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Eugene Delgaudio of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors made waves after proclaiming that new airline security measures (pat-downs) were part of a far-reaching homosexual agenda at the TSA. For his fellow supervisors, it’s just the latest ploy from a colleague known for social conservatism with a dash of outrageousness. Kelly Burk and Stevens Miller chatted with The List about working with the man Miller calls “an endless source of embarrassment to the county.”

1. Burk and Miller distance themselves from the TSA/homosexual rhetoric

   “If Eugene says something, that’s Eugene talking,” says Miller. Burk calls his statements “disgusting” but interesting. “I think it’s fascinating that he’s concerned about homosexual men looking at men,” she says.

2. He “has a political agenda that is so devoid of logic, reason, and, for that matter, compassion”

   So says Miller. Asked if other supervisors feel similarly, he answers, “I’d be surprised if anyone has more disdain for him than I do, but I don’t know what’s in their hearts.” Burk agrees that Delgaudio is divisive. “He’s notorious for referring the board as the liberal Obama Democrats,” she says with a chuckle. “He tries to stir things up.”

3. Miller calls foul on Delgaudio’s claim that he wasn’t speaking as a member of the board but as a president of conservative group Public Advocate of the United States

   “If he feels he can sincerely claim that he can speak one way as a member of the board and another way when he’s running his little hate group,” says Miller, “then he needs to check in some place where he can get treatment for his multiple personalities disorder.”

4. “Obviously he has an audience”

   “He gets re-elected,” Burk acknowledges, saying that Delgaudio’s social conservatism clearly resonates with part of the electorate, which has elected him three times. Delgaudio has appeared on Fox News and, according to Miller, “tries to act like a buffoon” but is politically savvy. “Anyone who underestimates Eugene Delgaudio is making a mistake,” he says.

5. Delgaudio tends to “drag what should be a state or national level social issue” into local politics

   Says Miller, who believes that social issues occasionally come up but are not central to local governing. Burk agrees that cultural hot buttons like immigration and gay marriage are of less interest to most residents than the topics that affect them practically. “I hear about schools, transportation and roads, Metro, and growth issues,” she says.

6. “There are times he can be reasonable”

   That's what Burk says. Depending on the issue, Delgaudio is a good official. “And there are other times he goes off on a tangent way beyond what a reasonable person should be doing,” she adds. Miller is less charitable: “I don’t hate the guy. That’s not in me. But I just don’t think he’s fit to be a supervisor.”

7. “Personally, he’s a very charming, very warm fellow”

   Burk says that his more extreme views differ from his demeanor. “He will talk with you and laugh with you,” she says, “and I’ve heard stories about where he’s been very generous with people. So it’s a real dichotomy.” Miller disagrees: “He is probably the only member of the board where I don’t think it would serve a useful purpose for me to have a conversation with him.”