FROM THE EDITOR: Buckle Up
This year, place people above politics, service above self, and love above hate.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Pardon my saying, but on this New Year’s Day, I feel a bit drained.
Even for a life-long political observer, 2024 was trying, and that falls on the heels of an equally trying 2023.
For those who hope that 2025 will be less bumpy, here’s some unsolicited advice. Buckle up.
High-Stakes Races
Gubernatorial Election
The commonwealth will probably have its first-ever female governor come November. And the visions of the two current contenders couldn’t be more different.
Outgoing 7th Congressional District Representative Abigail Spanberger hits the campaign trail with a long history of legislative success in Washington; a proven ability to work across the aisle; a demonstrated ability to master the complexities of policy yet talk about it in ways that the average voter can understand, and a knack for winning close elections.
Winsome Sears, by contrast, has a stint as Lt. Governor under her belt, but no real track record of legislative success. In fairness, the LG in Virginia is little more than a figurehead, so the opportunities weren’t there for her to lead. But even before coming to Richmond, her record was thin. She does, however, appeal to the MAGA crowd, and her personal story of immigration, military service, and finding success in business and in politics is compelling.
President-elect Donald Trump will loom large in this governor’s race. Progressives, still fuming about the election, are threatening a challenge to Spanberger. If that battle turns bloody, Democrats may lose precious time in the spring beating back Rep. Bobby Scott, instead of leaning into the significant advantage they have on defining the issues this race will be about.
Sears, by contrast, was quick to support Trump’s run for the White House and will have to deal with the fallout from whatever happens in the first year of his second term. Mass deportations and tariffs may sell at election time, but the reality of separating families and rounding up citizens, on top of inflationary tariffs, doesn’t tend to play well with people in the real world.
And of course, with Trump, one never knows what’s around the corner. Sears could spend as much time defending or explaining away Trump’s near daily litany of grievances as sparring with Spanberger on the campaign trail.
Trump has a knack for winning elections. But how helpful his coattails are to other Republicans is very much up for debate.
Bottom line — the race for the Governor’s Mansion will be entertaining.
Stepping down to the General Assembly, every seat in the House is up, and there is at least one interesting race developing in HD-66, where Bobby Orrick is staring at a challenger in Nicole Cole, who was responsible in large measure for engineering the ouster of the Twigg-Phelps coalition from the Spotsylvania County School Board in 2023.
Orrick may be well-liked and well-known, but Cole is a formidable campaigner. This will be a race to watch.
Local Races
Starting Thursday morning, the Advance will begin publishing our local election previews for 2025, which will provide an in-depth look at the state of the races as the election season officially kicks off.
For now, suffice to say the waters will be turbulent in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford.
In Fredericksburg, the waters are already churned up. There will be no incumbents in three of the four ward seats, and jockeying for position has already begun. Expect things to get choppier.
The City Council is facing a growing backlash from citizens who feel that council is forcing through its priorities without giving citizens a fair hearing. Mary’s Landing, a data center, and a move to increase density have met with vocal opposition. Expect those fights to flare as candidates become better known and debates are engaged.
Stafford County, meanwhile, has its own challenges. The run for seats on the Stafford Board of Supervisors will be clouded by two scandals that erupted in 2024 — one involving a methadone clinic and one involving the handling of Mary Becelia. Expect both to dog those candidates who choose to run — Monica Gary announced on Tuesday she won’t seek re-election — all the way to November.
And in Spotsylvania, schools will again roil the electorate. Front and center? School funding (or lack thereof), which could impact the Board of Supervisors’ race as well. School Board races will also be a mandate on whether the book-banning faction enjoys strong enough support in their districts to return two holdovers from the majority that argued for bans and book burnings — Lisa Phelps and April Gillespie — should they choose to face election. If they don’t run, who wins those seats? Anti-public-school candidates — signaling a possible rebirth of that movement? Or pro-public-school candidates — signaling that for now that culture war is past?
The Advance will be on top of all these issues and races throughout the year — introducing readers to the candidates, following their ups and downs on the campaign trail, and reporting from before sunup to well after sundown on Election Day.
Data Centers
The city is facing serious financial challenges, and data centers look to be the lifeline to reach for by council members and the city manager. The push, however, has sparked a backlash among those who have concerns ranging from environmental to land use and city character.
