At the same debate where he declined to join other candidates in saying Arlingtonians are overtaxed, the Democratic nominee for County Board also stood away from the pack on crime issues.
While other contenders criticized rates of crime across the county, J.D. Spain Sr. said the facts showed differently.
“Arlington, quite frankly, is one of the safest places,” Spain said at the Sept. 3 candidate forum sponsored by the Arlington County Civic Federation.
The three candidates running an uphill battle against Democrat Spain to win the seat being vacated by Libby Garvey suggested that the county was suffering on the crime front, in part because of problems recruiting and retaining public-safety officers.
“We have some serious staffing shortages – we have high turnover, there’s burnout,” said Madison Granger, standard-bearer for the nascent Forward Party in the campaign.
“Young men and women are not interested” in law-enforcement careers, said Republican Juan Carlos Fierro, pointing to the demonization of the profession in some quarters that seemed to peak in 2021-22.
Perennial independent Audrey Clement contended that the County Board conducted a “de-facto defunding” of public-safety efforts, leading to many problems.
The solution is to re-fund the police,” she said.
While Spain said crime rates were not all that problematic, he added there were problems to address on the law-enforcement front.
“There’s more work to be done. We need to work collectively,” he said with the nebulousness that can be called up by front-runners in forums such as these.
At the debate, a number of contenders said Democrats could be dismissive of concerns of the public on issues like crime and taxation levels because the party enjoys a near-monopoly on an electorate that reflexively votes Democratic.
The public is “ignored and dismissed by the Arlington establishment,” said Fierro, who was the GOP nominee for County Board last year, as well.
Voters are “disenchanted with the two major parties,” added Granger, asking for “civility and compromise.”
But political reality remains political reality, and if past trends hold it is likely Spain, who emerged bruised but not bloodied from the Democratic primary in June, will win somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of the vote in the general election.
Anything over 50 percent means that Arlington will not need to crank up the ranked-choice voting apparatus put in place for the first time for a general-election County Board race.
Early voting for the Nov. 5 election begins Sept. 20.
League of Women Voters to Host ‘Candi-Dating’ Event: It’s the political equivalent of speed dating – called “candi-dating” or “candidating” (take your pick) – and the League of Women Voters of Arlington & Alexandria City is hosting a chance for Arlington residents to get to know candidates for local office without the long-term commitment of a full-blown candidate forum.
The event will be held on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 1:30 to 4 p.m. at Walter Reed Community Center.
“Each candidate will sit at a separate table, and voters will have 10 to 15 minutes with each candidate to ask questions,” organizers said. “Once the 15 minutes is up, voters will rotate to a new table until all voters have had a chance to meet the candidates. This means you’ll have direct access to the candidates to talk about the issues you care about the most.”
Cosponsors of the event include the Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Virginia Women’s Foundation, Alpha Kappa Alpha Zeta Chi Omega Chapter, National Council of Jewish Women and National Coalition of 100 Black Women.
To register, see the Website at https://tinyurl.com/candidating2024. For more information, e-mail [email protected].
