The major change in Virginia state governance may not have a significant immediate impact on Northern Virginia’s two main airports of their governance. But government-affairs staffers of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority already are putting out feelers to the incoming Youngkin administration and the new Republican majority in the House of Delegates.
“We look forward to working with the new governor” and “reaching out to new leaders,” authority CEO Jack Potter said at the Nov. 17 meeting of the authority board of directors.
Over the course of time, incoming Gov. Glenn Youngkin will have the opportunity to select his own picks for the authority board; Virginia has seven of the 17 seats on the oversight body, with the Virginia positions appointed by the governor subject to what is normally routine confirmation by the General Assembly.
But Youngkin has no need to rush his selection process: None of the Virginia representatives on the panel, who like their Maryland and D.C. counterparts serve six-year terms, will see their terms expire in 2023 at the earliest. Two of the seven (including former Fairfax County Board of Supervisors chair Kate Hanley) have terms that run past the expiration of Youngkin’s one-and-out term in January 2026.
Walter Tejada, a former Arlington County Board member who sits on the body, has a term that expires midway through Youngkin’s four-year term.