Written by Sheryle Pinson
Opening the mailbox is an adventure these days. Each day scary-looking campaign mailers turn up to sway me with dark tones, grunge overlays to make the paper look dirty, AI-generated images, HUGE CAPITAL LETTERS warning me about the nefarious secret [insert candidate name] doesn’t want me to know. These mailers scream, “Hey, voter. We think you’re stupid.”
Beyond their entertainment value, two mailers’ return address caught my eye: 10521 Judicial Drive, Suite 200-A, Fairfax, Virginia. Both warned me not to vote for Chet Hand for Boone County judge executive.
Why am I getting mailers “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee” from Fairfax, Virginia, of all places, warning me not to vote for Chet Hand?
The mailer I received yesterday had the scary subhead that Chet Hand “blocked lower taxes.” Down in the fine print—hard to read in tiny type reversed on black—is the citation “LINKNKY.com, Sept. 4, 2024.” I found that article. Chet voted no because the proposed reduction didn’t reduce taxes enough, according to the article published by this very outlet:
“As the lone ‘no’ vote, Hand explained that he heard from many constituents that they personally wanted ‘the lowest tax rate possible.’ Furthermore, Hand said that property taxes are immoral and that the free market should determine property valuations.
“‘I made it pretty clear that my base position is I think property taxes should be zero,’ Hand said. ‘I think they’re immoral at their core, and realistically, at the end of the day, if the state didn’t have property taxes, we would have no need for a PVA. Values would be driven by the market.’
“Hand said he thought the county should go with ‘the lowest possible rate’ and look to reduce spending in other areas. Hand said he believes the county should reduce the real property tax rate to lower than 9.2 cents per $100 valuation.”
Note the proposed reduction did pass, so the mailer’s contention that he “blocked lower taxes” is at best disingenuous. He voted no because, as he said in the video cited immediately below, people who own their property should actually own their property.
Another subhead warns me that Chet “refused to rule out more tax hikes,” with the tiny citation pointing to a YouTube video posted March 22, 2022, the year he won election as a county commissioner.
I found that video and watched all 28 minutes and 41 seconds. Here’s what he said about taxes in the video the mailer specifically cited as a refusal “to rule out more tax hikes”:
“I’m also fiscally conservative. So I’m opposed to any and all increased taxes without a completely thorough assessment of what our existing budget, our existing tax base looks like, to make sure that we eliminate every bit of wasteful spending in our existing programs before we even consider going after additional taxes. Things like the 911 tax that got implemented? There were many ways, other ways, that that could have been implemented that would have been much more fair and consistent across the board. Yes, we have to pay for services, but at the same time, it should be fair to the citizens.”
Chet further said, “Even at a local level—a local level—our ordinances or our taxation or anything that the government does that impacts the average citizen’s life should be compared against the liberties guaranteed by both our national and our state constitutions, both of which are very good.”
In the video Chet also discussed in depth the rapid growth of Boone County and the need to carefully and strategically manage the county’s inevitable development while respecting individual property rights, preventing weaponization of zoning laws and holding the line against special interests. That alone is worth a listen.
So about that Fairfax, Virginia, address: it turned up two “Republican/Conservative” political action committees: USA Leadership Fund Super PAC and Great America PAC, the latter the sender’s name in the mailer’s fine print.
Why would a “Republican/Conservative” entity in Fairfax, Virginia—located in a county described by Fairfax County news outlet FFX NOW as “part of Northern Virginia’s blue wall”—want to scare me, a resident of Boone County, Kentucky, away from Chet Hand, as thoroughly a constitutional conservative as you’ll find?
Watch the video and read the article cited in the “scary” subheads. Both links are provided in this letter. And the next time you get a grungy, scary mailer in your mailbox, check out the fine print.
Links: