supervisors, and should be revised as soon as possible.

The allegation that the Washington Post has a liberal agenda to tarnish the image of conservative politicians as we approach the election season is baseless and without any merit. Tulloch’s conservative credentials are shaky, at best average. Sheila Johnson who was also mentioned in the article is well-known in Democratic circles. Our focus and the energy of every well-meaning Loudoun resident should be directed at the on-going investigation to ensure that justice is done to Loudoun taxpayers.