Peter’s Take is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.
In Tuesday’s County Board election, Arlington voters again rendered a decisive verdict on major priorities and practices of the current majority on the Arlington County Board (Jay Fisette, Mary Hynes, Walter Tejada).
The verdict: change your priorities and practices, or we’ll elect others who will.
Independent John Vihstadt won another landslide election by again uniting tens of thousands of Arlington Democrats, Republicans, Greens, and Independents into a broad-based coalition that shares Vihstadt’s policy priorities and rejects those of Fisette, Hynes and Tejada:
- prioritize spending on Arlington’s core government services (e.g., overcrowded schools, basic infrastructure, sensible transit, and public safety),
- end spending on wasteful and extravagant projects like streetcars, a gold-plated aquatics center, and more fancy dog parks,
- provide far greater transparency and accountability in Arlington County government.
MAJOR TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS ELECTION
For Fisette, Hynes, and Tejada
The statesman-like thing you should do now is to vote to cancel extravagant, wasteful and unnecessary projects like streetcars and the aquatics center. Commit instead to redirect our tax dollars toward investments in:
- public schools,
- basic infrastructure (sewers, water mains, roads),
- sensible transit, and
- public safety.
Move forward aggressively with new initiatives to make Arlington’s government far more transparent.
For all other Arlington Democratic elected officials
Tell Fisette, Hynes, and Tejada it’s time to unite the community around the agenda outlined above. Renounce further plans to support a referendum on the streetcar because there is ZERO likelihood that Virginia will enact legislation forcing Arlington to hold a binding referendum on the streetcar.
For the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC)
You have lost the excuse that Vihstadt’s election in the spring was a fluke. Don’t make the same mistake again. Alan Howze lost both elections because he embraced policy priorities for Arlington (e.g., streetcars, aquatics center) that a majority of Arlington voters don’t want.
Because these policy priorities do not spring from core Democratic values, thousands of Arlington Democrats rejected the Democratic candidate who championed these failed policies. If you keep nominating candidates who advocate these failed policies, Arlington voters will continue to reject those candidates.
Some of the practices ACDC itself adopted after Vihstadt’s spring victory have subjected ACDC to justifiable ridicule. Examples:
- telling Democratic elected officials and leaders they are not welcome at public ACDC meetings,
- dropping Democratic elected officials and leaders from broad-based ACDC email lists,
- placing a Democratic elected official on what the Sun-Gazette derisively called “double-blind secret probation.”
Unflattering comparisons to the Soviet politburo continue to circulate. ACDC leadership should renounce all such practices, and embrace the politics of addition instead of the politics of subtraction.
CONCLUSION
It is no longer enough to get elected to the County Board that you be the Democratic nominee.