Prince William County VA: A Microcosm of the Battles Being Fought All Over the Country

Prince William County, VA is governed by a Board of Supervisors that is comprised of one Supervisor from each of the seven magisterial districts, plus one Chairman elected by the county at-large. The current Chairman is Republican Corey Stewart. Stewart spent the last year fighting for legislation called the "Virginia Rule of Law." Basically, Stewart believes Virginia should follow in the footsteps of Arizona's anti-immigration laws.

Stewart said he is still working on a final draft of his legislation plan, but he wants it to direct Virginia law enforcement officials to ascertain, in any lawful contact, the legal status of an individual. Another key point for the bill, he said, would be to prohibit jurisdictions from calling themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants.

Of course, while Corey Stewart has had a laser focus on immigrants - driving up costs for law enforcement and wasting their time and everyone else's, Prince William County has basically fallen into disarray around him. Others might look up once in a while and realize that maybe they need to address some of the other problems, but not Corey Stewart!

Thankfully, for the sake of all those in Prince William County, Stewart has a challenger this year - one who wants to actually solve the many problems facing PWC residents - the problems that Stewart has ignored while he focused all of his attention on immigrants.

Meet Dr. Babur Lateef, an ophthalmologist from Woodbridge who is running to represent "all of the people of Prince William County."

I have served over 15,000 patients across Prince William County and I see the needs of county residents every day. I am a father and a small business owner and I can see firsthand that it's time for a new vision for Prince William County. We need a Chairman interested in getting things done for our businesses, our schools, and our communities rather than getting headlines for himself. If we give Corey Stewart another four years, he won't use it to help our community; he will use it to advance his political career. I want to serve our community because I care about the problems we all face. My only agenda is getting Prince William County back on track. I want to be the Chairman for all of the people of Prince William County.

Dr. Lateef is clearly ready to tackle the real issues, not the imaginary ones. Here's the first web video from the Lateef campaign - making the case (very effectively) that Stewart has failed those he is supposed to represent.

How much worse can those unemployment numbers get? How many more children can be shoved into one classroom? How little money can you pay teachers before the best and the brightest move on to other opportunities? And how can small businesses survive in a poor economy?

Dr. Lateef clearly understands what is at stake here if Stewart wins re-election - and this race is just a microcosm of what we're seeing all over the country.

If you're interested in donating to Dr. Lateef's campaign, click here to do so. The end of the quarter is at hand and early money is important to every campaign. You can follow Dr. Lateef's campaign on Twitter or on Facebook. Hopefully the voters in Prince William County will take a look around and choose their Chairman wisely. Given the track record of Stewart, I would think they would be looking elsewhere for leadership - and Dr. Lateef surely seems ready to lead.