Opinion

The Right Note: Spin Machine on Full Display

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

The post budget spin offered by Arlington officials defies common sense.

As both the general budget and the school budget increased by 6.3%, here is what
Board Chairman Christian Dorsey had to say,

“I would think about this not as government getting smaller, but as government getting
smarter.”

What he should have said:

Arlingtonians should not think of government getting smaller, because it got bigger.

Not to be outdone, Erik Gutshall county leaders went over the budget with a “fine tooth comb” and the result is a budget without “an ounce of fat.”

What he should have said:

A majority of the “savings” we found in the budget were achieved by essentially eliminating vacant staff positions.

Even if you don’t write off the savings as a budget gimmick, the Board spent 99.4% of what it wanted to spend on the county government side of the budget. And, there’s a good bet there is more than one ounce of fat left in it.

While we have come to expect this from a group of people who call spending 6.3% more than last year a “difficult” budget process, Christian Dorsey said something even more disturbing. WMAL aired a clip of Dorsey talking about how Arlingtonians can pay for the 5% tax increase. Dorsey’s reply was to suggest that Arlingtonians “scrub their family budgets.”

What Dorsey is essentially saying:

We didn’t do the hard work. You guys should just suck it up and find a way to pay for it.

Then I was reminded of something Dorsey said earlier this year. In January, he was answering questions about raising the pay of Board Members. Dorsey seemed to suggest that Board Members could scale back their workloads and focus more on big picture responsibilities.

He went on to reflect on some Board Members who dig into the nitty gritty of how the county is run, saying “An individual board member exceeding his responsibility is not helpful.” In other words, when someone else works really hard, it makes the rest of us look bad.

So, the idea that the Board did not really roll up their sleeves and work hard to build a better budget on behalf of taxpayers should not be surprising.

And the failure to rein in spending did not just result in a tax increase on homeowners. The Board also raised taxes on commercial real estate even more. They did this in the face of a commercial vacancy rate that remains high, putting even more upward pressure on the cost of doing business in the county.

All five Board Members have talked about addressing the vacancy rate. The only response thus far is to spend more of our tax dollars to subsidize big employers. $23 million for Amazon and $11.5 million for the DEA are the most recent examples.

What else do they plan to do other than hand out subsidies? Where is the plan?

The bottom line is it is tough to find a single word or phrase that describes this year’s budget process. “Failure” or “head-scratching” come to mind.

No, it’s just “typical.” Unless we change our leaders, we can expect more of the same.

Mark Kelly is a 19-year Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Progressive Voice: Democratic Candidates for State Senate Tout Progressive Accomplishment

By Progressive Voice

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

To inform voters, Progressive Voice asked each candidate in the upcoming Democratic primary for State Senate to respond to this question: “What is your one most progressive accomplishment for Arlington citizens and how does that reflect your progressive leadership?”

Barbara Favola

As an Arlington County Board member, I initiated a coordinated community response to domestic violence and sexual assault; and chaired the roundtable that guided the community response for five years. That effort, now known as Project Peace, continues to educate, protect and empower Arlingtonians.

Project Peace has “buy-in” from the police, judicial system, faith community, non-profit service providers, legal service groups, and the public schools. The goal is to educate the community about domestic violence and sexual assault, enhance the protections offered by the judicial system and address gaps in services. An important component of Project Peace is preventing unhealthy relationships and discussing this topic in an age appropriate manner with both sexes.

As a State Senator, I allocate dollars in a way that ensures a seamless local response to domestic violence and sexual assault. For example, Inova Hospital, with the help of a state grant, was able to expand the number of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) to ensure that survivors could access the exam without long delays in a waiting room. Additionally, I passed legislation to require that a backlog of Physical Evidence Recovery Kits (PERKs) be evaluated by the State Department of Forensics.

On the prevention side, I passed legislation that requires the Alcohol Beverage Control Commission to include lessons in patron safety for bartenders. This idea came from a Project Peace program that voluntarily encourages establishments to join the “Ask Angela” Campaign.  If an individual feels threatened or unsafe, she can utter the words “Ask Angela” and the bartender is trained to take corrective actions.

The General Assembly established a Sexual Assault Advisory Committee and I have chaired that committee for the past four years. More needs to be done and I look forward to keeping my pragmatic progressive values at the forefront in Richmond.

