After former president Donald Trump’s record-setting win at the Iowa caucuses, all eyes are on New Hampshire to see if his remaining major opponent, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, can make it a competitive race.
While Trump consolidates support within the party, the Never-Trump faction of the GOP is rallying around Haley. And they might also be secretly hoping to get some help from across the aisle.
Virginia is among a number of states that hold an open primary, meaning that Democrats can vote in the Republican party and vice-versa.
“Virginia is an open primary state meaning that voters do not register by political party,” notes the Arlington County elections website. “Any registered voter is eligible to vote in any primary election. If both the Democratic and Republican parties hold primaries on the same day, voters must choose which party ballot they wish to vote, per Virginia Code § 24.2-530.”
The Democratic race, meanwhile, remains moribund, with challengers to President Biden mostly polling in the single-digits. A non-competitive Democratic race may — in theory, at least — drive a few more voters over to the more dynamic GOP primary, particularly Dems dead set against another Trump presidency.
So whether you vote on Super Tuesday, March 5, or vote early — in-person early voting started Jan. 19 in Arlington and ballot drop boxes opened yesterday — this morning we’re wondering which primary are you planning on voting in?
A whiteboard depicts the threshold for being the Democratic nominee for the Arlington County Board (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A spreadsheet on display when votes for Arlington County Board were tabulated on Friday, June 23, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Ranked-choice voting could soon become the default for Arlington County Board primaries in Arlington.
This weekend, the County Board is set to approve the voting method, in which residents rank candidates in order of preference. If approved, next year — when one County Board seat is up for grabs — participants in the June primary will fight to secure a 51% threshold to secure a nomination.
Voters got a taste of the voting method during the County Board primary this June, which featured a full slate of candidates jockeying for one of two nominations from Arlington Democrats. The nominees, Susan Cunningham and Maureen Coffey, were the first to secure 34% thresholds after six run-off rounds that eliminated bottom vote-getters.
In an election seen as a referendum on the Missing Middle zoning policies, local elections buffs pointed to the results as proof ranked-choice voting, or RCV, could better reflect a divided electorate, with Cunningham more opposed to it than Coffey, though both had criticism of its roll-out. Both women went on to win their campaigns this November and will be sworn in next month.
Still, County Board members were not totally on board. A month after the primary, after praising Arlington’s Dept. of Elections for how it handled the roll-out, Board members punted on adopting it for the general election. They expressed concerns about how votes are counted when two seats are up and the quality of outreach to voters about the new system, particularly people of color, renters and young people.
The County Board ultimately decided to adopt ranked-choice voting for County Board primaries only. This was an unpopular opinion among the 2,278 people who shared their thoughts on RCV with the county.
Only 7% said it should be reserved for primaries, compared to 47% who said it should be implemented in every election and 32% who said no elections should use the method.
Overall, most county survey respondents — about 70% — said their experience with RCV was either “positive,” “exceptional” or “fair,” while 29% said it was “negative.” About 75% reported having heard about it and being familiar with how it worked, and those who did report familiarity overwhelmingly said they learned about it through the news.
(An unscientific ARLnow poll found that 75% of readers reported not being confused by RCV.)
Making the change will cost $2 million, as the county intends to buy new ballot machines that allow voters to rank more than the three choices they can rank today. The current machines will be used in the the June 2024 County Board primary but will be switched out in the 2025 fiscal year.
Should the County Board decide to use ranked-choice voting for a general election, it must formally adopt its use at least 90 days before the election.
People watch the results of the ranked-choice tabulation on Friday, June 23, 2023 in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A whiteboard depicts the threshold for being the Democratic nominee for the Arlington County Board (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A spreadsheet on display when votes for Arlington County Board were tabulated on Friday, June 23, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Outside the room where tabulation happened at Arlington County headquarters in Courthouse on Friday, June 23 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington County Manager Mark Schwartz, County Board member Takis Karantonis and others at county headquarters when tabulation took place Friday, June 23 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington County Director of Elections Gretchen Reinemeyer explains the tabulation process for ranked-choice voting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Voting on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 in Arlington at Walter Reed Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Susan Cunningham on primary day (courtesy Susan Cunningham)
(Updated at 9:40 a.m. on 6/26/23) The ballots have all been counted and the results are finalized: Maureen Coffey and Susan Cunningham are the Democratic nominees for the Arlington County Board.
