Longtime Incumbent Faces Primary Challenge in Mason District Supervisor Race

Creating better transportation options, helping students achieve better results, planning more thoughtful development and communicating better with constituents are some of the issues — according to community activist Jessica Swanson — that have spurred her to take on longtime incumbent Mason District Supervisor Penelope “Penny” Gross.

Swanson, 31, is challenging Gross in the Democratic primary, set for June 9, for the Mason District seat on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. Gross, 71, has been representing the Mason District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for nearly two decades. Swanson says it’s time for new leadership.

“Despite Fairfax County’s strong reputation, Mason District has missed out on opportunities to fully support our schools and manage development in a thoughtful, user-friendly, and environmentally conscious way,” Swanson notes. “I will bring a fresh perspective to the role of Supervisor as I seek to partner with Mason District citizens and give them a stronger voice.”

Gross, who sits on numerous local, regional and national boards, launched her sixth campaign last month at her 19th annual “Champagne and Chocolates” fundraiser. Among her accomplishments she notes on her campaign Web site:

• Three new schools have been built in Mason District – Glasgow Middle School, Mason Crest Elementary School, and Bailey’s Upper Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences.
• All three of Mason District’s public library branches have been renovated.
• A new Fire Station 10 was dedicated last fall
• Adding more than 200 acres of parkland to Mason District’s inventory, from the athletic fields at Pine Ridge Park to the John and Margaret White Garden, and the recent acquisition of the 10-acre Monch Farm Park near Edsall Road.
• New sidewalks and walkways have been installed all across Mason District, along with bus shelters and a bus hub at Seven Corners.

Some schools around the county are overcrowded, including some in the Mason District. Eight of the 17 elementary schools serving students from the Mason District are projected to be over capacity by the 2019-20 school year, according to a recent report by the Fairfax Times.

Gross has tried to tackle thorny development issues in her district of older mainly inside-the-Beltway suburban neighborhoods, including the Seven Corners area, for years. In a news article, ‘Fixing the Seven Corners of hell,’ planner John Thillman, head of Gross’ group tasked with coming up with ways to update the area, names its problems: “...much obsolete housing stock, poor commercial uses totally focused on only automobile access, terrible and unsafe pedestrian circulation and access, no safe bicycle opportunities, a very disadvantaged economic demographic.” (Read the entire Washington Business Journal article here.)

Gross will likely get an earful this week when she holds a budget town hall Thursday at 7:30 p.m. with County Executive Ed Long, about the county’s proposed budget. The town hall will take place at the Mason District Governmental Center, 6507 Columbia Pike; she will be celebrating the Woodrow Wilson Library grand re-opening on Saturday at a ribbon-cutting there.

The new library opens at a time when cuts to the Fairfax County library budget are on the table. “Many branches are stretched to the breaking point, with worn down and overworked staff,” according to Jennifer McCullough, President of the Fairfax County Public Library Employees Association. “This is no way for a library system to run. Staff have been denied leave time; some branches are in a panic when a staff member calls in sick; and many staff work through their breaks to lessen the impact of vacancies.”

In addition to town halls and ribbon-cuttings, Gross communicates with constituents in her column called “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” published in the Falls Church News Press.

Swanson says “many in the Mason District have told me they feel they don’t have a Supervisor who listens and responds to their feedback. It’s not about the number of town halls our Supervisor holds; it’s about taking input and developing a better approach.”

Swanson has spent two years volunteering on a campaign to fully fund Fairfax County Public Schools. Her day job is manager of Teaching and Learning Strategies for DC Public Schools. She got her start as a teacher with Teach For America, teaching middle school social studies at DC Prep, then serving as site manager with TNTP. A licensed educator, she is currently completing her doctorate in education at the University of Virginia.

Swanson is the Mason District appointee to the Fairfax County School Board’s Human Relations Advisory Committee and she serves on the Fairfax Democrats’ Education Committee.

From 2010-2014, she was vice president of the Ravenwood Park Civic Association. Previously, she was a coach and founding board member of Girls on the Run – DC, which provides 10-week programs to empower girls to achieve.

She lives with her husband Nate and two Great Pyrenees dogs, Sammy and Lily, in Falls Church.

Gross is married to Harold “Hal” Gross and has two daughters and a stepson, according to a Washington Post profile.

She has more than $100,000 on hand to spend on campaigning, according to Virginia Public Access Project records. Her top donors through the years are in the real estate/developer category, according to VPAP.