Vol. 36, No. 12 www.arlingtondemocrats.org December 2011

Many hands made victory

The final Arlington precinctscore is: Dems 468, GOP 0

The score at the end of Election Day in Arling-ton was Dems 468, GOP 0.

Every one of the 14 Democratic candidates wonevery single one of their precincts in Arlington for atotal of 468, while the GOP and other oppositioncandidates won not a single precinct for a singleopposition candidate.

It was the cleanest of clean sweeps.Some might complain, quite legitimately, that

this calculation includes a lot of uncontested raceswhere the Dem candidate couldn’t help but win.That’s true. If we take just the precincts where therewere contested races, the score is then Dems 169,GOP 0—still a clean sweep.

The “worst” outcome for any Democratic can-didate was in traditionally Republican Madison pre-cinct in north Arlington, where Barbara Favola got

“only” 55.6 percent. But given the returns in re-cent years, Madison can no longer be called Re-publican. It is now Democratic, albeit with thesmallest Democratic majority among the county’s52 precincts.

Democrats did quite well all over NorthernVirginia, winning almost all the seats where therewas any nail-biting.

The problem came elsewhere in the state,where Democrats lost a net of two Senate seats andnine House of Delegates seats. That leaves Demo-crats with fewer seats in the House than ever be-fore. In the Senate, that leaves a 20-20 tie withRepublican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling casting the tie-breaking vote and giving the GOP a working ma-jority.

continued on page five

continued on page seven

The ballots have been counted and the cam-paign offices are now quiet. Volunteers can put theirfeet up and their phones down as we give them all afirm round of applause for another very successfulcampaign in Arlington.

The perfect record—winning every precinct inArlington for every one of 14 candidates—was theresult of the efforts of quite literally hundreds ofvolunteers who walked door-to-door to deliver theDemocratic Messenger and to place doorhangers ondoorknobs across the county, who staffed Demo-cratic tables from the County Fair in August to Metrostops the morning of Election Day, who addressedand slapped stamps on envelopes for Dollars forDemocrats, who made a gazillion calls to remindour loyal Democrats that we needed them at the pollsin this quietest year of the four-year campaign cycle,who handed out Sample Ballots at the polls and whodrove voters to the polls.

This massive effort began with the trio of JointCampaign co-chairs, Sally Baird, Alan Howze, andLauren Hall, who extended their thanks to every-one who worked to make the 2011 Joint Campaignwhat Lauren called “the most memorable and fun

in ACDC history.”Also at the top of the campaign effort were the

14 candidates on the ballot. The heart of all cam-paigns is quality candidates—smart, resourceful andhard-working people who earn the respect of vot-ers.

Between the top of the ballot and the feet onthe ground, there are numerous volunteers who putin long hours organizing campaign activities andwho often go largely unsung. So, let us now sing.

Melissa Bondi was critical to the developmentand timely production of the Democratic Messen-ger, grip cards, doorhangers, and Sample Ballot—the key campaign “lit.” Many will remember thequestion constantly asked at the start of the year.Well, the Joint Campaign solved the problem andfound out how to fit 14 candidates on one smallgrip card, photos and all!

Thanks also to Mike Anderson, for hagglingwith local print shops for the best deals, and CarrieJohnson, for determining what doors got the goods,and how. For those who didn’t have a door to knockon, Bob Platt was key to getting absentee ballots to

C

O

N

G

R

A

T

S

T

O

O

U

R

1

4

W

I

N

N

E

R

S

!

ACDC Voice, December 2011, Page 2

Report from Chairman Mike Lieberman

Published monthly by theArlington County Democratic Committee

2009 North 14th Street, Suite #612, Arlington, VA 22201Tel: (703) 528-8588 Fax: (703) 528-2321

http://www.arlingtondemocrats.orgChair: Mike Lieberman —(703) 408-3940 (h), mikelieberman1@gmail.com

Editor-in-Chief: Warren L. Nelson —(703) 243-7867 (h), warnelson@aol.comDeputy Editor: Eric Wiener — (703) 524-6899 (h), wiener_eric@yahoo.com

Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the ACDC unless expressly approved by an appropriate Committee Resolution

Copyright ©2011, ACDC, All Rights Reserved

Jerry Botland

Computer Consulting

Troubleshoot and resolve computer and

computer related problems.