The results, released at 3:15 p.m. today (Saturday), culminated Arlington’s trial run of ranked-choice voting method. Eyes across the state were reportedly on Arlington, which the state legislature allowed to use the process for County Board elections one year before extending the right to the rest of the Commonwealth.
At noon today, Arlington election officials adjudicated the remaining 135 provisional ballots and began tabulating them around 1 p.m. These ballots were not expected to change the outcome of the tabulation yesterday (Friday), when officials processed ballots from early voting, primary day voting, and mail-in ballots.
On Tuesday’s primary day, no candidate in the six-way race crossed the threshold with only the first round of votes counted. Arlington waited until all the ballots were in, save provisional ballots, before eliminating lower vote-getters and tallying second- and third-place rankings.
Coffey, a researcher for the think tank American Progress, appears to have captured votes from many millennial renters like herself, receiving 10,786 votes.
Cunningham, who ran an unsuccessful bid for Arlington County Board as an independent in 2020, received 14,208 votes, initially carried by several precincts north of Langston Blvd.
Arlington County Board Democratic Primary Round 1 votes by precinct (by Jo DeVoe)
Coffey emerged victorious in the fourth round, after Jonathan Dromgoole, Tony Weaver and Julius “JD” Spain were eliminated, in that order. Cunningham crossed the victory threshold in round six, after Natalie Roy was eliminated.
How the ranking rounds played out for Arlington County Board (via Virginia Dept. of Elections)
Tabulation yesterday and today at county government headquarters was open to the public as was the certification of the results.
Both Coffey and Cunningham were both present on Friday. Coffey observed the vibe in the tabulation room was upbeat, complimenting Director of Elections Gretchen Reinemeyer for walking through every step, even though it seemed boring and technical.
“But as we waited for each step to happen, people were joking and laughing and being silly with it,” she said. “I think it’s reflective, Arlington County has some really good people.”
After the preliminary results were finalized on Friday, Coffey seemed stunned.
“This is so surreal,” she said. “This is wild.”
Cunningham was similarly upbeat.
“I am just excited at the prospect of serving our community next January,” Cunningham told ARLnow shortly after the tabulation. “I’m ready to take a true deep breath and I’m really proud of our candidates and the community for having a good and clean race.”
A man inserts a ballot into a voting machine at Walter Reed Community Center on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Democratic primary watch party at William Jeffrey’s Tavern (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
An election official measures the distance that campaigners can stand near the Central Library polling place (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Voting on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 in Arlington at Walter Reed Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
County Board candidate JD Spain at the election watch party in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
When polls closed at Thomas Jefferson Community Center (courtesy Susan Cunningham)
Susan Cunningham on primary day (courtesy Susan Cunningham)
Candidate signs outside of the Madison Community Center (staff photo)
Arlingtonians could have an update on the results of the Arlington County Board Democratic primary as soon as this afternoon, according to the local elections office.
“We will be accepting about 500 mail and provisional ballots today and results will be uploaded throughout the afternoon,” says spokeswoman Tania Griffin. “We’ll also have an update regarding the [ranked-choice voting] tabulation later this afternoon as well.”
For the first time, Arlington voters used a ranked-choice system to pick their top candidates for the County Board, which has two open seats this year. The outcome will come down to who voters ranked second and third place.
It is a squeaker so far for Susan Cunningham, Natalie Roy, Maureen Coffey and Julius “J.D.” Spain, whose tally of first-choice votes are within a range of only 5 percentage points from most to least.
“This race is still wide open,” said Liz White, the executive director of UpVote Virginia, which has been educating residents about ranked-choice voting ahead of the primary.
“Four out of the six candidates could very well secure a win once subsequent rounds are tabulated,” she said in an email. “Round-by-round tabulation will occur as soon as all provisional and mail ballots are processed. Once all votes are processed, the tabulation is instantaneous.”
