Election officials called police when a Republican precinct captain became unruly outside Patrick Henry Elementary School in Arlington Heights this afternoon.
The man, a local resident named John Moroz, Jr., said he was passing out voting guides outside the school — as he has done every year since 1998 — when a voter directed profane language at him for being a Republican.
“The numbers we’re getting back show a higher than 2009 turnout, which gives us room for optimism,” said Mike Lieberman, chairman of the Arlington County Democratic Committee. He emphasized that county Democrats are “cautiously” optimistic.
“Given how strange this year is we’re not taking anything for granted until we see the actual numbers come in,” he said.
If the election results go their way, the Tea Party will be partying in Arlington on Nov. 2.
The Clarendon-based Leadership Institute, a sort of conservative political training camp, will host “an election night victory party for 350 conservative and Tea Party activists.”
County Launches Housing Blog — Under One Roof aims to be “a broad and accessible news portal on housing and more in Arlington County. It will feature “blog posts on a broad range of topics including affordable housing, green building, construction, neighborhoods, homeless and housing assistance.”
Fire Houses Open to Public This Weekend — To mark Fire Prevention Week, Arlington’s 10 fire stations will hold a countywide open house from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. There will be fun for the whole family, including fire stations tours and activities for kids.
Bayou Bakery Opening Set — Cookbook author David Guas is hoping to open his Bayou Bakery coffee bar and eatery concept by November 1. The restaurant, which is taking over the old Camille’s space at 1515 North Courthouse Road, will feature Louisiana-style pastries, sweets, sausages, and other savory selections.
Rosslyn CVS To Renovate — The CVS at 1100 Wilson Boulevard will be getting a major facelift. The 26-year-old, nearly 10,000 square foot pharmacy will get a new layout, new window displays and new finishes throughout the store. No timeline was given for the construction. More from the Washington Business Journal.
ACDC Kicks Off Campaign Season — Last night, the Arlington County Democratic Committee officially launched its campaign to maintain electoral dominance in the county. But looking forward to November contests that include a challenge to incumbent county board member Chris Zimmerman, Democrats aren’t counting their chickens quite yet. “We are not going to take anything for granted [this] fall,” ACDC chair Mike Lieberman tells ARLnow.com. The Democrats’ campaign season will kick into high gear on Monday at the party’s annual Labor Day Chili Cookoff.
Dems, GOPers Swipe Each Other’s Swag — Stop us if this starts sounding like symbolism. In an effort to appease their respective constituencies, the local political parties decided to start stealing from one another. The petty political thievery took place at the recent Arlington County Fair. The Sun Gazette has the details.
Murray, who defeated Berry in June’s Republican primary, raised the ire of many local Republicans by sending out a controversial last-minute mailer about Berry. One local conservative blogger called the mailer “foul” and “disgusting,” although Murray maintained that his campaign’s conduct was aboveboard.
Nonetheless, two months after the mailer went out, Berry appears to be trying to bury the hatchet.
Despite a lopsided fundraising disadvantage, retired Army colonel Patrick Murray managed to narrowly defeat his organized and well-connected opponent, government attorney Matthew Berry, in a contest to see who will face ten-term Democratic congressman Jim Moran in the fall.
Berry called Murray to concede the race just before 9:00 last night. Murray won with 7,133 votes, or 51.75 percent of the vote, to Berry’s 6651 vote, or 48.25 percent.
The former government lawyer has a more than 2-to-1 fundraising advantage over his opponent, retired Army colonel Patrick Murray, and Berry says his campaign’s internal numbers “look very good.”
Voters “seem to be responding well to our positive message,” Berry said. He has spent much of the past 48 hours knocking on doors, calling likely voters and attending events.
The Texas-based engineering firm Fluor and Australian toll road developer Transurban collectively donated $20,000 to Virginia’s GOP in May, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Neither company donated to Democrats in the most recent reporting period, according to VPAP records.
The money comes as Governor Robert McDonnell and state transportation officials are pushing to resurrect a plan to replace HOV lanes with High Occupancy Toll lanes on both highways. The lanes on I-95 would then be extended from Dumfries to Spotsylvania County to make a 56-mile toll road, which would compliment HOT lanes now being built on the Capital Beltway, between Springfield and Dulles Toll Road, by the same two companies.
“I think [voters] like the fact that I’m not a politician,” Murray said on Friday, during an interview on board his newly-rented campaign bus. “People talk to me and they say, ‘you don’t talk like a politician,’ and I take that as a compliment because I’m not.”
Murray says his ‘Time to Lead’ bus tour, on which he embarked Thursday and will continue through Tuesday’s GOP primary, is part of an “insurgent ground campaign.” He’s visiting Metro stops, grocery stores, farmer’s markets and other high-traffic spots in an effort to get out the vote.
South Arlington resident Mark Kelly has accepted the Arlington County Republican Committee’s nomination to run against the incumbent Democrat in the fall.
Kelly, a lawyer who works as an outreach manager at the conservative Heritage Foundation, faces daunting electoral odds. No Republican has won a seat on the board in a general election since 1983 (Republican Mike Lane won a special election in 1999 and served on the board for about six months).
