Mayor Euille: Let Us Finish Our 'Unfinished Business'

Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille told Patch that Election Day 2012 has been “busy but fun” with his goal to visit all city precincts twice on Tuesday.

During his visits with voters in line and chatting near polling stations, Euille, a Democrat, said most of the questions were about the constitutional amendment addressing eminent domain.

Democrats are advising against voting for the amendment, he said. Euille explained it as this: If a water company has to go in and dig a trench to replace a pipe that may affect a business for a few hours or half a day, that business would have the right under this new amendment to say “I lost $600 in revenues, and tell the city to reimburse them….We call that an unfunded mandate and that’s why the amendment goes too far.”

The Alexandria Republic City Committee is telling voters to support the eminent domain admendment on its sample ballots.

As for the national ticket, Euille told Patch he was visiting the Obama for America headquarters on Election Day because Obama “has demonstrated a strong commitment to move America forward despite obstacles. He has achieved an awful lot but he has unfinished business.”

Euille called himself a “strong supporter” of Obama and said the economy is beginning to turn around. Euille said some of Obama's challenges have been Mother Nature such as impacts from storms and weather, the beleaguered European economy and uprising in the Middle East.

“Through all of that, [Obama] has been able to create 5.5 million jobs during his first term in office,” Euille said, adding that the president has also put forward a strong health insurance plan and “stopped the bleeding in the auto industry.”

The Obama-Biden ticket is best for Alexandria because the “positive uptick in the local economy” is partly due to the “good deeds of the Obama-Biden administration,” he said.

Euille said Alexandria has experienced stabilization in its housing market and an uptick in the real estate appraisals.

“We feel the impacts of [changes in Washington] right away being so close to Washington,” he said. “We can get there with a little more time and a little more oomph.”

As for his own re-election bid for mayor, Euille said he wants a fourth term because of his unfinished business. “One of the major challenges is lack of affordable housing at all income levels and that’s something I would like to continue to work on in Alexandria and with the rest of the region,” he said.