How Arlington County Board candidates ended Tuesday night with Round 1 votes in (via Virginia Dept. of Elections)
No candidate crossed the threshold for early victory: 33.3% of the first-choice votes, plus one vote. The next step will be eliminating the lowest vote getters, in order. Who people picked after first ranking Jonathan Dromgoole and Tony Weaver could get any of the four other candidates past the finish line.
Cunningham, who took the lead in the first round of votes, tells ARLnow she has made peace with whatever happens next. Coffey, who currently sits in third place, says she is “on pins and needles” waiting for the results.
Political consultant Ben Tribbett is placing his bets that those who ranked Dromgoole first likely ranked Coffey or Spain next.
“When you get to the actual ranking of candidates, I think the third and fourth-place candidates are going to go on to win the election,” Tribbett said. “I would expect in that first round, that Maureen is going to win. There’s a chance Susan Cunningham could hold off J.D. in the second round.”
On Tuesday, County Board member Takis Karantonis — who endorsed Coffey and Spain — said Coffey performed well on a per campaign dollar spent basis. Meanwhile Spain, who had racked up several endorsements and raised substantial funds, underperformed, which he called a “sobering result.”
Looking precinct by precinct, it is clear that each of the candidates had a base. The more urban places with younger voters went for Coffey, while single-family home enclaves went for Cunningham and Roy, who were most critical of the zoning changes known as Missing Middle.
Arlington County Board Democratic Primary Round 1 votes by precinct (by Jo DeVoe)
Spain told ARLnow on Tuesday night that he enjoyed strong support in his neighborhood, Penrose, while noting more confrontations with upset voters above Langston Blvd.
“We won the most diverse precincts in Arlington,” he said. “[I’m] proud of that.”
Tribbett was more blunt about what he saw as the electoral dynamic, citing the geographic distribution of votes in the Commonwealth’s Attorney race in particular.
“It’s the Karens versus the non-Karens,” he said. “Clearly, there’s a divide in the community that jumps out at you.”
Arlington Sheriff candidate Jose Quiroz, Jr. greets Arlington County Board member Takis Karantonis at the Walter Reed Community Center on Tuesday (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
After taking the helm for longtime Arlington County Sheriff Beth Arthur, who retired at the end of 2022, Acting Sheriff Jose Quiroz is one step closer to taking charge permanently.
Quiroz — backed by four of five County Board members and several elected officials — won the Democratic primary Tuesday night. Following his victory, over former sheriff deputy Wanda Younger and Arlington County police corporal James Herring, Quiroz advances to the November general election.
No one has emerged as an outside challenger, according to the Arlington Dept. of Elections website. If elected as expected, Quiroz will be the county’s first Latino sheriff.
As of last night, the acting sheriff had nearly 40% of the vote, or 10,733 ballots. Younger was close behind him, with 1,600 fewer votes (~34%). Herring came in third, picking up nearly 7,200 votes.
Arlington County Sheriff results (via Virginia Dept. of Elections)
Looking forward, the acting sheriff says he will focus on mental health, substance use and programming for jail inmates. Running the local jail is the primary responsibility of the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office, along with providing court security and some law enforcement and civil process duties beyond the justice complex in Courthouse.
“I think the biggest thing is mental health. We all have that and all go through it, but some people need a little more care, attention, resources and services,” Quiroz told ARLnow. “I think the county has some work to do in that area.”
He stressed that he can only control treatment of inmates, not change the waves of people with mental illnesses and addictions coming to the jail. To that end, he says new biometric sensors — which inmates will wear so issues like withdrawal symptoms can be spotted before more inmates die — are close to go-time.
Meanwhile, he intends to maintain existing programs, including a series that teaches men how to connect with and be fathers to their kids.
“That’s how you break the cycle of the next generation,” he said. “It’s important to me as a father.”
He says he is thinking “outside the box” about support, stepping up pet therapy and possibly adding a pickleball court for staff and inmates.
In their concessions, Herring and Younger both said they campaigned on bringing to light problems in the jail.
“My campaign was about highlighting the issues and showing people the number of solutions we have available to us if we stop relying on the trope of ‘that’s the way it has always been done,’ or ‘it costs too much,'” Herring said. “Other Sheriff’s Offices in Virginia have implemented much of what I was talking about, often with smaller budgets. The problems facing our Sheriff’s Office are not financially driven, but an issue of priority.”
