An Arlington County Board candidate is threatening legal action if the county government places new limits on people’s ability to put campaign signs in public medians.
“I guarantee you that if they try to pass legislation to ban median signs, I will file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law as a violation of my First Amendment rights,” James DeVita told ARLnow. “I will also seek an injunction to prevent any such law from going into effect.”
Virginia’s two U.S. senators have endorsed Rep. Don Beyer (D) in his bid for reelection in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District.
Senators Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) both announced their support for Beyer yesterday (Wednesday), according to a press release from Beyer’s campaign.
More outreach to Latino, older and younger voters is needed if Arlington wants the community to more fully embrace ranked-choice voting, new survey data suggests.
The majority of respondents — 66% — said they either strongly or somewhat supported the voting format in a government-funded voter survey conducted immediately after the November general election. Only 26% were strongly or somewhat opposed, and the remainder were undecided.
Arlington’s never-ending campaign cycle saw both Democrats and Republicans gearing up for battle over the past few weeks.
The Arlington County Democratic Committee is “focused on winning, doing everything we can to ensure Democrats win,” party chair Paul Ruiz said at Democrats’ monthly meeting on Feb. 4.
Political campaign signs could soon be a thing of the past on Arlington medians.
County Board members in March are expected to consider a staff recommendation that would prohibit all signage — commercial, personal and political — on county-owned median strips and areas between sidewalks and roadways.
Legislators representing Arlington are advancing matching bills to extend elections offices’ deadlines for receiving and counting absentee ballots.
HB 82 and SB 58, introduced by Del. Adele McClure (D-2) and State Sen. Barbara Favola (D-40), respectively, call for moving the deadline from noon to 5 p.m. on the third day after an election.
While questions around congressional redistricting will remain unresolved for months, campaigns for two seats that could represent Arlington are in full swing.
For now, all eyes are on an April 21 statewide referendum on whether to authorize dramatically redrawn districts for the U.S. House of Representatives. But that isn’t stopping candidates, political parties and officials in Arlington from launching into election season.
Arlington election officials have formally certified Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker’s overwhelming victory in the race to succeed State Sen. Adam Ebbin.
Across the entire district, the Bennett-Parker (D-39) won 83.4% of the vote in the Feb. 10 special election. In Arlington, she got 84.2% of the vote compared to 15.8% for Republican Julie Robben Lineberry, according to preliminary figures from the Virginia Department of Elections.
The Virginia Senate has approved a bill seeking to base presidential election results on the national popular vote rather than the electoral vote.
The Senate passed Sen. Adam Ebbin’s (D-39) national popular vote bill 21-19 on party lines Monday, and the House voted to engross a companion bill and will have a final vote today (Thursday).
School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton launched her reelection bid last week with a pledge to fight for students — and against the Trump administration.
“We’re all feeling the impact of this administration’s attacks on our values. We will not back down,” Zecher Sutton said during Wednesday remarks to about 200 people at the monthly Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting.
U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) is taking on challenges about his age and the possibility of a dramatically different constituency as he seeks reelection.
Beyer, who turns 76 in June, addressed the age issue at last week’s meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee. He also discussed potential congressional redistricting in a press release on Friday.
Newly proposed maps would split Arlington into two congressional districts as part of a statewide overhaul heavily favoring Virginia Democrats.
The proposal would keep a southern portion of Arlington in the 8th Congressional District, which currently encompasses all of the county and is represented by Rep. Don Beyer (D). This would extend as far south as York County in the Tidewater region.
