Politics & Government

Chad Quinn Top Vote-Getter in McLean Board Election

Two incumbents re-elected

Small-business man Chad Quinn was the runaway winner in the McLean Community Center Board election, according to vote totals released by the board Monday morning.

Quinn led the field of four candidates with 523 votes. Quinn, who wallpapered McLean with signs, ran nearly 200 votes ahead of his closest competitor – incumbent board member Risa Sanders with 349; incumbent Sean Dunn had 283. All three won board seats. Fourth candidate, lacrosse coach David (Bucky) Morris, garnered 276 votes, coming within seven votes of defeating Dunn, who was running for a third term on the board.

Residents who pay taxes to support the center elected three adult members and two youth members to the 11-member board during a month of absentee balloting and casting ballots in person at McLean Day on Saturday.

Find out what's happening in McLeanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Susan Bourgeois, chair of the board's Election Committee did not release individual vote counts  Saturday night. The numbers of votes earned by each candidate were released Monday morning. Saturday, she did say this was probably one of the largest turnouts ever for a community center election.

Last year, when Risa Sanders headed the Elections Committee, the complete vote count for each individual candidate was released the Saturday evening immediately after the votes were counted. The board gave no reason for the delay in releasing the individual vote totals.

Find out what's happening in McLeanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A total of 786 adult ballots were cast in the election compared to 780 adult ballots cast in the 2010 election and  470 cast in 2009, according to numbers from the community center.

Maggie Himpler,  a student at the private Oak Crest school,  won the youth seat representing the McLean District. She turned back a last minute write-in challenge from current McLean representative Craig McKenzie, who wanted to succeed himself.

Christy Meyer, a junior at Langley High School, won the second youth seat representing the Langley District. Meyer defeated two challengers.

The League of Women Voters acted as tellers. Bourgeois presented the election results to Dranesville Supervisor John W. Foust on Saturday night. Foust and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors actually appoint  the community center  board members. The election is more of a beauty contest. The center is an agency of the Fairfax government.

Foust will present the results to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors at its  meeting tomorrow and the board will certify the results. All new candidates will also need to file financial disclosure statements with the county before being seated on the McLean center board. The McLean board holds its installation meeting Wednesday. It's open to the public, as are all board and committee meetings.

The  community center  board has 11-members: Nine adults and two student members.  The board oversees the community center and the teen center at the Old Fire House. The board oversees nearly $20 million in public dollars --- a $6 million budget and  a surplus of $12 million mostly of our tax dollars. The board raises money by collecting  property tax dollars from McLean and some Great Falls residents who live within the center's tax district.

Here are the election results:

Individual votes for adult candidates
 
Candidate                   Total               In-Person/Absentee             
Chad Quinn                  523                  379/144
Risa E. Sander              349                  275/74
Sean A. Dunn               283                  204/79
David Morris                276                  211/65
                                  
 Individual votes for youth candidates

Langley High School Area Representative            
Candidate                   Total               In-Person/Absentee
Christy Meyer               48                    38/10
Alexander Soltany        23                    20/3
Aisha Samaila               16                    16/0
 
 
McLean High School Area Representative
Candidate                   Total               In-Person/Absentee
Maggie Himpler            42                    33/9
Craig McKenzie           30                    29/1
 

Ballots Cast
Adult ballots in person: 571
Adult ballots absentee: 215
Youth ballots in person: 87
Youth ballots absentee: 14
 
Adult total: 786
Youth total: 101
Total ballots: 887
                    
The Election and Nominations Committee certified the winners as:
Adults, three-year terms: Chad Quinn, Risa E. Sanders (re-elected), Sean A. Dunn (re-elected)
Youth, one-year term—Langley High School area: Christy Meyer
Youth, one-year term—McLean High School area: Maggie Himpler


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here