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by ARLnow.com March 7, 2012 at 8:59 am 2,553 44 Comments

Romney Wins Va. Primary — Mitt Romney won Virginia’s Republican presidential primary yesterday, capturing 59.5 percent of the vote statewide. The only other candidate who qualified for the ballot, Ron Paul, received 40.5 percent of the vote. In Arlington, Romney received 64.6 percent of the vote to 35.4 percent for Ron Paul. Voter turnout was light, as expected. A total of 7,623 votes were cast in Arlington, representing 5 percent of registered voters and 6.3 percent of active voters.

County Board Candidates Square Off at Forum — The three candidates for County Board squared off last night at a candidates forum organized by the Arlington County Civic Federation. Democrat Libby Garvey was flanked by Republican Mark Kelly and Green Party candidate Audrey Clement, who together called for less spending and for the creation of an independent inspector general to monitor county spending. Kelly and Clement also took turns bashing the planned Columbia Pike streetcar. [Sun Gazette, Sun Gazette]

Republicans Blast Favola — Freshman state Senator Barbara Favola (D) has now been the subject of two critical press releases from the Republican Party of Virginia. The latest press release digs up an eight-year-old letter Favola signed, urging then-governor Mark Warner to avoid delays in adopting a budget. Favola is one of 20 Democrats who have voted against two Republican budget proposals in the state Senate. [Washington Post]

Clarendon: Hot Office Market — Bisnow says Clarendon is one of the region’s five hottest office submarkets. “If a company depends on young employees, it’s probably looking for space in Clarendon,” the online real estate publication wrote. [Bisnow]

Marine Corps Marathon Registration Opens Today — General registration for the 37th annual Marine Corps Marathon kicks off today at 3:00 p.m. Last year the marathon experienced a “record registration sell out” of 30,000 spots in a mere 28 hours. Registration costs $92 and includes a t-shirt and a finisher’s medal. [Marine Corps Marathon]

BreakPause02

“If a company depends on young employees…” – could that be interpreted as cheap employment?
- nolatravelgirl
  
  I don’t think Clarendon would ever be considered “cheap” labor considering it has some of the highest rents along the Orange Line corridor.
  - JamesE
    
    Just because you have an office there doesn’t mean people live there. Companies are going to low ball salary until the end of time.
- JamesE
  
  My company recently had a large push to get “fresh new young talent” which basically just meant cheaper employees.
  - Southeast Jerome
    
    In data compiled for a coming report, the Economic Policy Institute found that the average inflation-adjusted hourly wage for male college graduates aged 23 to 29 dropped 11% over the past decade to $21.68 in 2011.
- Clarendon
  
  It’s partly a cheap thing, but also a recent-out-of-university, and current on technology thing. I looked at applying to OPower (http://www.opower.com/) and their job listings for engineers all say
  
  “We are looking for innovative engineers in the early days of their software engineering career that are looking to accelerate their growth while writing software that is doing good in the world!”
  - Lou
    
    I think it’s more of a “make me a sandwich” thing, as in restaurant workers are pretty much the bottom end of the pay scale and Clarendon is the mecca of new restaurants in Arlington.
  - JamesE
    
    I am insulted that all their jobs say engineering but they are basically just database positions.
    - Overgrown Bush
      
      +10
  - WestoverAndOver
    
    “We are looking for innovative engineers in the early days of their software engineering career that are looking to accelerate their growth while writing software that is doing good in the world!” Read: Get ready to be worked into the ground.
    - Clarendon
      
      Yes, which is why they want young, hungry types – in addition to the fact that they will be current in the technology (no FORTRAN 77 needed). I began my career at a small start-up and recall not going home at night several times. It was fun back then and I was being paid partly in equity so I thought I was getting rich.
    - drax
      
      It’s a scary sign when a prospective employer uses “that” instead of “who” to refer to human beings.
      - Overgrown Bush
        
        It is becoming the norm, sadly.
- DSS10
  
  I took a look at the Biznow article. It’s a total real estate fluff job. I work in the Penn quarter to white house corridor and there is a ton of office space available now (I’m getting comps for lease renegotiation). They quoted a 10% vacancy rate in the article but 3 years ago it was less than 5%.
Patrick

Mark Kelly > Libby Garvey
- Patrick
  
  “It’s not the job of a board member to go line item by line item,” Garvey said. “You really have to be depending on your staff.”
  
  So why even have board members? Why not just let the staff vote? Clearly Libby Garvey has no intention of doing any actual work to improve Arlington on the county board. A vote for Garvey is vote to allow the ACB to continue with their pet projects like Artisphere.
  - Suburban Not Urban
    
    Ms Garvey needs to understand that ultimately she would be responsible for every line item. If she trusts her staff fine – but you are still responsible.
    - Josh S
      
      Well, shared responsibility with the department heads.
JamesE

I like how the DIA leaving is an “opportunity” and not a huge loss.
- R. Griffon
  
  A friend tells me that that building is every bit as ugly on the inside as it is on the outside. It’s gonna take a fair amount of time and money in renovations before anyone’s gonna want to pay Clarendon prices to rent it out again. Or I guess it could end up being the best bargain in town.
  - Arlington, Northside
    
    Actually, uglier and more outdated. The outside looks early 90’s outdated, the inside looks mid-70’s outdated.
drax

How is voting against a budget delaying it? Is she supposed to vote for a budget she doesn’t support?
- ArlingtonChick
  
  Because a budget will be passed, no matter what. It’s mandated in Virginia. The GA gets paid overtime for every day they are still working on that budget. It takes money from the taxpayers. Just vote for it and move on. How different are these plans really? And shouldn’t we be grateful our state can stay within a budget most years (minus the horrible Kaine years).
  - Lou
    
    Responsible governing dictates that you adopt a budget in a timely fashion.
  - drax
    
    No. Absolutely not.
    