Next week, Herring will once more be patrolling the streets. He said he would run again if the problems he stressed in his campaign remain four years from now.
On social media, Younger said she is “proud to have raised the bar of the Sheriff’s Office with our ideas & solution-sets and to have brought light to the prevalent issues of the Arlington Sheriff’s Office which inhibit [its] growth and greatness.”
She also thanked voters for their confidence in her ability to carry out her platform.
“The Wanda for Sheriff team will continue to advance the rights and voice of the detainees, Sheriff’s Office staff and our Arlington community in the future as community advocates and caretakers, and we are honored to have earned your trust,” she said.
Our latest morning poll is, admittedly, a bit niche.
Only 16% or so of Arlington registered voters cast a ballot in yesterday’s Democratic primary. Beyond the closely watched Commonwealth’s Attorney race, the primary was notable for being the first locally to utilize ranked choice voting, for the six-way County Board race.
Depending on which news article you were reading yesterday, voters were either flummoxed by the concept of RCV or thought it no big deal to fill in bubbles for their first, second and third choices of candidate.
“Virginia’s first ranked-choice election is vexing some Arlington voters,” said a Washington Post headline. The article went on to report that “Advocates for ranked-choice voting have cheered this pilot initiative, saying it will lead to results that better reflect the will of the electorate. But there seems to be one hiccup so far: Not many people understand how it works.”
WTOP talked to a voter who had trouble casting a valid ballot, but was able to fix it.
“Some found the ranked-choice voting system to be simple, while others encountered issues initially,” the radio station reported. “‘I did find it confusing, and in fact, on my first try, my ballot was rejected,’ Carol Davidson told WTOP, adding that she was eventually able to cast her vote.”
On the other hand, Virginia Mercury, a statewide outlet that’s part of a left-of-center nonprofit, said RCV voting in Arlington was “mostly smooth.”
“Many Arlington Democratic voters spoke positively about the ranked-choice voting system being pioneered this Primary Day for two county board of supervisors seats, although some said more education would have been helpful,” the outlet reported. “‘It was pretty easy,’ said Andrea Hansen, a resident who cast a ballot at the Westover precinct. ‘I think it gives the impression of more of an equal playing field and it encourages people to read up more on the candidates.'”
Either way, Arlington County is now asking for feedback on RCV, seeking voters who want to “share their opinions on and experiences with RCV in Arlington.”
We also want to know how ranked choice went, if you cast a ballot in the Democratic primary. Did it all make sense or did something about it confuse you?
All the while, Arlington awaits the results of the County Board voting: final tabulation to determine the Democratic nominees for the two open seats can take place no earlier than Friday, when the last of the legal mail-in ballots arrive.
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti at her election watch party in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Josh Katcher at his watch party in Westover, after conceding the race (staff photo)
County Board candidate JD Spain at the election watch party in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington Sheriff candidate Jose Quiroz greets County Board member Takis Karantonis at the Walter Reed Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Voting on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 in Arlington at Walter Reed Community Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A man inserts a ballot into a voting machine at Walter Reed Community Center on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Voting underway at Swanson middle school in Westover (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Voting underway in Arlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Parisa Dehghani-Tafti at her election watch party in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Commonwealth’s Attorney incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has defeated challenger Josh Katcher in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Dehghani-Tafti has 56% of the vote to 44% for Katcher, her former deputy, in the heated race for the top prosecutor of Arlington and Falls Church. That’s as of 8:40 p.m., with all but a few hundred provisional and late-arriving mailed ballots counted in Arlington. Polls closed at 7 p.m.
Katcher, standing outside of his watch party at Lost Dog Cafe in Westover, called Dehghani-Tafti shortly before 8:50 p.m. to concede the race.
The contentious — and expensive — contest has been seen as something of a referendum on the incumbent’s brand of vocal justice reform advocacy. Katcher, while billing himself as also in favor of justice reform, put a spotlight on Dehghani-Tafti’s leadership, which he linked to departures of deputy prosecutors amid a reported rise in crime.
“Right now we’re going to celebrate what we were able to accomplish with this campaign and thank the volunteers,” Katcher told ARLnow before heading back into his event.
