This Nov. 7, registered voters will be asked to participate in an election to elect a Supervisor for the district of Providence in Fairfax County, Virginia. On the ballot is long time Virginia resident and conservative, Brian Murphy.
As a member of the Board of Supervisors, if elected, Murphy would contribute to passing resolutions and ordinances, approve the budget, set local tax rates, approve land use plans and make appointments to various positions that serve the county, among other things.
Murphy would bring a lifetime of unique and relevant experiences to the role.
After closing his construction company due to the Oil Embargo in the early seventies, he traveled extensively through North Africa, Europe, behind the Iron Curtain and the Middle East. He returned to complete a university degree in economics, earning membership in the International economics Honor Society.
Subsequent positions in finance and a nationwide real estate investment company where many of the present day mortgage financing and warehousing of Collateralized Mortgage Obligations were pioneered led to a position of Chief Financial Officer and then partner of a real estate building and developing company.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
Mr. Murphy still has his Class A contractors license as well as being licensed to sell real estate in Virginia and Maryland.
A real estate expert, Murphy wields superior knowledge of the building and developing industry in both residential and commercial real estate which, according to Murphy, affords him a unique “ability to know what will work when discussing housing issues.”
Currently he works as a Realtor, a profession that he has mastered after over three decades serving in various roles in the field.
Murphy is no stranger to public service, his father was the Assistant Chief Underwriter for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) for the Kennedy administration and was instrumental in the design of the FHA home loan program that is still in use today.
When asked what inspired him to run, Murphy told Vision Times, “Well, I have been watching the impact of the local government’s policies on my clients, on their wealth creation and on the communities in which they live and I feel that they are unsustainable at the rate they are going.”
READ MORE:
- Virginia Organized Retail Theft Ring Busted, New York Chinese Nationals Charged
- Target CEO Warns Organized Retail Theft Will Cost Shareholders $1.3 Billion This Year
- Virginia State House Passes Resolution to Condemn Forced Organ Harvesting in China
‘Victims aren’t just statistics’
Top of mind for Murphy is addressing soaring crime rates in the county. Currently, auto theft is up a staggering 62 percent, robbery up 30 percent, property crime up 19 percent and violent crime is up 12 percent.
“Victims of crime aren’t statistics,” Murphy says, adding that, “Crime statistics need to be viewed as a measure of personal trauma visited upon our fellow citizens.”
In conversation with Vision Times, Murphy said “defund the police” efforts in the county are undermining the safety of citizens and that “defund the police” policies have left the police force in the county understaffed and unable to properly do their job.
“The most impactful on victims of crime is their failure to fully staff the police force up to their full complement,” Murphy argues, adding that, “Aside their callous disregard of the suffering of victims, my opponents persist in a blithe ignorance of the economic impacts of their failure to get control of this lawlessness visiting our community.”
He sees local businesses struggling with record high theft which has prompted at least one retailer to take the extraordinary measure of closing one of their two main entrances in a bid to stop thieves, and to protect their bottom line and the jobs they create.
Murphy worries about the impact the “staggering rise in crimes” will have on people’s insurance premiums.
“Crimes against persons and property translate into increases in insurance claims. Such increases always lead to increased premiums as the insurance companies spread risk,” Murphy argues.
He says that the Commonwealth’s Attorney has created a “revolving door” of sorts, where authorities are simply “releasing criminals without prosecution” causing crime to go “through the roof.”
If elected Murphy says he will “request that our Attorney General open an investigation into the competence, or the willful dereliction of duty of our existing Commonwealth’s Attorney.”
READ MORE:
- Scope on Saundra Davis’ Run for Fairfax County’s School Board: ‘I’m Running for the Children’
- Scope on Ed McGowan: A New Voice Vying for Virginia’s 18th Delegate District
- Governor Headlines Fairfax GOP Fundraiser, Drawing Large Turnout
Government reform, consumer protection and parental rights
Murphy opposes big government and says that over his opponent’s tenure bureaucracy has grown “almost exponentially,” and that “County employees have lost focus as to who they are working for. Fairfax County government has grown so large that they consider themselves too big to fail.”
He believes that this sprawling bureaucracy is failing citizens “on many different levels” and that the current government engages in “unilateral decisions that exceed their authority.”
A recent example of this, Murphy says, is how county authorities redefined the assessment protocol for real estate in the county.
“They have fundamentally changed the nature of the tax from a property tax to a tax on unrealized capital gains,” Murphy says.
While the current government argues that they have not raised taxes, they have changed how properties are assessed, meaning property owners pay more taxes based on speculative property values.
In addition, Murphy’s platform supports more consumer protection and believes parental rights need to be defended.
To protect consumers, he wants to establish an independent ombudsman to hear complaints from citizens regarding home warranty providers, who he says encourages homeowners to “buy their suite of coverages” and then they “fail to deliver.”
On parental rights, unless there is a “previous court decision where due process has removed authority” from parents, Murphy says parents are to be considered the responsible party for their children “with the final decision on questions related to their child’s interaction with Fairfax County,” and that the parents agreement is “necessary before the County’s agents can proceed.”
“In particular, I support traditionalist School Board Candidates who want to reverse the decline of academic standards and oppose ‘mission creep’ of social engineering in our schools,” Murphy says.
Virginia’s general and special elections are slated for Nov. 7, 2023. Early voting starts Sept. 22. For more information, visit Murphy’s official campaign site here.
Vision Times’ Min Xiao contributed to this report.
