Election Day 2010 is not even here yet three candidates have already announced their intentions to seek the Board of County Supervisors chairmanship in 2011.

Incumbent Corey Stewart (R) confirmed during an interview last week that he plans to seek his second full term next year. That came one day after Gainesville's Gary Friedman (D), the county's at-large planning commissioner nominated to his post by Stewart and confirmed by the entire board, announced he would seek the Democratic nomination.

The first to file, however, was certified public accountant John Gray (I), who previously ran for Occoquan District supervisor twice and once for chairman. Gray said he is a member of the Republican Party of Virginia but prefers to run as independent as he considers himself a moderate, adding that the current GOP is too right-leaning for him.

Gray previously said that, as a baseball umpire, he believed the three-strikes-and-you're-out rule when applied to politics. However, he found some wiggle room in that he has not run for the same post three times and has only made it to the general election.

"What has changed is the fact that Prince William County is, in my opinion, going in the absolute wrong direction," said Gray. He chided Stewart for his focus on illegal immigration.

"And that's fine, but he's not doing what in the best interest of Prince William County," said Gray, whose campaign is centered on expanding economic development. "He's doing what's in the best interest of his political career."

Stewart considered running for lieutenant governor in 2009 before Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) announced he would not challenge then-Attorney General Bob McDonnell (R) for governor and would seek a second term instead. Stewart said this time around that "I haven't closed any doors, but right now, I can tell you, it's my intention to run for re-election next year. I don't know frankly what I'm going to do after that. And I've learned over time, to, you know, not make plans too far out. That gets you in trouble."

Gray spoke during a Monday interview. Last week, Stewart said his differences with Friedman come down to ideology and ideas for the county even though they consider each other friends.

"He's a liberal Democrat and obviously he and I have a lot of disagreements over issues, so, you know, Gary and I get along," said Stewart. "I can say we're friends."

Friedman aligned himself with centrist philosophy when announcing his run Sept. 14, saying he could be a Democrat that actually appeals to voters in the western half of the county. Friedman ran tight races for Gainesville District supervisor in 1999 and 2003 before vying for chairman in 2006. He lost the Democratic convention to Sharon Pandak (D), who went on to lose a special election that fall to Stewart as the two battled to replace former chairman Sean Connaughton (R). At the time, Connaughton was accepting a post in the Bush administration and now is the secretary of transportation under Gov. Bob McDonnell (R).

For Gray, he emphasized that he is running for chairman, not just against Stewart. That said, Gray acknowledged he could not win a Republican primary based on social issues, let alone anything else.

"I am not a homophone. I am not absorbed by abortion," said Gray. He admitted to political posturing in 2006 when he came out vehemently against abortion during his GOP convention speech -- he recalled referring to it as a "plague on society" -- only to say now that his position is more moderate.

"I don't like abortion for the purposes of birth control," said Gray, but added that he agreed it's acceptable in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. "So I wouldn't say I'm not 100 percent pro-choice, but I'm not 100 percent (for) abortion at any cost."

On economic issues, Gray disagreed with Stewart regarding the recently-approved Avendale development, saying kids were lead to believe the new football fields would be available this fall instead of years later. He also cited Stewart's stance against accepting federal stimulus dollars for education.

"It was purely a political move without any consideration for the kids. That was a total 100 percent political statement. They gave no consideration for the kids or anything along those lines," said Gray, mentioning that he personally opposed the idea of the stimulus but would have accepted the cash once approved by the federal government.

He noted that the budget for teacher salaries has already been made for the following year, so it wouldn't hurt to have taken the money for on-going costs instead of one-time capital improvement projects, like others suggested. "Here's my point: they rejected that for political purposes, but seriously if you go back to their records in July 2009, they accepted $9.2 million of stimulus funds for road building," said Gray.

Regarding Friedman, Gray said, "I think he's done a decent job but I'm not following Gary's career with the planning commission." He said he thought Friedman's proposal for proffer-free zones in Yorkshire and Innovation "sound good in theory," but he doesn't think Friedman would be able to "put together 100 acres of a no proffer zone."

"I don't think it's possible to put together 100 continuous acres to bring that forward," said Gray.

Stewart disagrees with the entire notion.

"The whole idea is to make developers pay their whole way," said Stewart. "Also, his idea of having developers pay nothing in certain parts of the county was irresponsible, frankly."