Three candidates, three visions for Alexandria City Council

Early voting begins this Friday, March 6, for the April 21 Alexandria City Council special election. Three candidates are competing for the seat left open when Kirk McPike resigned in January to serve in the Virginia House of Delegates: Democratic nominee Sandy Marks, and independents Frank Fannon and Alison Virginia O'Connell. There is no Republican candidate.

This week the Alexandria Brief sat down with all three candidates for live interviews. Here is where they stand on the issues that came up most.

Why they're running

The three candidates offer distinctly different answers to the most basic question.

Fannon, a fourth-generation Alexandrian and former council member who served from 2009 to 2012, said the opportunity opened unexpectedly and he felt compelled to return. "I saw that there were a lot of gaps on the city council, a lot of things that were maybe missing," he said. He is running as an independent, arguing that party labels have no place in local government.

Marks framed her candidacy around continuity. She said McPike left behind a specific portfolio — climate, reproductive justice, labor, and legislative work — that needed championing. "This is the moment where I'm needed," she said. She stepped down as chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee after four years to run.

O'Connell said she watched the Democratic firehouse primary and felt the issues she cares most about weren't getting enough space. "I can provide people in the city a further left option that meets the needs of the people I regularly talk to," she said.

Housing and zoning

This is where the sharpest disagreement in the race lives.

Fannon opposes the zoning changes Alexandria's city council approved in November 2023 that allow four-unit apartment buildings in all single-family neighborhoods — and said he wants to find three other council members to reverse the vote. "I haven't really met a single family homeowner who's happy about this policy," he said. He supports transit-oriented development concentrated near metro stations instead.

Marks said her positions on housing have been consistent throughout the campaign and that she takes in community feedback and applies it to the larger picture of what Alexandria should look like. "Candidates and council members and public servants of all kinds need to take in information as it pertains to individual residents and apply it to a larger systems model," she said.

O'Connell said the city doesn't push developers hard enough for deeply affordable units. "When you say this is going to be priced at eighty percent area median income, that's still not realistic for a lot of people," she said. She wants housing priced at 30 to 40 percent AMI and supports social housing and stronger eviction protections.

ICE and Sheriff Casey

All three candidates expressed concern about ICE — but with very different levels of urgency and different proposed responses.

Fannon said every person deserves respect and dignity, and that he opposes ICE operations in schools and neighborhoods. But he drew a clear line: people who are undocumented and have committed crimes should face justice. "Whether you're undocumented or an American, if you've committed crimes, you need to face justice," he said.

Marks said ICE is the issue she hears most about at the doors. She distinguished between loud public action and quieter protective work, arguing that drawing too much attention to the issue could endanger the most vulnerable residents. "There is a place for important work that takes place out of the line of sight of the federal government," she said. She said she can be trusted to take protective action on behalf of immigrants in Alexandria.

O'Connell was the most direct. She wants the city to deny Sheriff Casey a budget increase as a consequence of his cooperation with ICE, and called for the removal of automated license plate readers she says ICE uses to track people. "He didn't listen to the community and he didn't listen to city council when we told him that we don't want him transferring people to ICE custody," she said.

Redistricting referendum

The proposed constitutional amendment on congressional redistricting is also on the April 21 ballot — and this is the one issue where the three candidates clearly diverge.

Fannon opposes it. He said the current citizen-led redistricting process has broad support — noting that thirty-seven of thirty-nine Virginia state senators backed it — and that giving the General Assembly power to draw maps would be worse for voters. "The politicians stay out of it — and that's the way it should be," he said.

Marks called passage of the referendum "crucial" and framed it as a necessary counterweight to what she described as dangerous partisan map-drawing in states like Texas. "It is imperative that we in Virginia vote yes," she said.

O'Connell supports it but with a caveat: more Democrats in office doesn't guarantee they'll represent working people. "Primaries will be very important," she said.

First priorities if elected

Fannon said he would focus on improving the relationship between city council and the school board, scrutinizing per-pupil spending, and working to reverse the 2023 zoning changes. He also said he would push for development near metro stations as the city's primary housing growth strategy.

Marks said she would focus on filling the legislative lanes McPike left behind, building relationships with the school board and the regional Northern Virginia delegation, and developing a constituent services practice. She was candid that the work is incremental. "This work is incremental and we have to get everybody on board to do it," she said.

O'Connell said her first priorities would be pushing hard on ICE — particularly on the license plate reader issue and the sheriff's budget — and moving the city's ethical investment resolution forward. She said drafts of a resolution already exist. "The question is just getting support and getting it put on the docket," she said.

Read, watch, or listen to the full conversations

The Alexandria Brief's full interviews with each candidate are available as video, audio, and transcript:

Early voting begins Friday, March 6 at the Alexandria Office of Voter Registration and Elections, 132 North Royal Street, Suite 100, and runs through Saturday, April 18. Election Day is April 21.