Nicole Merlene

Integrating our regional economy is a top priority of what I hope to achieve in Richmond. Two years ago, I wrote in ARLnow about bringing more people to the table to achieve local policy goals. Our planning processes were insular with people from different areas of the county talking past each other and, rowing in their own directions with blinders on.

For the past year I helped lead “Engage Arlington” with the County Manager’s office and the Civic Federation. This brought together, for the first time ever, civic association leaders from all neighborhoods of the county, business improvement districts, apartment property owners and developers, advocacy groups representing groups like renters and environmentalists, and various government agencies.

Our problem of not working together and thus creating inefficient systems is not just an Arlington problem; it’s a regional problem.I wrote about integrating Arlington into a regional economy. Arlington is only 26 square miles and by virtue of our size, the solutions to everything from housing affordability to public transportation, business competitiveness, and even creation of more efficient recycling facilities, must be addressed with regional solutions.

To have Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun working in their own silos to try to tackle these regional problems decreases the efficiency that working through state partnerships could help solve. For example, a regional approach to transportation spending efficiencies could be addressed by an improved process between the big picture-driven Council of Governments and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, the functional vehicle for transportation funding. With respect to housing affordability, we must regionally increase density and protect renters’ rights, but as we grow be diligent to have adequate infrastructure and schools. I look forward to leading Northern Virginia forward with you and for you — not special interests — to succeed as a region in the global economy.

Merlene is a lifelong Arlingtonian with years of service to the community. She was appointed as an Economic Development Commissioner, has led on the boards of her civic association and the Arlington Civic Federation, and has served as a citizen liaison to the Rosslyn Business Improvement District and various capacities within the Democratic Party.

Sen. Favola serves on Transportation, Rehab and Social Services and Local Government Committees and chairs the Sexual Assault Advisory Committee and the Senate Women’s Healthcare Caucus. She served for 14 years on the Arlington County Board, chairing that body three times; and was recently recognized for her public service from the National Academy of Public Administration.

ARLnow Weekend Discussion

By Airey

It’s Friday, which means Arlington County is finally done with budget season — oh and it’s almost the weekend!

In addition to passing a $1.4 billion budget this week, the County Board also voted to rename Jefferson Davis Highway.

In fact, they voted on so many things of note, it’s almost impossible to summarize it all in one breath: getting rid of glass recycling, updating the county’s bike infrastructure plan; updating the public spaces master plan (coverage of that coming Monday), granting permission for Ballston Quarter to hang up some real big TVs, approving an incentive package for Gerber, approving a couple of outdoor cafes, and awarding some trees.

Outside of the dais there was also plenty of Arlington news this week. Here’s some of what you might have missed:

Let us know your weekend plans and feel free to discuss these stories — or any other topic of local interest — in the comments below.

Peter’s Take: What Arlington Should Do to Prepare For More Flooding

By Peter Rousselot

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.

Last week, ARLnow.com reported on a flood warning from Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services (DES).

A DES stormwater outreach specialist alerted Arlington residents how stormwater runoff can harm County waterways:

  • Erosion: High water volume erodes stream banks, compromising trails and trees along our stream-valley parks
  • Pollutants: Stormwater washes pollutants like nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), sediment, bacteria, pet waste and trash into our streams, causing poor water quality
  • Temperature: During the summer months, stormwater heats up as it flows over hot pavement, which then increases the temperature of the stream water by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit, causing stress or death to aquatic organisms

Last week’s story linked to a County website containing useful recommendations to help Arlington residents prepare for more storms and flooding.

Arlington County government needs to follow its own advice.

Arlington talks the talk about global climate change, but fails to walk the walk locally

Arlington County government has passed a climate change resolution criticizing President Trump for withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement:

“Arlington County supports the principles of the Paris Agreement and will continue to stand with cities, counties and other public and private sector partners throughout the world to advance action in accordance with the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement.”

But having fired this rhetorical salvo, County government has failed to follow it up locally–choosing not to exercise its municipal powers to take corrective actions that would reduce growing environmental threats in Arlington:

Slow the dramatic increase in impervious surfaces

Arlington’s Flood Frequency Analysis for Four Mile Run at USGS Gaging Station 1652500 has not been updated since 2004. But even 15 years ago, this analysis concluded (at p. 17):

“[H]ow urbanized a watershed is or how developed a watershed is can be characterized by the degree of imperviousness found in the watershed…. [A] more urbanized watershed will have a greater percentage of area covered by impervious structures, i.e., roadways, rooftops, sidewalks, parking lots, etc. The effects of these impervious areas create higher peak flows and lower base flows in the watershed tributaries. These effects are most evident in the higher frequency rain/flood events….”

