With election season in the rear-view mirror, Arlington’s civic and political leaders are again turning to potential changes in the county’s form of governance.
But while several local organizations have given the concept their blessing, a key state legislator who supported efforts in the 2025 legislative session has said she wants to hold off in 2026.
Arlington County Civic Federation delegates are about to decide how far they want to press the General Assembly in enacting what supporters view as reforms to an archaic system. On Tuesday, attendees will vote on the federation’s 2026 General Assembly priorities package, which, as currently written, focuses largely on change-of-governance issues.
It calls on the legislature to give Arlington the power — through the County Board or public referendums — to make the following changes to the governance structure in place since the 1930s:
- Increasing the number of County and School Board members
- Providing authority to replace staggered terms with simultaneous election of all or several members using ranked-choice voting
- Clarifying the number and duties of staff members reporting directly to the County and School Boards
- Electing School Board members by ranked-choice vote
- Increasing the salaries of School Board members
The Arlington NAACP is among other organizations expressing support for some of the proposed alterations.
Legislation to permit some or all of the changes is expected to be introduced for the 2026 session by Del. Patrick Hope (D-1), who recently won reelection with a commanding victory over Republican William Moher.
County Board members announced plans in October to appoint a working group to look at potential governance changes beginning no later than February. Appointments to the panel could come as early as this month.
The question for state lawmakers in coming months will be whether to authorize some or all of the changes being sought by governance-change advocates during the session that begins in January — or wait to act until the county government’s effort concludes.
If Hope moves forward with legislation in 2026, he may do so without the support of his colleague Sen. Barbara Favola.
Favola (D-40) told ARLnow that she has concerns about enacting legislation before the county government’s process plays out.
“It’s the timing. We should just wait,” Favola said of her concern, urging a “really robust” discussion at the community level before moving ahead.
She left the door open, a little, for Hope to come back with a measure somewhat revamped from the one considered in the 2025 session last winter.
“I don’t want to do the bill of last year,” said the senator, who supported that measure. While it passed both houses of the Democratic-controlled legislature, it was vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
Before being elected to the state Senate in 2011, Favola spent more than a dozen years on the County Board — the only one of the five-member county legislative delegation with service in local government.
As her district encompasses the majority of Arlington, Favola’s views could be pivotal in how her 39 Senate colleagues react to a governance-change bill, if one comes across the hall from the House of Delegates.
Arlington has been governed by a five-member, at-large County Board since 1932. For the 60 years prior to that, local governance was in the hands of a three-member, district-based Board of Supervisors.
While focusing on governance issues, the Civic Federation’s draft legislative proposal also includes small sections devoted to resilience, flood-control and traffic-safety issues.
Dave Schutz, who leads the federation’s change-of-government efforts and helped craft the legislative package, said a broader array of topics might be added in response to priorities being put forward by the county government.
“I am asking our committee chairs to look at the draft county legislative agenda, and see if there are things we might want to support,” he told ARLnow. “If we get a response back, we may do a sort of supplemental [measure] through an emergency resolution.”
Survey on ranked-choice voting starts: Arlington voters may find themselves quizzed on their views of ranked-choice voting.
Ranked Choice Virginia received a share of a county government contract aimed at gathering feedback on ranked choice voting, which has been used in the last two County Board general elections and the last three Democratic County Board primaries.
Sally Hudson, executive director of the organization, tells ARLnow it has contracted with a research firm to do the polling. Efforts began Thursday (Nov. 6).
“The survey will ask voters about their experience using ranked-choice voting, how confident they feel in understanding the system, and whether they support using ranked-choice in future local elections,” Hudson said.
She added:
“The firm will use a combination of text, phone, and web-panel outreach to collect responses from a representative sample of Arlington residents so the County Board can understand how views may vary across different groups of voters. The results will be presented to the County Board at a public meeting in January.”
A previous survey of public sentiment among Arlington voters on ranked choice, conducted a year ago, delivered a mixed verdict.
In both the 2024 and 2025 County Board elections, voters had the option of ranking up to three candidates in order of preference. In each election, the process never came into play, because Democrats won an outright majority in each case: 58% for Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr., in 2024 and a preliminary result of 65% for Karantonis in 2025.
In Virginia, localities have the option of using ranked-choice voting for the election of governing bodies. All other races must be held under the traditional winner-take-all format, although that could change depending on legislation passed during the 2026 General Assembly session.
