The race for four seats on the Falls Church City Council is underway.
Incumbents Laura Downs and David Snyder have already qualified for the Nov. 4 ballot. Several other aspirants, including incumbent Marybeth Connelly, have started the process of qualifying, city elections director David Bjerke told ARLnow.
Candidates have until June 17 at 7 p.m. to file paperwork. The seats currently held by Downs, Snyder, Connelly and Debora Schantz Hiscott will be on the ballot.
City Council members serve four-year terms starting Jan. 1 after their election, and members choose a mayor and vice mayor from among their ranks. Downs gained office last year through a special election and has been filling out the remainder of the term.
Elections for the Council happen in odd-numbered years, with either four seats (as in 2025) or three (in 2023 and again in 2027) on the ballot. These races are nonpartisan, so no primaries or nominating caucuses take place before the general election.
Council members receive $11,000 per year and the mayor gets $11,500, although Council members have discussed raising that pay level.
No GOP primary will help staffing costs
The Falls Church elections office’s budget will benefit from no Republican primary taking place this year.
Pat Herrity’s decision to drop his bid for lieutenant governor ended what would have been the lone Republican statewide primary election. Gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and current Attorney General Jason Miyares will represent the GOP in the general election, along with lieutenant-governor candidate John Reid.
In the Democratic primary, six candidates are vying for the party’s nomination for lieutenant governor and two are running for attorney general. Rep. Abigail Spanberger was unopposed in her quest to be the nominee for governor.
While the Democratic and Republican primaries happen in tandem, having only one political party involved will reduce staffing costs. That will help the bottom line, Bjerke told ARLnow, as the office exceeded its budgeted costs in last November’s election.
Falls Church Electoral Board members agreed last week to staff polling places for each of the city’s three wards with one chief, one assistant chief and four officers of election for the primary. The initial plan had been six officers of election, but Bjerke advised going with a lower number.
“I just don’t see [turnout] being huge,” he said.
Early voting in the primary will begin Friday, May 2 at City Hall. On Thursday, Electoral Board officers tested voting machines and determined all equipment was operating normally, Electoral Board secretary Renee Bergmann Andrews said.
The deadline to register to vote in the primary is May 27.