Flooding is exacerbated by the conversion of previously permeable surfaces into impervious and semi-pervious surfaces. Last year, Arlington County staff reported that 45% of Arlington is now covered by impervious surfaces.

From 2001 to around 2014 (a 13-year period), Arlington increased impervious surfaces by 2%. From 2014 to 2018, Arlington increased impervious surfaces by 3% in just 4 short years.

Arlington’s development activity is now adding nearly 9 acres of impervious surface area per year–adding the equivalent of the Pentagon’s footprint (roughly 29 acres) every 3 to 4 years.

Move more aggressively to protect our mature tree canopy

Mature trees provide significant stormwater volume- and rate-control benefits through soil storage, interception, and evapotranspiration. A tree with a 25-foot diameter canopy and its associated soil can manage 1-inch of rainfall flowing from 2,400 square feet of impervious surface.

Interception and evapotranspiration also decrease runoff volume, with larger trees providing exponentially greater benefit than smaller trees. See more details here and here.

Update Arlington’s Stormwater Master Plan

Arlington’s 2014 Stormwater Master Plan must be updated and refocused to address these threats:

  • Global climate change
  • Rapid local overdevelopment

Severe rainstorms are now much more common. To adapt, Arlington should enact a plan similar to Westchester County’s (NY) Flooding and Land Use Planning guide. See more details here.

Conclusion

In a recent press release, County government proclaimed, “Every day is Earth Day in Arlington.” It also stated that “few communities can boast Arlington’s ceaseless commitment to sustainability.” Sadly, “Every day is New Pavement Day in Arlington” is a rival slogan with too many County government adherents.

Arlington County government must now take action:

  • Slow the rate of increase in impervious surfaces
  • Preserve and increase our mature tree canopy
  • Reduce and better control stormwater runoff

Peter Rousselot previously served as Chair of the Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission (FAAC) to the Arlington County Board and as Co-Chair of the Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI) to the Arlington School Board. He is also a former Chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) and a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA). He currently serves as a board member of the Together Virginia PAC-a political action committee dedicated to identifying, helping and advising Democratic candidates in rural Virginia.

Arlington Pet of the Week: Jake

By Airey
1/3

Arlington’s new Pet of the Week is 3-year-old Goldendoodle Jake who recently moved from Maryland to Crystal City.

Here is what owner Nicole, had to say about how Jake’s sees his new life as an Arlingtonian:

When I’m not getting my 17-hours of sleep per day, being told how beautiful I am, or complaining about the service around here (can I get a refill on some water here, someone?), I love watching Caps games with my female owner.  Jay Beagle is my all-time favorite.  I also like taking walks through my new neighborhood (because people tell me how beautiful I am), standing on the balcony and barking “get off my lawn” at no one in particular, eating the section of newspaper that female owner’s male friend is currently reading, stealing remote controls and sponges and laundry and toys from petsmart (but it was only one time and my owner returned it and I was just borrowing it anyway ok), and choosing the most public spot available to do my business.

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Please don’t send vertical photos, they don’t fit in our photo galleries!

Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks. Becky’s Pet Care is the winner of six consecutive Angie’s List Super Service Awards, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year and a proud supporter of the Arlington County Pawsitively Prepared Campaign.

Becky’s Pet Care provides professional dog walking and pet sitting in Arlington and all of Northern Virginia, as well as PetPrep training courses for Pet Care, CPR and emergency preparedness.

The Right Note: It’s Budget Week

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

After months of laying the groundwork to increase spending and raise taxes, Board members are set to increase the tax rate by two cents on top of rising assessments. The bottom line for the average Arlington homeowner is we will pay 5% more this year, roughly $400. As a bonus, it is retroactive to January 1st.

The Board could have worked harder to keep that tax increase lower. They didn’t. Despite the line that it gets easier budget wise next year, do not hold your breath that the tax and spending spree will slow down.