“Over the course of the last six months, we’ve had an important debate in our community over the future of criminal justice reform,” he said in a subsequent written statement. “Our team left it all on the field, as we sought to have a debate about what real reform and real justice could mean for our community… I stand ready to continue my commitment to this community, to its safety and to the goal of ensuring that we are balancing the need for both justice and compassion.”
Dehghani-Tafti also thanked her supporters. Gesturing to the crowd gathered at her event at Fire Works Pizza in Courthouse (held with County Board candidate JD Spain) she said those present reflect a tiny fraction of the people who donated, volunteered, “held my hand,” and knocked on doors.
“A campaign based on love, dignity and respect prevailed,” she said. “I’m grateful for the trust everybody has placed in me.”
In the other two closely watched local races, for County Board and Sheriff, leads were slim.
The three-way county sheriff race has Jose Quiroz with a widening lead compared to earlier in the night, with 40% to 34% for former deputy sheriff Wanda Younger and 27% for Arlington police corporal James Herring.
Quiroz was appointed Acting Sheriff after the departure of long-time Sheriff Beth Arthur earlier this year. The position is primarily responsible for running the county jail in Courthouse, with the Sheriff’s Office also handling court security, civil process serving, and some law and traffic enforcement responsibilities.
The Arlington County Board primary, meanwhile, is being conducted for the first time using ranked choice voting, which means final tabulation will not take place until Friday at the earliest. Results of “first choice” votes are being posted, however, showing Susan Cunningham with 25%, Natalie Roy with 24%, Maureen Coffey with 22%, and JD Spain with 20%.
That includes 7% who voted early or by mail and 2% voting at the polls Tuesday morning, according to Arlington County election officials.
Today’s primary, for the first time in Arlington, features the use of ranked choice voting, for the six-way race for the two open Arlington County Board seats. Voters are asked to fill in the bubble for up to three candidates, in order of priority — one each for first, second and third choice.
The County Board race has seen a wide range of endorsements and one particularly divisive issue dividing candidate factions: the recently-passed Missing Middle housing ordinance allowing smaller-scale multifamily homes in neighborhoods previously zoned only for single-family detached houses.
The other closely watched race today is that for Arlington and Falls Church’s top prosecutor, between incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and her former deputy, Josh Katcher.
The incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney has continued to campaign — and raise significant campaign funding — on her national profile as a justice reformer. Katcher says he supports a more practical and effective implementation of justice reform, and has picked up an endorsement from the local police union amid a rise in crime, according to recent police statistics.
The race has also seen Katcher face somecriticism for taking campaign contributions from Republicans.
Additional races include a three-way race for county Sheriff, a two-way race for State Senate (40th District), and a race for House of Delegates (2nd District) featuring one active candidate, Adele McClure, and Kevin Saucedo-Broach, who withdrew but remains on ballots.
Though turnout today is light compared to years in which federal races are on the primary ballot, it is in line with the last four-year cycle, in 2019, when Dehghani-Tafti defeated incumbent Theo Stamos for Commonwealth’s Attorney. Total voter turnout in that race was just under 17%.
Polls opened today at 6 a.m. and will close at 7 p.m.
While the results of most races should be known within a few hours, the final tally for County Board will take a few days — potentially extending into the weekend — due to how ranked choice votes are tabulated, including the need to wait until all legal mailed-in ballots are received
Voting in Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Just a few days remain to vote in the Arlington County Democratic primary.
Voters can cast their ballots early and in-person today (Friday) and tomorrow — or they can hit the polls on Tuesday.
This year, for the first time, residents are using ranked-choice voting to determine which Arlington County Board candidates will run with a (D) next to their names in the November general election. The format for every other primary contest is unchanged.
This article explains how to vote, how your vote is counted and why full results may come next weekend. At the minimum, this is what you should know:
Anyone registered to vote, regardless of party, can participate in the primary.
You can rank up to three of the six County Board candidates. You can only rank one or two if you want.
Only two candidates will get the nomination.
Only mark one oval per column and ask for assistance if you need help.
Filling out your ballot
Need a visual? This Arlington County flier provides step-by-step instructions:
Ranked-choice voting flier (via Arlington County)
The scanner will reject ballots that look as follows.