Perform upgrades, set-up wireless routers and print servers.

Transfer old files, address book and emails

from an old computer to a new one.

Phone: (703) 933-0558 — jbotland@msn.com

14 for 14. That was the Arlington Demo-cratic record this Election Day. With 14 raceson the ballot this November – including threecritical contested State Senate races – the Ar-lington Democrats not only won, but carriedeach and every race that came with our ambit.

Indeed, out of the 52 precincts in Arling-ton, only a single precinct dipped below 60%Democratic performance this year, and evenin that precinct, Democrats won handily. Infact, county-wide, Democrats carried morethan 70 percent of the vote for each of theState Senate candidates at the top of our ticket.

And perhaps just as important, in the finalmonths before the election, we were able to sharemany of our volunteers and many of our re-sources with other State Senate races that proveddecisive to the final 20-20 result statewide.

In the final three days before the Elec-tion alone, Arlington Democrats made morethan 40,000 phone calls, hung more than20,000 door knockers, knocked on more than12,000 doors, and staffed 676 hours at poll-ing stations around Arlington. These are re-markable accomplishments in any year, butwe should be particularly proud of this record

Giving thanksin a year when we faced a Republicanheadwind, and we know that other parts ofVirginia were not so fortunate.

In the face of these results, and in thespirit of Thanksgiving, I think it is worth paus-ing to express my sincere thanks for the manyblessings we sometimes take for granted herein Arlington.

I am thankful each and every day to livein a county where we have great schools, highproperty values, low crime, and a progressivemindset that brings creative solutions to prob-lems like mass transit, environmental protec-tion, civil rights, and human services.

I am thankful for elected officials whoshare my progressive values, and are willingto carry those values into difficult territory inRichmond and Washington, and put them intopractice here in Arlington.

I am thankful for the Arlington Democraticcommunity, which provides me not only asource of energy and motivation to work harder,but also some of my best and closest friends.

I am thankful for the opportunity to serveas your chair, and am keenly aware of the re-sponsibility and trust that this position carries.

And most importantly, I am thankful foreach and every one of you. There are manydifferent ways that each of us could spend ourfree time, and I am deeply grateful that youall choose to spend that time working to makeour Democratic Party and our Arlington com-munity better.

As you know, our work in Arlington isnever done, and even as I close this article, Iam preparing to head to a campaign meetingfor next November’s election. But as I dig infor yet another, and perhaps even harder, fightnext year, I do so with the happy knowledgethat when the time comes, our team will bethere, and we will all be in it together.

It’s “reorganization” time. Under stateparty rules, every two years every city andcounty Democratic organization in the statemust “reorganize,” the technical term for hold-ing elections for all local party offices.

This applies to all 118 precinct captainsplus 15 other elective positions up to and in-cluding county chair.

The reorganization—or elections—willtake place at the January ACDC monthlymeeting, Wednesday, January 4.

Those wishing to become (or remain) aprecinct captain need to file a nominationpaper to that effect and to pay a filing fee of$25. The nomination document will shortlybe posted on the ACDC website,www.arlingtondemocrats.org.

Incumbent Chair Mike Lieberman hasannounced that he will run for a second-two-year term.

The Steering Committee posts up forelection are: Chair, Deputy Chair, PrecinctOperations Chair, Treasurer, Finance Chair,Press and Public Relations Chair, three Out-reach and Visibility Co-Chairs, Secretary,Newsletter Editor, Communications Director,Volunteer Coordinator, Sergeant-at-Arms andParliamentarian.

Now it’s time to‘reorganize’—i.e,. elect ourACDC officers

ACDC Voice, December 2011, Page 3

Bumper Sticker of the Month

Next Monthly MeetingAll Dems Invited

Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 7:00 p.m.S

p

e

c

i

a

l

l

o

c

a

t

i

o

n

-

-

j

u

s

t

t

h

i

s

m

o

n

t

h

(

A

G

A

I

N

)

Walter Reed Community Center, 2909 16th Street South(located two blocks east of Glebe Road and

one block east of Walter Reed Drive)

No more stamping envelopes or signing petitions this year!