As noted in this space last week, the Board is slated to give the DEA an $11.5 million subsidy to stay in Arlington. According to the Sun Gazette, this item will be pulled from the consent agenda to be debated by the Board.

After all the hullaballoo over giving $23 million to Amazon out of the increased tax revenue the retailer is slated to generate, it is quite interesting that the Board attempted to slide the DEA subsidy under the radar. Maybe someone with a microphone will answer the question of what the net benefit to the county will be to keep the agency here.

Speaking of under the radar, as of writing this column, there is still no report available that outlines the compensation plan for county staff. Earlier this year, the Board quickly and quietly approved pay raises for the county manager, county attorney, clerk and auditor with no debate or public notice.

There is no doubt that Arlington’s elected officials and county staff operate in one of the most resource rich communities in the country. The unwillingness of county residents hold the County Board responsible for tax increases at the ballot box allows county officials to redefine what constitutes difficult budget choices and to pay for shiny objects (see Artisphere). It allows them to borrow money for routine infrastructure maintenance, much of which has been put off for too long. Last November, the County Board even granted the County Manager a $2 million slush fund to spend as he sees fit.

Where is the Board Member or county employee who asks “how could we build a budget that spends less?” Where is the commitment to identifying potential savings a thorough and expedited review of programs through a more robust County Auditor’s office?

Unfortunately, the answer to both questions seems to be “nowhere in sight.”

Mark Kelly is a 19-year Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

Progressive Voice: Invisible Barriers: What do you see?

By Progressive Voice

Progressive Voice is a weekly column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Tannia Talento

How do you achieve social justice, equal access to opportunities for all, and access to the American Dream? If it is achievable anywhere, most of us believe it could be in Arlington.

We all seek to be accepting and not prejudiced.

But let’s think about what we see when we see a police officer. What do we see when we see a Black or Latino male walking down the street? What do we see when we see a person with a disability? What do we see when we see a White person? Depending on the lens you bring to this discussion, whether it is the lens of having a disability, being Latinx, being Black, being an immigrant, or being White, you will likely view each of these people differently. For instance, what I see when I see a police officer, as a Latina woman who grew up in a working-class minority neighborhood, is fear for my well-being, a potential negative disruption to my day and potential harm. What I see when I see a Latino male is my brother, my father, my uncle or my cousins.

I see the world around me with my personal lens created by my life experience. I have had to remove my personal lens to understand that some people might see safety, protection, and help when they see a police officer and understand that some might see a gang member, an undocumented immigrant, or a potential criminal when they see a Latino male.

Consider what your lens is showing you.

We consider affordable housing in Arlington a mechanism for keeping our community socio-economically diverse. This is another area in which we need to consider our lenses to successfully support affordable housing in Arlington.

For instance, do you know what it feels like to have severe limits in living choices? Limits on where you can buy food, how much food you can buy, and the type of food you buy simply based on money. Consider the limits on the location of living accommodations that are strictly based on an affordable grocery store being within walking distance and a strong public transportation system to get you to work.

Under these circumstances, you do not get to truly pick your neighborhood, your school, or your community. Depending on when a unit becomes available, if it has enough rooms at a price you can afford, and if it is close enough to a metro or frequent bus line that starts early and runs late, your home picks you. If you have never experienced this, how would you know that a bus line that runs every hour versus every fifteen minutes is a barrier to something as simple as walking your child to school before work? If you have never experienced this how would you know that affordable housing in sections of North Arlington, while affordable, may not be a choice for you if you do not have a car, because there is no grocery store within walking distance or a transit line with frequent service. If you have never been low-income, these barriers are invisible to you.

Consider what your lens is showing you.

If we want to bring about social justice, ensure equal opportunities for success for all and access to the American Dream, the first step is to acknowledge our personal lens created by our backgrounds and experiences. The next step is to put them aside and learn about the lenses of others. We need to see through the different lenses that exist within our community so that we can see where the invisible barriers are located and help to remove them. This is how we in Arlington should support and assist each other in our pursuit of equity and social justice, inclusivity, and the American Dream.

Tannia has lived in Arlington for 15 years and is currently serving as Vice Chair of the
Arlington County School Board. She is a long-time community activist and an advocate
for equitable access to educational opportunities for all.

ARLnow Weekend Discussion

By Airey

(Updated 04/21/19) Well it’s Friday, which means the holiday festivities are officially upon us!

