Giovanni G. “Gio” Dolmo

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Dolmo graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Excelsior College. Dolmo was a ten-year Navy veteran and a home pastor and is a father of three children. Dolmo ran in the special election for Virginia’s General Assembly District 89 [4].

Key Issues

Education

Dolmo wants to limit the politicization of education and promote the hiring of teachers in order to remedy shortages [1].

Father's Rights

Dolmo wants to sponsor the “include Fathers” bill that will allow parents to minimize conflict while simultaneously providing custody to both mothers and fathers. Dolmo wants to preserve the cohesiveness of families in black communities through the inclusion of parental figures [1].

Endorsements

Virginians for Sane Government; Republican Party of Virginia; Black Electing Conservatives PAC

Sources

1 WAVY
2 Facebook
3 Virginian-Pilot
4 Catalyst for Change
5 VPAP
6 Ballotpedia

Nicholas S. Olenik

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Nicholas Olenik was born and raised in Virginia Beach and has lived in the city his entire life. After graduating from Tallwood High School, Olenik attended Tidewater Community College. Olenik is retired and previously described himself as an “independent business owner.” Olenik has suffered from depression relating to the deaths of his close family members [1, 7].

Olenik began his journey in politics after being cited for having livestock in an area where livestock was not allowed in Virginia Beach due to having an emu for emotional support to help him through his depression. This inspired him to run for office and change the laws regarding his own animals himself [1, 7].

Key Issues

Economy

Olenik wants to shrink the size of the government and describes himself as a fiscal conservative. He is pro-crypto currency and wants to use tax money from marijuana sales and casino revenue to stimulate the economy. He wants to reform the fiscal tax code [1].

Education

Olenik believes school board members and superintendents must have a child in the school system to be elected. He believes education should be non-partisan and that students should be provided with a strong K-12 education [1, 2, 3].

Mental Health

Olenik wants alternative therapies, medications, and tools to be available as solutions to addressing mental health. He wants to focus on the mental health of both veterans and civilians. He describes this as the most important issue facing Virginia [1, 2, 3, 7].

Term Limits

Olenik describes placing term limits on all elected officials in Virginia as his top priority. He wants elected officials in Virginia to be held to the same standard of two terms that applies to the U.S. President [1, 2, 3].

Endorsements

No endorsements could be found.

Sources

1 Olenik for Independence
2 The Virginian Pilot
3 WAVY News
4 LinkedIn
5 VPAP
6 Ballotpedia
7 AP News

Corazon Foley

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Born and raised in the Philippines, Foley has worked to advocate for Asian Americans in the United States [2]. Foley led a Fairfax County Asian American History Project to educate Fairfax residents the efforts AAPI people made towards building this county. Foley has also written several books focused on her Filipino heritage [2].

As an activist, Corazon Foley has worked to serve her community. She is involved with several initiatives like the Burke/West Springfield Senior Center Without Walls (BWSSCWoW) Project. This project aimed to create a senior center in the Burke/West Springfield area [2]. This project and many others helped Foley win the Changemaker Award during 2017’s Virginia Women in History Awards [1].

Key Issues

Community

As a community activist, Foley wants the district to serve more for its inhabitants. Foley wants to include people of all age groups and backgrounds in the community [1].

Seniors

Foley has worked in her community to protect the seniors in the area. Through past projects like the BWSSCWoW, Foley has demonstrated her passion for senior care and plans to extend this to community projects [1, 2].

Endorsements

No endorsements could be found.

Sources

1 Virginia Changemakers
2 Fairfax County Government
3 AARP
4 The Connection Newspaper
5 Youtube

Mark T. Welch

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Mark T. Welch graduated from Holy Cross College and currently works as an independent contractor, helping clients with financial management and strategic planning. Before that, he worked for over 30 years in the federal government. During his career, he worked in the Department of Transportation and received the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award, in the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as acquisition and finance director and general manager, and more. Additionally, Welch volunteers as a tax preparer with AARP Foundation Tax-Aide [1, 3].

Key Issues

Budget

Welch wants to donate his entire Board member salary to a Fairfax County charity every quarter. Additionally, he wants to keep real estate taxes unchanged for residents [1]. Welch also wants to allocate more funding to housing, transportation, environment protection, and food security, as well as hold Fairfax County Public Schools accountable for creating reasonable budgets [2].

Communication

Welch wants to ensure that every single constituent question/comment is responded to [1].