It’s holiday time and time to celebrate another super elec-

toral outcome all across Arlington, with our annual volun-

teer appreciation party. The party will party at the Walter

Reed Community Center, not at our usual NRECA meeting

spot. Come on out and feel good about doing well.

Dave Wasserman, the director of theCook Political Report covering the House ofRepresentatives, joined the Arlington YoungDemocrats for their November membershipmeeting and talked about Wal-Mart, Starbucksand Cracker Barrel.

Anybody who has seen the “ArlingtonRap” on YouTube knows that if you want tomeet for coffee here you can go to Starbucksor Starbucks or Starbucks or....

However, you dohave to drive quite a bitto get to a Cracker Barreland, while Wal-Mart isnot as far away, it almostseems as though anArlingtonian has thelongest commute to aWal-Mart of anyone inthe country. What does this all

have to do with politics? When Dave’s boss,Charlie Cook, did his analysis on voting trendsin 2004, he noticed that he could accuratelypredict the voting trends of a communitybased on its proximity to a Wal-Mart orStarbucks. If a community was closer to aWal-Mart, voters tended to be Republican and

if a community was closer to Starbucks, vot-ers would go Democratic.

Now, of course, Wal-Mart is planning sixstores in DC where PresidentObama took over 90 percentof the vote. And if you drivethrough the southern parts ofVirginia, you might not havemuch trouble finding aStarbucks nowadays.

Wasserman has nowhelped Charlie Cook write anew analysis based on Cracker Barrel andWhole Foods. Sure enough, Arlington has aWhole Foods but no Cracker Barrel. So youall know that means if you come across aCracker Barrel, you likely won’t find manyDemocrats in the neighborhood.

Wasserman gave an assessment from hisanalysis of where the trends are going for nextyear’s election. He pointed out that the Re-

publicans have many pickupopportunities in the U.S. Sen-ate. He anticipates the Key-stone Pipeline debate willdraw people out in severalnorthern states for Republi-cans because they are moreconcerned about the job cre-ation benefit than the environ-

mental impact.The House of Representatives seems like

a tossup in Wasserman’s view, but still a bitof an uphill battle for Democrats. He pointedout that there was not a significant impact inredistricting because the states that lost andgained seats from population changes areabout evenly divided between red and bluestates.

The most serious issue Democrats haveto deal with is actuallythe enforcement ofthe Voting Rights Act,he said. The require-ment for each state tohave a majority mi-nority district (when itis feasible) createsmore overwhelm-ingly blue districtsand drains Democrats from districts wherethey might otherwise seriously challenge Re-publicans.

The bottom line is we have our work cutout for us—that or we need to convince WholeFoods to build more stores.

Wal-Mart,Starbucks,CrackerBarrel & Us

Donkey EarsListening to the doings

of Arlington’s Dems

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard by

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Mädi

Green Green

Green Green

Green

ACDC Voice, November 2011, Page 4

The party parties: Arlington Dems know how to throw a party befitting the end of asuccessful campaign. Thanks to hostess Nancy Pilchen, chief organizer LaurenHall, and the multitude of veteran and new volunteers who made this year’sGolden Gala so, well, gala. And the Kitchen Krew managed to outdo themselvesdespite the absence of their fearless leader, Jean Marshall Crawford, whosedetailed planning made it all possible. A couple of new items appeared on thisyear’s menu, thanks to newcomer Ric Mayer who proved himself to be pot stickerchef par excellence. The Kitchen Krew also introduced sweet potato fries anddates stuffed with goat cheese. They brought back favorites, like salmon and eggsalad roll ups, beef tenderloin, ham biscuits and meatballs. Hostess Pilchen bakedher own special lemon bars to join the old favorite brownies. This year’s bartend-ers added a special touch by coming dressed for the part, bow ties and all. Itcouldn’t have been done better even at an expensive country club.

Helping others: The Rinker Combo, Lora and Charlie, will be honored two daysapart this month for their separate but very complementary achievements on behalfof the less fortunate. First up in the batter’s box will be Lora, the founder andrecently retired executive director of the Arlington Street People’s AssistanceNetwork (ASPAN). Lora will be feted at ASPAN’s annual gala December 9 at theWashington Golf and Country Club for her years of work for the homeless. Then,after a day of relaxation, Charlie Rinker will be honored December 11 by theAlliance for Housing Solutions for his efforts on behalf of affordable housing. Hewill be given the third annual Ellen M. Bozman Affordable Housing Award at adinner at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington.

