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MORGANTOWN - If you want to keep getting what you've always gotten, keep doing what you've always done.
That, in a nutshell, is what Julie Knight, the Democratic candidate for the Eastern District seat on the Monongalia County Commission, is hoping voters will remember when they head to the polls.
In Monongalia County, Knight said, the status quo is a county commission that is largely unresponsive to the desires of its constituents and hyper focused on commercial economic development to the exclusion of most everything else.
Knight sees herself as an alternative to the county's established political system. She admitted her surprise in soundly defeating incumbent Jeff Arnett in the May primary and hopes to keep that momentum rolling against Republican Ron Lytle, whom she sees as more of the same.
"I really do want what's best for the people of Monongalia County, and I think that means there needs to be a voice at the county commission level whose priority is people-based and not based on the current relationships that already exist," she said. "I think that if you want change you need to vote for change instead of voting for a stand-in for the same old system."
A political newcomer, Knight said the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin spurred her into the role of community activist, protesting and organizing against "the systematic oppression that we see in the country."
But, she continued, it was the second election of President Donald Trump that pushed her to actually put her name on the ballot.
"It became urgent to me to not just be an activist voice, and not just be someone who encourages people to go to the polls. I decided that I wanted to be in the room with some of these people and start having conversations about how things were to go," she said. "I love America and I love democracy. I love what we have here, even the opposing views. I love that. I think it's a beautiful thing. I started seeing evidence of that being challenged and I wanted to fight for that. That is when I decided that I really wanted to run for office."
A Realtor by trade, Knight said she wants to be a commissioner who weighs quality of life, or what she terms "people issues" in addition to development.
"There's a lot that our current county commission, and past county commissions, have done to move Mon County forward, but it just seems like it's always focused on development and development from a commercial standpoint without any forethought or consideration of how that development touches the community," she said, pointing to affordable housing as one area she would like to focus on as a county commissioner.
"We're creating jobs in Mon County, but we can't house the people filling those jobs. We can't house the people we're creating jobs for because the average price of a home is $400,000 roughly. So where are working-class people going to buy? I sell them homes in Marion County and in Harrison County. They can't buy homes in Monongalia County even though their jobs are here ... It just seems evident to me that there needs to be someone who is really trying to focus on affordability and affordable housing development here."
She continued.
"Mon County has a strategic plan that I don't think is referenced at all because the three parts of that are infrastructure, economic commercial development and affordable housing. Our infrastructure is poor. We are not focusing on affordable housing. The only thing that we are focusing on is economic commercial development. I want to help there. I want to create an avenue where people have a place to live and stay in Mon County. I want to work on infrastructure."
Knight has been outspoken in her opposition to the county's implementation of Flock Safety cameras.
She said the discourse between the commission and the public on that issue has highlighted an underlying problem she's heard about time and again while campaigning.
"There is this whole discussion about professionalism, communication, accessibility, transparency, accountability. I mean, really that almost came to the forefront more than any of this other stuff - even though I think infrastructure and affordable housing is extremely important. We have really bad relationships. I don't believe the community feels like they are properly addressed from our county commission. I don't think that they feel like they have a seat at the table to be able to talk about things that are concerning, because when they do, they are completely ignored or laughed out of the room."
Knight said she believes county commissions have dropped the ball in continuing to push subdivision regulations - a talking point for decades - down the road.
She said the lack of political willpower to put things like meaningful subdivision regulations or zoning in place have opened counties up for exploitation by outside interests.
"I don't think we can continue to ignore this. They have punished all of us for not having zoning out in the county with this data center bill that has been wildly unpopular. They put this on everyone because they say there's no zoning anywhere in West Virginia out in the counties. What that tells me very specifically is that we need to have zoning, because if we have people who are going to create laws that will allow businesses to come in and rape our environment and our communities because we don't have the proper structure in place, then I'm prepared to put that structure in place," she said.
"The thing I keep hearing is, 'We don't do that here. We can't do that here.' That doesn't make sense to me. We do that everywhere else. We can do it here. Just because someone doesn't have the guts or the gumption to do it here, just doesn't really work for me, personally. I mean, West Virginians deserve better and we deserve to have a functional community with a roadmap of progression instead of allowing developers to come in and take what they want and leave us by the wayside."