In 2023, the groundwork to bring one to Fredericksburg was put in place. Four meetings just announced on December 31 for January and February about data centers is sure to draw much attention in the first quarter of 2025. How those meetings go will not doubt impact the election in November, as well.
Education
Across the 540, education will be closely watched this year.
Fredericksburg City Public Schools have struggled with SOL testing, and the new accountability measures being deployed this year have many concerned. There is hope that the new cell-phone ban policy, which has been mostly successful, will lead to better SOL results. But how much of a boost this may add to students’ scores is impossible to know at this time.
The city also joined the Comprehensive Instructional Program (CIP) in 2024. Some of Virginia’s poorest districts have seen big gains using CIP, but change never comes easily. Nor is it guaranteed. There are CIP districts who have yet to see the needle move on student achievement.
The city is banking on both to move student achievement in a positive direction.
In short, when the city’s SOL scores are announced, there will be even more interest than normal in the results.
Stafford and Spotsylvania face their own challenges, mainly around money and facilities. As the Advance reported in 2024, both counties have significant issues in these areas. Budget season will take on added importance in both districts the first half of the year, as they both struggle to balance surging enrollments and rising numbers of special education students with boards of supervisors who have not in recent history been keen on fully funding the schools.
Health Care
Mary Washington Health Care has a new CEO, as Michael McDermott departs for sunny California. He leaves a lot for the new CEO, Christopher Newman, to clean up.
MWHC bungled its decision to pull away from the Moss Free Clinic in 2024, stranding a center that has long provided healthcare to our most-vulnerable populations.
It wasn’t the organization’s only stumble. MWHC had to walk back its decision to close a popular childcare facility when a public uproar ensued. In addition, it’s ongoing gobbling up of private practices is elevating concerns about what MWHC’s end-game is. And the news that new “facility fees” were being imposed has angered patients, some of whom can’t afford the additional charge because their insurance providers won’t pick it up.
Further bad news came in the spring when Mary Washington Hospital received a grade of ‘D’ in Leapfrog Group’s hospital safety ratings. The only hospital in Virginia to receive such a grade.
With healthcare costs skyrocketing, and healthcare shortages balloon, MWHC has significant challenges before it this year.
Boards
The year 2024 may be remembered in our region as the year of Board scandals. In every jurisdiction the Advance covers, scandal has defined the actions of councils and boards.
In Spotsylvania, the school board is embroiled in a scandal over FOIA requests that aren’t being fulfilled. In Stafford, a debate over a methadone clinic and the improper dismissal of a private citizen from the CRRL board has deeply damaged the community’s trust in the Board of Supervisors. In Fredericksburg, a minor scandal over text messages between council members during a meeting that appeared to belittle public speakers has fueled frustration in some quarters with citizens who feel the council is acting without seriously hearing citizen’s thoughts. And in King George, both the board of supervisors and the school board have drawn scrutiny for multiple decisions.
Will boards and councils learn from last year’s multiple missteps? The Advance will be watching.
Economy
The litany of issues that fall under this is long — housing, food, energy costs, and more.
We enter 2025 with more people living on the edge than at any time since the Great Recession. In Fredericksburg, a city that rightly touts its charm, 45% of households aren’t living charmed existences. Rather, they’re living either in poverty or don’t earn enough to meet their monthly obligations. Neither Stafford (34%) nor Spotsylvania (43%) are immune from this challenge, either.
There are opportunities to seriously address these issues — if the aforementioned Boards will make it a priority.
The Advance did extensive reporting in 2024 on how this is affecting our neighbors, and we will continue to do so in 2025.
A Resolution to Move Us Ahead
After all that drama, all those challenges, we can all be forgiven for feeling a bit drained.
Alas, there is no time to recover, as 2025 offers no rest for the weary.
Not in Virginia, where the powers-that-be ensure citizens go through elections every year. Where publicly elected officials too often act in ways that suggest they are above the public, not representatives of it. And where the costs of just surviving continue to be beyond the reach of too many families.
Yes, we need to buckle up.
But we also need to find a way to refresh ourselves in the face of ongoing challenges.
To that end, may I offer a New Year’s resolution for us all:
This year, place people above politics, service above self, and love above hate.
Imagine how much could be done if just a fraction of us made a good run at that resolution.
I’m feeling more energized already.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
