Growing up in Arkansas, Jennifer Boysko was unhappy that her school would not allow girls to serve as crossing guards.
Boysko, then 12, led the charge to change that policy and has been active ever since with dozens of school, political, civic, athletic and church groups.
“I’ve always believed one person’s voice can make a difference,” she said. “I feel like it’s a responsibility. I feel I have to do whatever I can do to make the community a better place.”
Boysko, a former aide to Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville), has jumped into the race to challenge Del. Thomas Rust (R) in the 86th District.
Boysko criticized Rust for what she said was his failure last year to obtain transportation moneys to pay for a pair of new Metrorail stations planned for the Herndon area and reduce fee increases on the Dulles Toll Road.
Rust also voted for legislation that allowed adoption agencies to discriminate against gays and lesbians, she said.
“He’s not putting the residents of this community first,” Boysko said. “He’s doing what his party tells him to do, and I don’t think that’s acceptable.”
The Democratic challenger said she also was displeased with the overall tenor of the commonwealth’s Republican leadership.
“The state government makes so many decisions on our behalf,” she said. “The games played in Richmond are sickening. They have the power to really affect people’s daily lives, and we have to do better.”
Boysko said she would like to see Medicaid coverage expanded, more transportation moneys obtained for Northern Virginia and protections provided for human-services and affordable-housing programs.
She also favors finding a dedicated source of transportation funding, and opposes Gov. McDonnell’s initiative to use general-fund moneys for transportation projects, saying that doing so would deprive other state programs of needed moneys.
Boysko served in the office of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Ala.) before he became a Republican, then in the early 1990s became a legislative assistant for the government-relations firm of Bayless, Boland, Madigan and Barrett Inc.
Boysko handled federal regulatory and legislative issues and reported on Congressional hearings concerning the North American Free Trade Agreement, aviation, alternative fuels, financial derivatives, telecommunications deregulation and Superfund cleanup sites.
She left the workplace for several years to raise her two daughters and spent that time volunteering with Democratic political campaigns in the Herndon area, as well as some statewide and national races.
Boysko was Virginia director for the 2004 presidential campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D), whom she first met the previous year. Dean’s record of balancing budgets and lowering taxes impressed her, she said.
She also admired the late U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), calling him a “real hero.”
Wellstone “was always speaking up for the underdog and the little guy,” she said. “He didn’t look at this as an ego game. He tried to make a difference for his constituents and for the American people at large.”
Boysko served as Foust’s aide for five years, until she stepped down Jan. 11 to campaign for state delegate. While working for Foust, she handled Herndon, human-services, utilities, senior-citizen and public-school issues.
Boskyo also was involved in land-use planning for the new Herndon Fire Station, which is going through the town’s approval process.
“She’s extremely talented, very passionate about public service and is very focused on helping people,” Foust said.
Boysko and her husband, software engineer Glenn Boysko, have lived in Herndon since 1996. Their daughters are Hannah, a freshman at Barnard College in New York City, and Sophie Claire, a 10th-grader at Herndon High School.
Boysko does not have the field all to herself. She will square off against Herbert Kemp in the June 11 Democratic primary; the winner will face Rust on Nov. 5.
According to financial reports listed at the Virginia Public Access Project, Boysko had significantly more campaign funds available than Kemp as of Dec. 31.
Boysko had $22,767 on hand after spending $1,651, while Kemp had $400 available after spending $2,610.
