Arlington Republicans introduced two candidates for the House of Delegates and one County Board challenger at a Monday meeting.
The party acknowledges that, as always, November will be an uphill battle in Arlington. However, the goal is to put forward “candidates who are well-versed in what’s happening locally” as part of a five-year strategy, party chair Matthew Hurtt said.
The field includes Bob Cambridge, one of four challengers to Democratic incumbent County Board Chair Takis Karantonis. In addition, Bill Moher is challenging Del. Patrick Hope (D-1) and Wendy Sigley is attempting to unseat Del. Adele McClure (D-2).
“Accountability is key,” said Sigley, a first-time candidate who pledged to use the “grit and determination” learned as a military spouse during her face-off with McClure, who is in her first term.
Though Arlington is a Democratic stronghold, Sigley said she believed her message would resonate.
“You don’t know what you can do until you have to,” she said, promising to focus on healthy food, health care and fiscal responsibility.
Moher last year was the Republican nominee in Virginia’s 4th congressional district, which runs from Richmond to the North Carolina line. He received 32% of the vote against Democratic incumbent Jennifer McClellan.
“I learned a lot” in that race, said Moher, a tech entrepreneur and Arlington native. “I welcome everyone’s help.”
Moher said he aims to hold Hope accountable and force him to focus on his own campaign rather than bestow his campaign cash on other Democratic candidates.
“Patrick Hope raises an obscene amount of money [and] spreads his money around,” Moher said.
The Republican said he would focus on a single issue — eliminating Virginia’s car tax — but acknowledged it would be no easy task to accomplish even if he is elected.
Currently, Democrats hold slim majorities in the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. “We’re not going to do it unless we get the votes in the House of Delegates and unless and until we get the votes in the Senate,” Moher said of killing the annual personal-property tax on vehicles.
Cambridge also is a second-time candidate. In a summer 2020 special election to fill the seat of the late Erik Gutshall, he finished third behind Karantonis and Susan Cunningham.
“I got a lot of wonderful feedback and met a lot of wonderful people,” Cambridge said of the race, conducted in the early stages of the Covid pandemic.
Cambridge, an attorney, said Republicans shouldn’t run away from their positions. “We’ve got some great issues,” he said.
The County Board field will include Cambridge, Karantonis and independents Audrey Clement, Jeramy Olmack and Carlos De Castro “DC” Pretelt. It will be run under ranked-choice-voting rules.
While Karantonis is the odds-on favorite, Cambridge said an upset was possible.
“It could happen. It could really happen,” he said.
Karantonis and Hope are coming off victories in the June 17 Democratic primary. McClure was unopposed for renomination.
The county’s third member of the House of Delegates, Democrat Alfonso Lopez, also faced no intra-party challenge, and has no opposition in November. State Senate seats are not on the ballot this year.
At the June 30 meeting, Republicans agreed to spend $5,000 per candidate up front to get the campaigns up and running.
“This committee is going to invest — directly support our candidates in down-ballot races,” Hurtt said. “A lot of first-time candidates, and even second- and third-time candidates, don’t raise a lot of money in Arlington.”
At the meeting, the Republican Committee accepted two new members and began the process for two additional applicants.
“I was a Democrat for 20 years before I realized they were all crazy, so I’ve returned to the roots of where I was in the 1980s,” one of the new members said.
Membership in the Republican Committee now stands at its highest point in at least 15 years, Hurtt said.