“Voters have the option to mark a new ballot or cast their ballot with the errors,” Arlington Dept. of Elections Director Gretchen Reinemeyer says. “A vast majority choose to spoil their original ballot and mark a new ballot.”
If you mailed in a ballot with errors, it will be reviewed.
“Their ballots are scanned after they are separated from the voter’s name to preserve voter privacy,” Reinemeyer says. “These ballots are held until election day and will be adjudicated by teams of election officers to determine voter intent.”
The rate of spoiled ballots so far this primary season is a little higher than normal, but still small, she noted. Final stats on spoiled ballots will be published after the election.
How are the winners picked?
Liz White, the executive director of UpVote Virginia, tells ARLnow she used this analogy to explain tabulation when her organization educated Arlingtonians on ranked-choice voting.
You have $1 to spend to elect someone. Everyone pays their first pick $1 and whoever gets the least amount of money is eliminated.
A candidate who wins by a large margin does not need the full $1 — just, for instance, 70 cents. Your second pick gets 30 cents.
If your first-place candidate is eliminated, your second-place pick gets your full $1. Everyone has a whole vote: for some, it is split among two and for others, it supports the second-place pick.
Armed with this knowledge, White says do not get too strategic.
“One of the nice things is that voters don’t have to be pundits,” she said. “They can truly say, ‘If I don’t have this one candidate, I want to have this one.'”
Several cars flooded at 11th Street N. and N. Kennebec Street
Flooding along 14th Street N. near Westover (courtesy of Nicole Bender)
Lot-to-lot flooding across properties in Arlington County (courtesy Arlington County Department of Environmental Services)
This spring, Arlington County began buying up properties in the Waverly Hills area to combat flooding.
Already, despite some concerns about how the program would work, three residents have agreedto sell their homes. The county will tear them down and replant the land so water has a place to flow during large rain storms.
All seven Arlington County Board candidates — six of whom are vying for the support of the local Democratic party this primary — say the county needs to change its land-use policies and get more people on board with adding stormwater infrastructure in their backyards, in order to make neighborhoods more resilient to a predicted increase in flooding.
“[It] highlighted that, not only because of climate change but really because of lack of long-range planning, we have very outdated stormwater management systems that we don’t have a budget to improve,” she continued. “We do have a lot of catch up to do.”
Since the floods, Arlington County has taken steps to manage stormwater beyond buying homes for flood relief.
Starting next year, Arlington will fund its stormwater management plan with a stormwater utility fee. The county will charge property owners a rate based on how much of their property is covered in hard surfaces, like roofs and driveways. (Currently, it is funded by a tax based on property assessments.)
Developers of single-family homes report higher construction costs due to retention regulations. Bonds and the new stormwater utility fee, meanwhile, could spell higher taxes for residents.
So, in this race, some candidates say the county should examine how its own policies encourage flooding before requiring more of residents.
Cunningham and Natalie Roy, both of whom have opposed the recently adopted Missing Middle zoning changes, that starts with reducing the allowable buildable area that homes can occupy on a lot.
“This is something that we should’ve done 10 years ago and definitely something we should have done before approving the misguided [Missing Middle] plan,” Roy said.
Perennial independent candidate Audrey Clement said she would call for the repeal of Missing Middle, linking the new policy to tree loss and thus, increased flooding.
She said she would also end a practice among developers to subdivide lots to circumvent state environmental ordinances preventing construction near protected land along Arlington streams called “resource protection areas,” or RPAs.
“It was by this sleight of hand that the county permitted a tear-down McMansion in a North Arlington RPA in 2018 but also the destruction of a 100-foot state champion redwood on the same lot,” she said.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti and her challenger, Josh Katcher (photo illustration by ARLnow)
(Updated at 12:10 p.m.) Arlington’s police union is endorsing challenger Josh Katcher in the race for Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Katcher is running against incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti in the Democratic primary to determine who has the local party’s nomination to run this fall.
Dehghani-Tafti campaigned on criminal justice reform and won her first term in 2019, after beating Theo Stamos, for whom Katcher previously worked (he also worked for Dehghani-Tafti before leaving the office).
