My father never understood why I had any interest in politics and, while he taught me many things, he just couldn’t see it. But that’s not the case for all men who find their way into politics.
Democrat Tom Bellanca, a Realtor, running county wide to replace the current Republican Chairman, Scott York, was heavily influenced by his father’s example.
“I was born at the Naval Hospital,” said Tom, “because my father was a Navy man, formerly a physician on a nuclear submarine, serving under Admiral Hyman Rickover, and he went back to school when he was stateside, because he was book smart, a real workaholic, and he got a degree in public health, and worked at NIH, while still attached to the Navy.”
“My father was a product of Rickover’s leadership,” said Tom.
Rickover believed that “Man has a large capacity for effort. In fact it is so much greater than we think it is that few ever reach this capacity.”
Tom’s Dad struggled to reach his capacity.
“My Dad’s job was congressional liaison for NIH,” Tom said, and “although attached to the Navy, my Dad wore a suit and, whenever there was any testimony on the Hill, he would represent NIH before Congress.” “One of my early recollections,” Tom said, “was my father telling me how to answer questions in Congress.”
“He taught me independence, and not just by his example,” Tom said. “When we were assigned to the NATO Navy Base in Naples, Italy,” Tom said, “I had to attend the Department of Defense School, from kindergarten through High School.”
“I got to know some Italian, Napolitano, a dialect that was not understandable elsewhere in Italy,” said Tom, “and we traveled around Europe a lot and on our own, on trains, and we all had motorcycles as well. One of our favorite spots was Carney Park, named after a 4-star Admiral, and located in an extinct volcano Campiglione in the Phlegraean Fields near Naples. This time at the base taught me how to grow up a lot faster. When I was 9, I was pulled over with an Uzi pointed at me.”
As for learning how to reason, “my dad played the devil’s advocate with me, the Socratic method, and was always telling me that there was another way to look at things,” Tom said, “He trained me to be the same way – and I am able to see the other side of almost any argument.”
At Randolph Macon in Richmond, “I studied governmental structures that work,” Tom said, “and at George Mason, I earned a Masters in International Business and Finance.”
Tom went abroad to study these governmental structures because, Tom said, “I had to see it to understand it, you can’t read it in a book and understand it the same way.”
“What I’ve learned,” Tom said, “by studying other systems is that government in general has gotten away from doing what’s best for the citizens.”
“We’re seeing that now,” Tom said, “with this global movement, something is happening historically, challenging the rule of thumb world.”
“We have an opportunity here,” said Tom, “or a chance to suffer even more.”
President Kennedy said, “Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.”
In Loudoun, the education of our children takes up 70% of the County Budget.
Tom says, “Our primary objective is to solve the Loudoun County school overcrowding.”
“The coming wave of students within and entering our school system,” Tom says, “must be addressed now.”
“We have to hold that line,” said Tom, “respect the comprehensive plan, not increase the density in the transition zone, or in Western Loudoun.”
There has been a lot of talk about increasing commercial development in Eastern Loudoun but, Tom insists, “he’s also going to focus on Western Loudoun and on the need to preserve, protect and grow its rural economy.”
Tom relies on a study from the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia that states “the equine industry in Loudoun County is growing larger, but is also under increased pressure in recent years from home development that is threatening the availability of land and pushing the industry Westward.”
Tom says the problem with “home development” is that it “adds traffic to our roads and increases the already overburdened school system.”
“Maintaining the rural area at lower housing densities,” says Tom, “is not only a part of the current citizen generated Comprehensive Plan, but it is essential to reducing and managing growth throughout the County and reducing the overall population growth in the schools.”
“That will keep our property taxes down,” said Tom, “because fewer children added to an already overburdened school system reduce the overall requirement for new schools.”
As for transportation, Tom says, “I will focus on completing Metrorail to Loudoun with at least one commuter stop beyond route 28, reducing commute times on the arterial connections to Route 28, and extending Loudoun County Parkway from the Dulles South Area all the way to Route 7.”
Rickover said, “it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him.”
Tom is running for Supervisor like the fate of Loudoun depended on him.
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