By Mark C. Williams, Alexandria

To the editor:
Mayor Bill Euille is running for his fifth term. He has earned it. Mayor Euille has intelligently led what is, at times, a deeply divided city. City services have been preserved during a period of increasing demand. Because of his leadership, waterfront improvement work will not involve disruptive truck traffic moving through Old Town.

He led the city to the adoption of a long-overdue Potomac Yard Metro station development plan — a plan that prior administrations talked about but couldn’t move through city council. He has preserved the city’s finances during a period in which federal government employment, spending and subsidies have all lagged — no easy task, given that so much of our region’s economy is both directly and indirectly linked to the health of the federal government.

Mayor Euille’s challengers seem to ignore that they themselves sat on city council with the mayor, and largely supported his leadership. Their attack-based advertisements are becoming shriller as Election Day approaches. The challengers are now condemning many of their very own actions and votes on city council, and are claiming many of Mayor Euille’s success stories as their own.

Neither challenger has offered a single viable — or even a single well explained — alternative to the mayor’s policy leadership in waterfront land use, city budgeting, transit development and access, public school funding, capital investment, parks and recreational land preservation, and the management of City Hall.

The Washington Post’s endorsement of Mayor Euille got the big picture right. He is an even-tempered leader who does his homework. He merits the support of the entire community.