If you’re looking for places to celebrate Easter, Passover Seder, or any Earth Day-themed events we have you covered.

Speaking of covered, the National Weather Service says to expect storms, potentially including severe storms and maybe even an isolated tornado, with heavy rain through the night.

This could be bad news considering the county announced that ground water levels are already 5 feet higher than they were two years ago. For more on that, as well as some tips on keeping your home water-free, check out the article yours truly wrote earlier this week.

After you’re done battening down the hatches, feel free to get swept away by some of our top stories from the past week:

  1. Closing Time: The Last Days of Mister Days
  2. More Housing Proposed for Ballston Harris Teeter Redevelopment
  3. Ragtime and Rhodeside Rrill Owner Wilson Whitney Dies
  4. Pupatella Coming to South Arlington
  5. Mac and Cheese Festival Coming to Ballston

What’s your favorite rainy-day story, or movie? Let us know, and tell us what you think of our articles in the comments below.

Peter’s Take: Salt Dome Master Plan Avoids Third Fiasco

By Peter Rousselot

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 September 2018, the County Board appointed a new 15-member task force. The Board charged the task force with developing a Master Plan for a 7.6-acre parcel of County-owned land located at 26th Street N. and Old Dominion Drive.

This parcel is often referred to as the Salt Dome site.

Why the new task force?

The Board’s goal was to avert a third consecutive fiasco related to this site.

The first fiasco involved the failure by County staff to justify shifting the location of Fire Station 8 to this site. The second fiasco involved the failure by County staff to provide enough notice that the old salt storage unit previously located on this site was in imminent danger of collapse.

The new task force submitted its final report to the County Board on April 12. Most other critical documents relating to this task force’s work can be accessed here.

Due to skillful leadership, the task force achieved a remarkable degree of consensus.

After 5 months, multiple meetings, and hundreds of hours of hard work, the task force, led by Chair Noah Simon, was able to forge a remarkable degree of consensus regarding the best possible recommendation to the Board given the information available.

As the Sun-Gazette previously reported: “The task force included representation from four adjacent civic associations — Old Dominion, Yorktown, Donaldson Run and Rock Spring — plus representatives from a number of government advisory commissions. Marymount also was represented on the panel, as was St. Mary’s Episcopal Church.”

County staff attempted to make a case that a substantially increased percentage of the acreage on the site should be paved over and devoted to vehicle parking and staging areas to support snow removal equipment (roughly 100 new parking spaces) and the existing leaf storage operations. But when challenged to present operating and other data to justify why it was necessary to expand snow operations, staff failed to provide sufficient data.

Most important lessons learned

The public cares deeply: instead of simply saying NIMBY, most neighbors came together and said essentially, “if in the future you can compile the necessary operating data to make your case, here is our recommended plan for how the site should be re-configured to support those operations.”

Dozens of members of nearby civic associations joined the discussion, providing creative options that included: arranging to park on nearby paved areas; using existing changing facilities nearby, such as Langston; looking at jurisdictions that stopped mulching leaves in an expensive, energy-intensive way; and exploring other systems of loading salt. Others asked why the shift-change facility needed to be co-located with salt storage?

The positions taken by County staff lack supporting data: staff was unable to provide data concerning the number of snow events/year across time, or what volumes/quantities of road salt or brine they distribute. Other jurisdictions, such as Maryland, measure the number of salt/mile of road/inch of snow, work to reduce dependency on salt (vital because of salt’s toxicity), and accordingly demonstrate percentage reductions in salt use annually.

The County should begin to measure all critical aspects of the “problem” to develop meaningful data to drive management decisions. The County should develop similar metrics for the leaf collection and mulching process. How much is “free” mulch costing its residents?

Conclusion

In our rapidly developing County, proposed changes in the uses of land all come with direct and opportunity costs and must be justified by data that backs up proposed changes.

Despite this site being on a precipitous hill, at the edge of a Resource Protection Area, and at the trailhead of Donaldson Run, County staff too often talk about massive soil disturbance as though it comes at no cost — even in the face of tree removal and other proven environmental damage.

County staff is too narrowly focused on short-term construction of facilities without considering medium- and long-term impacts on erosion, water quality, air quality, flooding, or mitigation of climate change. The County is being paved over at an unsustainable rate, and flooding is a severe problem. Shared use of existing paved areas needs to be a priority.

