Let me congratulate Scott Bass and Chris Dovi on one of the best written articles I’ve seen in Style Weekly (“The Rabble-Rouser,” Cover Story Nov. 28). Without a doubt, it is the best article published in a local paper regarding Marleen Durfee and the efforts of her and many other citizens regarding responsible growth in Chesterfield County.

There was no pontificating or condescending comments regarding either Ms. Durfee or the efforts of citizens to rein in growth, or at least get our elected officials to recognize the necessity to manage it.

Her victory was no slouch! Forty-three percent of the votes in a four-way race is no small achievement. Her margin of victory, almost 1,800 votes, was the second largest of the supervisory races, with the largest being that of Art Warren in the Clover Hill District in a two-person race. She received a substantial number of votes greater than either of the candidates who ran for this seat in the 2003 election and left both of her “major party” opponents in this election in the dust!

How was she able to overcome the customary advantages that major party candidates have in elections? She did it the old-fashioned way. She worked hard, had tremendous grass-roots support and had the best, hardest-working campaign manager of any of the candidates for supervisor in 2007 in Cathy Kirk.

Marleen proved to many, including at least one of her opponents, that she had what it took to prevail in this election and that hard work wasn’t something that was foreign to her. Now, she takes this same work ethic to the Board of Supervisors in January.

Bob Herndon
Chesterfield