Tysons Casino Backer Makes $75K In Political Donations Since January

Tysons Casino Backer Makes $75K In Political Donations Since January Comstock Holdings has donated more than $75,000 since the end of January in preparation for the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session.

RICHMOND, VA — Aside from a demonstration in October by the newly formed Fairfax County Jobs Coalition and the pro-casino Virginia Players Alliance popping up at community events around Fairfax County, the developer behind the proposal to build a casino in Tysons has kept a low profile in Northern Virginia.

Behind the scenes, Comstock Holding Companies has been spending money and hiring lobbyists in preparation for the start of the 2025 Virginia General Assembly session.

Earlier this year, Virginia Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) introduced casino referendum legislation that would give the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authority to put a referendum on a ballot. That would allow county voters to decide whether a casino would be built somewhere on the Metro's Silver Line outside the Capital Beltway.

However, Senate Bill 675's advancement halted when the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee voted to hold the referendum bill over for the 2025 legislative session, which starts on Jan. 8. Marsden has told Patch numerous times that he plans to reintroduce the bill during the next session.

To bolster its chances of the bill passing, Comstock Hospitality, a business entity the Reston-based developer created in September 2023, has donated a total of $65,000 to various political action and candidate committees, according to state campaign finance filings reported by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access project.

$ 22,500 - Commonwealth Victory Fund: Democratic Party PAC (6/28/24)

$ 10,000 - Angelia Williams Graves for Senate (6/30/24)

$ 5,000 - Building a Remarkable Virginia: Comstock Holdings PAC (2/27/24)

$ 5,000 - Christie Craig for Senate (6/7/24)

$ 5,000 - Danny Diggs for Senate (6/21/24)

$ 5,000 - Virginia Legislative Black Caucus (6/28/24)

$ 5,000 - Democratic Party of Virginia (6/30/24)

$ 2,700 - Democratic Party - 8th Congressional District (9/12/24)

$ 2,500 - Democratic Party-Fairfax County (3/22/24)

$ 2,500 - Democratic Party - Fairfax County (9/3/24)

The majority of contributions went to five political action committees associated with the Democratic Party and one donation to Building a Remarkable Virginia, a Comstock PAC created in September 2023.

Comstock Hospitality also made contributions to the campaign committees of three members of the Virginia Senate who represent the Hampton Roads area: Christie Craig (R-Chesapeake), Danny Diggs (R-Seaford) and Angelia Williams Graves (Norfolk City).

Read all of Patch's reporting on the plan to build a casino on Metro's Silver Line in Fairfax County at Silver Line Casino .

In addition to the contributions made via Comstock Hospitality, Comstock Holdings contributed $10,000 on June 30 to Sen. Stella Pekarsky, a Democrat who represents the Centreville area.

All of these contributions were made after the senate appropriations committee voted to hold over the casino referendum bill, with the majority of donations being made in late June.

These donations are in addition to the $1.2 million Patch already reported that Comstock, its allies, entities and employees have made between Jan. 1, 2022 and Jan. 31, 2024 to various PACs and the campaigns committees of state and local candidates.

Patch acknowledges that Comstock, its employees, entities, and allies have a right to make donations to any candidate whose campaign they wish to support.

Patch is reporting this publicly available information; it is not saying that Comstock, its employees, entities and allies did anything illegal.

This is the first of two stories about Comstock Holdings' preparations for the 2025 session of the Virginia General Assembly. Check back later this week for part two.