Frank Principi has accused opponent Chris Royse of misleading Woodbridge Magisterial District voters. Royse claimed that he would bring in AFRICOM to the Woodbridge area. To date, he has not spoken with anyone in that organization. According to insidenova.com:
Insidenova.com and the News & Messenger received results of a Freedom of Information Act request from Principi’s office which confirms that Royse – a Republican — has never had any official contact with members of the military installation currently located in Stuttgart, Germany.
In at least one speech to potential voters, Royse says that AFRICOM is “real and it’s going to happen.”
In the same speech, posted on www.chrisroyse.com, he states that he had conversations with former U.S. Congressman Tom Davis and current Congressman Rob Wittman about AFRICOM and said it could happen in four years.
“Chris Royse is misleading Woodbridge voters about his number one campaign issue,” Principi stated in a press release on Monday afternoon. “If he is misleading us about this issue, can he be trusted with any of the other issues important to families and businesses in Woodbridge?”
In an email to the newspaper, Royse stated that he hadn’t spoken with anyone from AFRICOM. But he said that a previous News & Messenger article in which he mentions speaking with a number of local politicians as well as with former AFRICOM commander William “Kip” Ward was accurate.
“I am willing to roll up my sleeves, and do the hard, grassroots work necessary to achieve a big goal, like bringing AFRICOM and its associated jobs to Woodbridge,” stated Royse, who lost to Principi in 2007.
For the time being, it looks like AFRICOM is staying put. On its website, it states “The command has no plans to move its headquarters from Stuttgart and will be located here for the foreseeable future.”
AFRICOM, is one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the U.S. Department of Defense, and is devoted solely to Africa. It was created by former President George W. Bush in 2007 and became operational in 2008.
The News & Messenger has made efforts to contact Davis and Wittman to confirm Royse’s public statements but so far has been unsuccessful. U.S. Senators Jim Webb and Mark Warner have already made a pitch for bringing AFRICOM to the Hampton Roads area. According to Norfolk TV station, WAVY, the Department of Defense agreed to include Virginia in the assessment of alternate locations for the AFRICOM headquarters, which employs 1,500.
It appears that Mr. Royse promised a little more than he has the capacity to deliver. I doubt very seriously if he has more pull with this organization than 2 U.S. Senators. Royse has also tried to get the Arlington Diocese to withhold the sacraments from his opponent after he lost to Supervisor Principi last time. He obviously wasn’t able to pull that one off either.
Chris Royse needs make sure he only makes campaign promises he can keep. Bringing in AFRICOM seems like a tall order. Hooking and reeling in a fish this big might take a little more than a mere supervior. He might have better luck reeling in Jaws.
Ruh Roh! Sounds like Royse has been caught in a lie.
I don’t know how a wannabe PWC supervisor, or a real supervisor, would have any ability to influence any move by AFRICOM, which according to their website, is not in the wind. Just so much political male bovine merde by another a$$hole politician. Maybe he is going to send some plastic fetuses to the Secretary of Defense or something like that.
Both Senators Warner and Webb are wooing this outfit for the Hampton Roads area. Wouldn’t they be shocked, to say the least, to see that they had been outwitted and trumped by a mere supervisor wannabe with a hotline to the Arlington diocese.
What does Africom do? Is it a training facility? Help me out here, and speak slowly.
You have it pretty close with “training”….AFRICOM is a combined Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps Command headquartered in Stuggart, Germany. Before the creation of a Unified Command, there were three seperate commands involved with support roles.
Their role is to provide training, advising, and assisting in a non-combat role to every country in Africa except Egypt. (Egypt is the exception because prior to the “Arab Spring” there, the USA had a totally different agreement with Egypt.) Mr. Obama sending 100 advisors as announced the other week is an example of the role of AFRICOM.
Another example of AFRICOM role was going into Ethopia and setting up a paratrooper school. So, it boils down to the role being helping the 53 African Nations with developing their military – and a funtion we did for decades such as the Congo Operations back in the 60s.
@Ray Beverage
Good summation.