    A senator is not elected to go vote for something she doesn’t support just to meet a deadline.
    
    If the Republicans want the budget passed on deadline, they should make it more palatable to the Democrats.
    
    The Senate is tied 20-20. It is not the responsibility of the Dems to just go along to please the Republicans.
    
    “How different are these plans really?”
    
    Really? You think there’s no substantive disagreements between the two parties on the state’s budget?
    
    (As for “staying within the budget” – McDonnell’s magical balanced budget came mostly from federal stimulus funds. But that’s another issue).
    - ArlingtonChick
      
      Better to use federal stimulus funds (again, my money anyway) than to close down the rest areas in Virginia because you bankrupted us!
      
      And when it’s 20-20, doesn’t Bolling get to smile and earn his keep by voting for the buget? My god, that man is the posterchild for welfare in Virginia. (sorry, god sidetracked there). Point is, I feel like there’s a dem holding out voting due to procedural issues. Could be wrong. But it’s a valid guess.
      - nom de guerre
        
        It has been widely reported that Bolling can cast the tie-breaking vote on everything EXCEPT THE BUDGET.
      - ArlingtonChick
        
        Well, crap. That’s what I get when I get all my news off of my FB newsfeed. That’s valid reporting, right?
        
        Also, just makes Bolling’s job more welfare-oriented. Good for him. I need to run for that job when he finally retires.
      - drax
        
        It’s not the stimulus funds that are the problem, it’s claiming that you balanced the budget (while bashing Obama) that’s the problem.
    - Zoning Victim
      
      I would agree with you if it weren’t so clear to me that the Democrats are holding the budget hostage because of their displeasure with their committee appointments.
      - drax
        
        I say the Republicans are holding the budget hostage because of their displeasure with the Democrat’s displeasure with their committee appointments.
        
        The Senate is tied 20-20. You can’t say one side is trying to do the work of the majority while the minority is obstructing, because there is no majority and no minority.
        
        The Republicans shouldn’t be surprised that the Dems voted against their budget. That’s perfectly normal. They shouldn’t be surprised that it causes their budget not to pass, because 20 = 20.
- Josh S
  
  When you’re in the majority, everything the minority does is suspect, immoral, callous, scheming, and without merit. However, the next time the roles are reversed, and you’re in the minority, you’ll take exactly the same actions and they will be principled, strong, brave, and upstanding.
  - Josh S
    
    And politicians wonder why people hate them.
    
    F**k politicians.
    - drax
      
      They’re only doing what they voters like. Don’t blame them, blame the voters for being so pigheaded.
      - Southeast Jerome
        
        I will blame the voters from central and southwestern and southern virginia.
      - Josh S
        
        No, I don’t necessarily agree. There may be voters who are willing to go along with that nonsense and who are equally as hypocritical in their public statements / stances. But there are also voters who are outraged by such duplicity, find it repugnant and hold their noses when voting for them. I tend to believe that the second group is the larger of the two.
      - drax
        
        If those voters are so fragile that they have to hold their noses, maybe they should vote for someone else, or not vote at all until the most perfect, awesome, heroic angel of a candidate comes along.
brendan

Interesting that Paul was able to get 40%… though based on polling at least half of the votes Ron Paul got were in protest against Romney.
- Zoning Victim
  
  What poll are you referencing?
  - brendan
    
    almost every poll conducted during the primary showed Paul between 15-25% in VA… so he basically doubled his polling average, which was likely already inflated somewhat with anti-romney protest votes.
- Arlington, Northside
  
  Or Dems trying to skew the numbers since they had no one to vote for.
Andrew

I wish I could have gone to the county board forum… I would have asked “Green” candidate Audrey Clement how she can claim to be “green” and yet pollute my neighborhood with her toxic flyers last election.
Michael H.

Registration for the Marine Corps Marathon seems to have opened at 2 pm, not 3 pm. I don’t blame ARLnow for inaccuracy. The official website also listed 3 pm as the opening time.

The race has already sold out, less than 3 hours after registration opened. It took 28 hours last year, and six days in 2010. They may have to go to a lottery system next year.

I managed to get a spot. It’ll be my first marathon. But I’m not going to be the typical undertrained newbie. I’ve been running for a few years now. I’ll be ready.
John Andre

Sure. We Democrats stayed home, though some of us no doubt considered voting for Paul as an anti-Romney protest, as well as a protest against the inefficient Virginia primary system which denied Santorum and Gingrich a place on the GOP ballot. As it stands, Ron Paul got around 40% of the vote, more than in any state where all the GOP candidates were on the ballot. This indicates a considerable anti-Romney current among conservative Virginia voters, and also points at weakness for Mitt Romney.

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