Alexandria mayoral candidate Amy Jackson excitedly announced an endorsement from the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors on Monday, but the organization says they haven’t endorsed anyone in the mayoral race and have been trying to contact her to correct the misunderstanding.
Josh Veverka, NVAR’s senior director of government affairs, has been trying to get ahold of Jackson after the announcement was posted. He says that the organization has yet to conduct interviews with mayoral candidates, a process that will be conducted in March or April — in time for the June 18 primary.
In her post, Jackson included a quote from the organization’s board of trustees, and wrote that she was “beyond thrilled to carry the endorsement of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors.”
Jackson said in her post that she received the endorsement on Sept. 7 in a letter from NVAR with a campaign contribution “prior to my announcement for mayor.” An earlier version of the endorsement post from Jackson included “For Mayor” at the bottom of the post, which was later removed.
Jackson shared a letter with ALXnow that included a check and endorsement for 2023.
“Enclosed is a check from the Northern Virginia Realtors Political Action Committee (NV/RPAC),” the letter said. “We are pleased to offer you our support and endorsement in 2023.”
Veverka said that NVAR’s political action committee sent Jackson a check last year.
“We did provide funding and support to her last year in and we cut a check to her in September from our PAC,” Veverka said. “I think it’s probably a misunderstanding. We have not yet endorsed in the mayoral race.”
When asked about how she got the endorsement, Jackson said that she got it the same way that her opponent, City Council Member Alyia Gaskins, got the recent endorsement of NOVALabor. Jackson would not say whether she would remove the claim.
Jackson said her situation with NVAR is similar to NoVA Labor endorsing Gaskins, though Virginia Diamond, the president of the Northern Virginia AFL-CIO, said NoVA Labor’s executive board endorsed Gaskins for mayor.
“Our executive board unanimously endorsed Alyia Gaskins for mayor of Alexandria,” Diamond told ALXnow. “Everyone here knows Alyia very well.”
NVAR contributed $500 to Jackson’s city council campaign in 2021, and that same year contributed the same amount to Gaskins, Mayor Justin Wilson and Council Members Kirk McPike, Canek Aguirre and John Taylor Chapman.
“Our endorsement process has not yet begun for the mayoral race,” Veverka said. “We’ll start that probably in the March-April timeframe.”
Gaskins said that, like Jackson, she was endorsed in 2021 by NVAR after a similar interview process.
“I look forward to participating in the process that they’re going to do in March and having the interviews,” Gaskins said. “I’ve been proud of the record that I’ve had to date on housing and creating a community that is helping us build a community where people want to live, work, play and enjoy which is all critical to a thriving real estate industry.”
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