Peter Rousselot previously served as Chair of the Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission (FAAC) to the Arlington County Board and as Co-Chair of the Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI) to the Arlington School Board. He is also a former Chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) and a former member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Party of Virginia (DPVA). He currently serves as a board member of the Together Virginia PAC-a political action committee dedicated to identifying, helping and advising Democratic candidates in rural Virginia.

Pet of the Week: Huxley

By ARLnow.com
1/2

Today we dub 10-year-old boxer Lab mix Huxley as the Arlington pet of the week.

Here’s how Huxley’s owner Lyndsey described the rescue pup:

We wanted a lazy, friendly dog and that’s just what we got in Huxley.  While his snaggle tooth
can be scary, he is sweet as the day is long.  He weighs around
100lbs, sleeps 20 hours a day and is friendly to everyone he meets,
except the Amazon delivery guy.

Life has changed a lot for Huxley over these 10 years.  Early on he
was an adventurer – swallowing a razor blade as a curious puppy and
battling rattlesnake near Skyline Drive.  Now he is dog-brother to
three wild kids, age five and under.  The responsibility has grayed
his fur, but he maintains a spring in his step while perusing his
hobbies of chasing rabbits in the backyard.  He exhibits great
patience each morning while waiting for our three-year old to
sloooooowly scoop his dog food.  For this, and many more reasons, he
deserves to be Pet of the Week!  We love you Hux!

Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with a 2-3 paragraph bio and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos of your pet. Please don’t send vertical photos, they don’t fit in our photo galleries!

Each week’s winner receives a sample of dog or cat treats from our sponsor, Becky’s Pet Care, along with $100 in Becky’s Bucks. Becky’s Pet Care is the winner of six consecutive Angie’s List Super Service Awards, the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters’ 2013 Business of the Year and a proud supporter of the Arlington County Pawsitively Prepared Campaign.

Becky’s Pet Care provides professional dog walking and pet sitting in Arlington and all of Northern Virginia, as well as PetPrep training courses for Pet Care, CPR and emergency preparedness.

The Right Note: Inspired by AOC?

By Mark Kelly

The Right Note is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ARLnow.com.

Last year Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated a generally well-liked incumbent with a wealth of seniority and influence in a heavily Democrat Congressional district in New York City. She did it despite being outspent somewhere in the range of 18 to 1. It shocked the media and so-called political establishment.

It also inspired other candidates to forego “waiting their turn” to run for office. This year four sitting Democrats in Arlington are facing intraparty challenges for the nomination to their party’s ballot slot in November. It would not be surprising to see a similar challenge in next year’s 8th Congressional District race as well.

While AOC’s success may be inspiring, it did something that hurts long-shot challengers this year. It eliminated the element of surprise. Seeing such a high profile upset, incumbents generally become sufficiently scared to take these challenges seriously.

Thus far, two of the races stick out based on the only metric we have available to us: campaign finances. Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has raised nearly $108,000 in her race against Theo Stamos for Commonwealth Attorney. However, Stamos holds a $50,000 plus cash on hand advantage.

The school board race between Reid Goldstein and David Priddy is also financially competitive, but only because both candidates reported anemic fundraising. Neither candidate has even $10,000 available to spend as of March 31st.

Surprises could happen, but the safe bet so far is on incumbents to win.

As for election season more broadly in Virginia, it appears as though Democrats looking to take control of the General Assembly may not be able to count on big financial support from their three statewide officeholders. According to the most recent fundraising reports, money has dried up considerably after scandals rocked the Democrats in Richmond. For a visual, check out the Virginia Public Access Project.

The fallout is not limited to fundraising. Governor Northam’s office announced yesterdaythat he is backing out of his scheduled speech for the Virginia Military Institute commencement this spring.

Finally, we are one week away from the County Board’s approval of next year’s budget, including what is almost certain to be a sizeable tax hike and multiple fee increases.

Also of note on the packed April meeting agenda:

  • $11.5 million subsidyto keep the Drug Enforcement Agency offices in Arlington.
  • Pay raises for county staff. The Board report for this item is currently unavailable, so we do not yet know what the raises will be.
  • Advertising public hearingson the modification of accessory dwelling unit (ADU) regulations.
  • Renaming the portion of Route 1 in Arlington from Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway.

Mark Kelly is a 19-year Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

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