Democrats Sweep Local Races

By David Schultz/The Connection
Wednesday, November 05, 2008

AS EXPECTED, Arlington Democrats retained the two School Board seats and the one County Board seat that was up for grabs in yesterday’s election. County Board Member Barbara Favola, an 11-year incumbent, won another four-year term last night over Green Party Candidate John Reeder. Favola won in all of Arlington’s 51 precincts, receiving 69,250 votes or 75 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results from the State Board of Elections. Reeder received 21,503 votes or 23 percent of the vote. The Republican Party did not nominate a candidate in this race.
Favola said that she secured her landslide victory by emphasizing the past accomplishments of the County Board. “My overall strategy was to run on my record,” she said. “I think [this election] was a very positive referendum. [Voters] basically said yes to the direction we’re taking the county. They said yes to the fiscal management of the county and they said yes to our vision.”

Favola described her campaign against Reeder as “spirited,” but said that he “did not have a cogent message and that was unfortunate. I would much rather have a win against somebody with a very cogent message and a detailed platform.” However, Favola also said that she will work with Green Party members in the future and would be open to appointing them to citizen commissions.

Reeder said that the presence of President Elect Barack Obama (D) on the ballot this year made it difficult for his campaign to win over Democrats. “We have a lot of Democratic supporters but they had become wrapped up with Obama’s campaign,” he said. “We couldn’t get any traction.”

Reeder also said that he wishes he had been more aggressive against Favola in the campaign and said that he thought “she kind of coasted. I think she relied on the Obama effect to carry her. I know there’s a lot of unhappiness with the County government.”

Despite a steady rain throughout the afternoon and evening, turnout was high this year. Seventy four percent of the county’s total voters and 77 percent of its active voters came to the polls to cast ballots. But of the 109,927 Arlington voters who showed up to the polls or voted absentee in this year’s election, 16 percent did not choose a candidate in the County Board race and 34 percent made no choice in the School Board race.
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=321806&paper=60&cat=104

My response:
Favola’s claim that the Reeder campaign had no cogent message is ridiculous on its face: she evidently never bothered to read this webpage and my platform. My platform focused on four areas:
l. eliminating wasteful county spending on white elephant projects of dubious value–the Columbia Pike trolley (price tag of $130 million or more), and the North Tract/Long Bridge aquatics/recreation site (cost of over $100 million).
2. improving the environmental programs in the county, particularly recycling and energy conservation
3. reforming housing programs in the county, namely funding a housing authority, and finally
4. involving county residents who are not hard-core machine Democrats in their own county government through appointments and encouragement–whether the resident is a Green, an independent, Republican or simpy a non-machine Democrat.

Green candidate John Reeder got 23,000 votes (about 23 percent of the votes cast). The housing authority referendum in Arlington received nearly 33,000 votes (about 33 percent). This is an excellent showing considering that Josh Ruebner got 5% of the votes in 2006, 10% in 2007, and now 23% in 2008. The results can be found on the Arlington County website:
https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/election

The Arlington Green Party is building an alternative vision of our world that is based on ecological wisdom, peace, and social justice. The Reeder campaign was built around these themes of social justice so that people making less than $60,000 a year and those with disabilities can continue to live in our community. And that a program of conservation and recycling be begun in Arlington where rising use of electricity (much of it generated in coal-fired plants), much higher stormwater runoff, and the loss of nearly half of the tree canopy threatens our environment.

I sincerely thank all who supported me and supported our initiative for a housing authority to address the loss of moderate income housing in Arlington.