The incumbent has focused her re-election campaign on the reforms she has made, such as ending cash bail, a requirement that defense attorneys hand copy all the prosecutor’s files about their criminal case, and prosecution for marijuana possession. She has endorsements of several current and former state legislators and members of the Arlington County Board and School Board and the Washington Post.
Katcher has focused on allegations of rising crime, staffing issues within the top prosecutor’s office and crime victims who say they were not respected. He picked up the endorsement from Arlington Coalition of Police (ACOP) because, the organization says, the current relationship between local police and the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney is crumbling.
“ACOP has spent the last 7 months attempting to stay out of the Commonwealth Attorney’s race,” it said in a press release. “We understood that whoever won, officers would still need to have a working relationship with the winner. Although that current working relationship is extremely poor, we worried that any statement would make the relationship even worse.”
The organization says it was reluctant to speak up until now — with less than a month before the primary on June 20 — but wants to correct the record about statements Dehghani-Tafti has made on the campaign trail.
In a recent Arlington County Civic Federation debate, the current Commonwealth’s Attorney said her office has a “healthy” relationship with officers and that prosecution rates are down because police are apprehending fewer people.
ACOP says this “could not be any further from the truth” and it “cannot sit by idly while she intentionally misleads the public.”
It listed some of the issues officers say they have with how the top prosecutor’s office currently runs:
On almost a daily basis, members of ACOP email their union representatives with complaints about Ms. Tafti’s office. The most common recurring complaints are about a lack of preparation from the prosecutors, subpoenas not being issued in a timely manner (sometimes never being issued at all), a case getting dismissed without ever contacting the arresting officer, DUIs being plead down to reckless driving with no explanation, subsequent DUIs being plead down to first offenses, and a general lack of communication about cases and outcomes.
Citing felony arrest and indictment data, it countered a claim she made in the debate that police are apprehending fewer people. ACOP says the number of arrests is “the highest it has been for at least six years,” if marijuana possession arrests are removed.
“Felony arrests in Arlington County have remained relatively consistent with the exception of 2020 during Covid,” the release said. “What has not remained consistent is the percentage of felonies that were indicted by the Commonwealth Attorney.”
Arrests by Arlington County Police Department (via Arlington Coalition of Police)
In the 2019 fiscal year — the year before Dehghani-Tafti took office — approximately 41% of felony arrests were indicted to Arlington County Circuit Court, compared to 15% in 2022, ACOP says, citing recent budget materials.
Dehghani-Tafti provided data the state collected from Arlington indicating a steady decline in arrests made since 2012. while a sharp uptick in simple assaults — from 721 in 2018 to 1,146 in 2021 — may explain an uptick in offenses.
Arrests versus offenses in Arlington through 2021 (courtesy Parisa Dehghani-Tafti)
Meanwhile, a sharp uptick in simple assaults — from 721 in 2018 to 1,146 in 2021 — may explain an uptick in offenses.
Simple assaults appear to be on the rise (courtesy Parisa Dehghani-Tafti)
As for indictments, Dehghani-Tafti told ARLnow these are lower because her office is not hitting defendants with several charges related to one criminal incident, a tactic she says prosecutors can employ to force defendants to plead guilty and not go to trial.
“It’s our policy to not stack charges and over charge,” she recently told ARLnow. “We’re not afraid to go to trial and check our evidence with fair and reasonable charges. When we go to trial, we win more than the prior administration.”
Between 2020 and 2022, prosecutors in her office obtained guilty verdicts on cases with one or more charges 75% of the time compared to 64% under Stamos, she said. Guilty verdict for the most serious charges brought forward, across all misdemeanors and felonies tried, was 72% between 2020-22, up from 57% from 2015 to 2019.
The ratio of felony cases that are indicted (via Arlington Coalition of Police)
(The chart, also provided by ACOP, does not include data for 2017 or 2018. ACOP said it could not find publicly available data for those years. ARLnow also could not immediately find data from those years in budget documents.)
ACOP said it has worked with Katcher for the last decade and see him as “experienced and competent.”
“Josh will be able to lead the office through his experience and mold the attorneys in the office into skilled litigators,” the organization said. “Most importantly, we know Josh will get the relationship between ACPD and the CWA office back on track to where prosecutions are a collaborative effort between the two departments.”
