As you may recall, back in May 2007, Providence District (Fairfax County) Supervisor Linda Q. Smyth bragged, "I'm my own person. Gerry [Connolly] has never told me what to do, and he doesn't now. If he did, I'd bite off his head." With that in mind, I wrote a diary on February 23 asking whether Smyth would stand up to pressure from current Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova to switch her "no" vote on I-66 widening to a "yes." Or, to put it in her own words, would Smyth really "bite her head off?" Well, we now have our answer:A regional transportation panel reversed itself yesterday, approving funding to widen the first 1.5-mile stretch of westbound Interstate 66 inside the Capital Beltway.No matter what you think of I-66 widening -- and I oppose it because I believe widening highways simply encourages more sprawl -- I hope you'll agree that switching one's vote because of intense political pressure, and not because you honestly changed your mind, is really weak. Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened here. Pitiful.
The action, which came as two Fairfax County supervisors [Catherine Hudgins and Linda Q. Smyth] switched their votes, clears the way to use a federal earmark for the first of three widening projects on I-66...
P.S. It's exactly this type of thing that made me so strongly for Charlie Hall against Linda Smyth in 2007. I just wish that Charlie could have pulled off that victory, instead of just coming close. Sigh.