Environment

Welch advocates for stronger commitment to using solar power and incentivizing green development. He also supports funding disaster relief plans, albeit not with higher real estate taxes. Additionally, he wants to limit the removal of old-growth trees during development and increase or preserve tree coverage in new developments, with significant penalties if not followed. Finally, he wants to work with Fairfax County Park Authority to combat invasive species issues and resolve budget-related challenges [2].

 

Food

Welch supports community gardens and making them accessible to whoever is interested, as well as setting aside land for garden development and removing land use barriers barring the development of urban agriculture, especially those pertaining to rooftop gardens and vertical farming. He also supports necessary funding to Fairfax County Public Schools to make sure that no student goes hungry and partnering with religious communities to address food insecurity issues [2].

 

Housing

Welch supports transit-oriented housing development and including a range of affordable housing options for different income levels in such developments. He wants to increase housing funding by reducing expenses elsewhere, as opposed to increasing real estate taxes. Additionally, he wants to work with nonprofits to curb displacement and expand the outreach of government programs designed to help homeowners get assistance for buying a home [2].

Transportation

Welch wants to improve public transit with current funding levels, only increasing taxes if needed. He also supports creating safe cyclist and pedestrian access that works within the constraints posed by overall traffic concerns and funding, as well as traffic calming measures. Welch supports focusing investing on safe cyclist and pedestrian options for students to go to school but does not support achieving this through extra funding [2].

Endorsements

No endorsements could be found.

Sources

1 Mark for Supervisor
2 Fairfax Healthy Communities
3 LinkedIn
4 VPAP

Christopher Thomas Morgan

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Christopher Morgan graduated from Lehigh University with a Bachelor’s in Business and Economics with an emphasis in Information Technology. Morgan is a former U.S. Army officer, board member of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations, Chair of the Environment & Recreation Committee, President of the Stratford Landing Citizens Association, technology software professional, and former small business owner [1, 3, 4, 5]. As a former US Army officer, Morgan served on the General Staff of the United States Army, Pacific, Fort Shafter, HI. As a former board member of the Mount Vernon Council of Citizens’ Associations, Morgan helped preserve the River Farm property and supported, advertised, and participated in the largest single invasive English Ivy Weed Warrior training ever conducted by National Park Service Rangers, and fought for effective policy to balance the rights of property owners with the preservation of wetlands and living shorelines [1].

Key Issues

Budget

Morgan plans to spend less tax money by forcing supervisors to focus on providing early Budget Guidance [1]. 

Education

Morgan wants to focus more on student education rather than politics [1]. 

 

Environment

Morgan hopes to protect the environment while listening to citizens’ inputs on the laws [1, 3]. He believes that forcing private property owners to give up property to establish wetlands is unethical [1].

Housing

Morgan wants to relocate the homeless shelter further away from high schools or remove it [1].

Transportation

Morgan hopes to improve the designs of roads; he has been skeptical of plans to install road diets and feels dissatisfied with results [1].

Endorsements

No endorsements could be found.

Sources

1 Christopher Morgan for Fairfax County
2 VPAP
3 On the MoVe
4 Youtube
5 LinkedIn
6 Twitter

Carey Campbell

Key Facts

Party Independent
Status Challenger

Background

Carey Campbell graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor of arts, from the University of Kentucky with a degree in accounting and business, and from Freiburg University with a degree in German language and political science [1, 3]. He has served as the state chairman of the Independent Green Party of Virginia, as the Vice President of the Fairfax Federation of Citizens Association, on the North Springfield Civic Association, on the Braddock District Council, as the co-chair of the Fairfax Federation of Citizens Associations Budget and Transportation committees, on the Executive Committee of the Independent Green Party of Virginia, and as the National Chairman of the Committee to Draft Michael Bloomberg for President [3]. Campbell served in the United States Air Force and has worked for the United States government as an accountant [1, 3]. Campbell is running for this position for the sixth time [1, 3, 4].

Key Issues

Campaign Finance

Campbell believes that money negatively affects the election process and creates other priorities for elected officials, so he is not accepting campaign donations [1, 2, 3].

Environment

Campbell wants to increase revenue by installing solar panels and geothermal heating and cooling systems in all of Fairfax County’s public buildings [1. 3].

Transportation

Campbell wants to encourage the use of trains to decrease the amount of traffic on highways by signs on the area’s highways which would display wait times for the Virginia Railway Express. He would also like to build additional bike rental stations and a new light rail system [1, 3].

Endorsements

Independent Green Party of Virginia

Sources

1 Patch
2 VPAP
3 Connection Newspapers   
4 Annandale Today