Arlington Democrats are moving back onto offense while the county’s GOP continues its work to build a candidate slate for November.
A monthly meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee last Wednesday attracted at least 100 people to Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School.
Democratic Chair Steve Baker pointed to a Democratic victory in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race; the better-than-anticipated (albeit still losing) results in two congressional special elections in Florida; and the 25-hour speech of Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
“We finally had a good day yesterday,” Baker said. He expressed particular enthusiasm for Booker’s performance.
“I’d been hoping all year long that somebody would show us how to do that,” he said. “How did we not think of that sooner?”
As Democrats are in the midst of choosing their candidates for County Board, School Board and House of Delegates, Arlington Republicans remain on the hunt for local and legislative candidates to turn up.
“You and I both know running for office as a Republican in Arlington is an uphill battle,” county GOP chair Matthew Hurtt said in a recent email to the party rank-and-file. The note asked prospects to step up and run for County Board, School Board and the three House of Delegates seats on the Nov. 4 ballot.
“You and I must give voters a choice in November,” Hurtt told the party faithful.
Arlington Democrats seem to have an unshakable lock on local offices. But the local GOP having candidates on the ballot helped turn out the county’s limited Republican vote in 2021, which in turn provided local support to the statewide ticket led by gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.
The 2021 Republican ticket for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general swept into office with narrow victories, helped by slight improvements in GOP voting in Arlington.
Sarah Lanford, who heads precinct operations for Arlington Democrats, acknowledged that reality. She said her party needs to do the work to “turn out every last Democratic vote in Arlington” this November.
“We didn’t do that in 2021,” she said.
Admitting that the GOP’s chances in local races are uphill at best, Hurtt furthered his appeal to prospective candidates by suggesting that a run might be helpful even if they lost.
“Your personal and political sacrifice will not go unnoticed,” he said. “Candidates who step forward oftentimes have other opportunities to serve in Republican administrations in both Richmond and Washington.”
Republicans have until June 17 at 7 p.m. to certify candidates for local and legislative races. Independents seeking ballot access also have that deadline.
Bill addressing deadline for mail-in ballots vetoed: Legislation that would have given the U.S. Postal Service a few hours of extra time to deliver mail-in ballots has fallen to Youngkin’s veto pen.
Sen. Barbara Favola (D-40) had sponsored legislation to extend the current deadline for receipt of mail-in ballots, from noon on the Friday three days after an election to the close of business (5 p.m.) on the same day.
The bill was spurred, at least in part, by Arlington election officials’ 2023 experience. In a springtime primary that year, several hundred ballots had to be rejected because the Postal Service delivered them after noon on Friday, despite advance efforts by the elections office to coordinate with postal authorities in the county.
Favola called her bill a “bipartisan, practical” effort to address mail service’s unpredictability. However, in his veto message, Youngkin said the change would place “undue burdens on local general registrars” in processing ballots to meet the state reporting deadline.
The Senate on April 2 failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to override the measure.
Arlington elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told ARLnow that, since the spring 2023 episode, there have been no problems in Arlington with the Postal Service getting ballots to election officials before the Friday-at-noon deadline.
