FAIRFAX CITY, VA — Fairfax City voters heading to the polls to cast ballots in the Nov. 5 general election will find candidates running in the city council, school board and mayoral races.
Tom Peterson is one of the six candidates on the ballot in the Fairfax City Council race that have not previously run for elected office. Three incumbent candidates are running for reelection and two current members of the City of Fairfax School Board are seeking seats on the council.
All of the candidates in the city council race participated in the Sept. 25 candidate meet-and-greet at the Sherwood Community Center. Before voters got a chance to speak one-on-one with them, each of the candidates delivered a statement summarizing their reasons for running. The following are the remarks Peterson made at that event.
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Tom Peterson
“My professional life has been mostly in the background, so you probably haven’t seen a lot of me on social media and in the news and what have you, but I have worked now for 42 years as a professional in government, in business and finance in the nonprofit sector.
“I have lived here 22 years. I’m a native of the county, went to public schools here, and after I finished school here, on to William & Mary, then on to Duke, and then at University of Texas at Austin to get my MBA.
“I’ve run a national nonprofit organization for 20 years that I founded at the Center for Climate Strategies. This is a nonpartisan organization that was designed to bring people together to solve problems by working together at the state and the local level, here in the United States and outside the US. We’ve worked in 20 countries, 40 states.
“I teach. For 20 years, I’ve been a professor at Johns Hopkins University. I’m a professor at George Mason University. I’ve also taught at the law school at Penn State University. In a previous life, before I founded the Center for Climate Strategies, I spent 10 years as an economist for the Environmental Protection Agency, and during that period of time, served two years as a senior advisor in the White House and two years as a legislative aide. I say this because I think this city, even though it’s small, faces very big challenges, and we’ve reached the stage where we need people on our city council who are able to address issues at a high level and at the same time listen very, very closely to what the community needs. Thank you very much.”
Patch is publishing a new story each day featuring remarks made by one of the candidates who spoke at the Sept. 25 meet and greet at the Sherwood Community Center, which was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area and Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce.
Listen to the full audio from the Sept. 25 candidate meet-and-greet event
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
So far, Patch has published remarks made by both candidates running for mayor, Catherine Read and Susan Hartley Kuiler, as well as seven of the 11 candidates in the city council race, Stacy A. Hall, Kate Doyle Feingold, Rachel McQuillen, Amini Elizabeth Bonane, Billy Bates, Jeff Greenfield, and Stacey Hardy-Chandler.
Fairfax City Mayor
Fairfax City Council
Early voting is underway at the Fairfax City Hall polls and will continue through Saturday, Nov. 2. Polls are open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will also be two Saturdays (Oct. 29 and Nov. 2) when voters can cast in-person ballots.
Patch has gathered all the information Fairfax City voters need to know about the Nov. 5 election in one place.
Additional information about the Nov. 5 general election can be found online at League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area. The league co-sponsored the Sept. 25 candidate forum with the Central Fairfax Chamber of Commerce.
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