New Virginia Beach Delegate Kelly Fowler represents me in the Virginia House of Delegates. Throughout the campaign, I didn’t get one mailpiece, see one tv advertisement or read an email, website or anything talking about real estate.
…other than her bio, showing that she’s in the real estate business.
Imagine my surprise when after an entire campaign where she touted issues including education, health care, the opioid epidemic, minimum wage, military infrastructure, flooding, the environment, campaign finance limits, ethics reforms and audits, smart growth initiatives, veterans, criminal justice reform, decriminalization of marijuana, prison reform, and gender identity education in public schools, and a whole bunch of immigration reform promises…….
…..her filed legislation is full of real estate proposals.
Over half her legislative agenda has to do with her job in real estate, property associations, and the like.
Is this really what my neighbors voted for in November? Is real estate reform really the key issue facing Virginia?
What a disappointment.
After her victory, which Fowler said “changed the world”, she added, “You can count on me when it comes to securing quality education for our children, healthcare for the most vulnerable in our community, and when it comes to helping our communities prepare for the effects of flooding. I also want to take the money out of politics and make redistricting fair so voters pick their representation, not the other way around.”
Another missed opportunity to tell everyone she’s going to spend time in Richmond on a bunch of real estate legislation.
I usually cut a new Delegate some slack, but considering Fowler based a six-figure ad campaign attacking her opponent’s job, it’s odd that she’d start doing the people’s business by focusing so much on her own.
I wonder why her legislation is such a far cry from what her campaign promises were. I don’t know any voter who went to the polls last November because they were outraged that their property association’s minutes weren’t in writing.
Did her caucus influence her to drop the more controversial parts of her platform? Did the real estate lobby just dump its legislative agenda on the new Delegate? It would be interesting to learn what the inspiration was and why, after a grueling primary and an expensive campaign win, she’d devote most of her legislation to her job.
If I voted for her based on her promises, I’d be shaking my head right about now.