Squawking and laying eggs: Ed Fendley left the School Board a few years ago.Now he has a new cause. He’s trying to interest folks in changing a countyordinance so it will be easier for residents to raise chickens and produce their ownfresh eggs. Four years on the School Board taught Fendley a lot about TheArlington Way, so he is proceeding slowly, trying to have conversations withcommunity groups and bat around the pros and cons. He isn’t going to the CountyBoard yet. County ordinance doesn’t ban home hens now. But it restricts them toresidences with one acre of ground, which is somewhat limiting, to say the least, inArlington. The hen issue has come a-clucking in many suburban communities inrecent years, where folks argue that raising food closer to where it is consumedsaves energy, not to mention helping to educate kids and being fresher to the taste.On the other side, folks raise health questions and hold their noses asking, “Haveyou ever cleaned a hen house?”

Flip side: The county parks department has an exhibit of art works from Arlington’ssister city of Aachen, Germany, underway through December 11 at the Artisphere.It is the flip side of an exhibit Arlington sent to Aachen last spring with works byfour Arlingtonians, including Mary Detweiler, who is the West Area chair inPrecinct Ops.

Realism: Senator Mary Margaret Whipple is retiring in a few weeks after 16 yearsin the state Senate. When she went there, transportation for Northern Virginia wasa big issue. As she leaves, transportation for Northern Virginia is an even biggerissue. In a speech recently to the Arlington Chamber of Commerce, Whipple saidit was time for all those in state government to get “realistic” about the issue.

Virginia is more diverse and growingfastest in those parts that lean Democratic —but is also seeing more independently-mindedpeople than ever, former Gov. Tim Kaine toldthe editorial Board of The News Leader ofStaunton while on a campaign swing.

The result, Kaine said, is that neitherparty can count on anything any more andcandidates must work for their votes.

“Virginians don’t register by party,” hesaid, noting that Virginia was among the firstof the half of the states that don’t have partyregistration. “Over the years, campaigning, itseems that the number of people who iden-tify as independent is growing.... People askwhy do I only have to pick a person with thisletter or that letter.”

That’s good news for Virginians, he said,because it means national politicians whowant to make a case for their policies have tocome here. “Neither party can take Virginiafor granted anymore.”

Kaine, running to succeed retiring U.S.Sen. Jim Webb, says Washington needs some

Virginia-style politics aswell.

He observed that formerSen. John Warner, a Repub-lican, was one of the so-called Gang of 14 senatorswho worked across partylines to keep the Senatefrom falling into a gridlockof filibustering, while Sen.Mark Warner, a Democrat,is one of the bipartisan Gangof Six trying to rein in thefederal deficit. Kaine saidbipartisanship is the Virginiaway.

“I’m a bridge-builder,” he said. “If itmeans there’s only a Gang of Two, I’ll be oneof them.... It’s a commentary that we’re go-ing from a Gang of 14 to a Gang of Six tomaybe a Gang of Two.”

Kaine said the way he cut spending asVirginia governor is also something Washing-ton could stand thinking about. He said hewent line by line through the state budget totarget reductions and contrasted that with theacross-the-board cutting Congress favors.

Kaine saysVA trendingindependent

ACDC Voice, November 2011, Page 5

them.Special thanks go to young volunteers

who put in unbelievable hours. For example,there were Paul Carver and TommyScanlon, designated hitters throughout thecampaign without surcease. In his spare time,Tommy called through volunteer lists to rallyothers when they were needed in the field andwas constantly on the road maintaining me-dian strip signs. Paul made a special effort ofthe Get-Out-The-Vote initiative in high-rises.

Then there were our three Gold Cardevents to raise funds and give our volunteersa break. Sarah Eckman (Chili Cookoff),Cornelia Robinson (Wine Tasting), andStephanie Clifford (Golden Gala) organizedthese festive functions.

These Gold Card events operated withthe help of Bree Raum, Connor Marshalland the rest of the ACDC Finance Team.

And, of course, the fearless KitchenKrew led by Jean Marshall Crawford pro-vided munchies at many events, especially theGolden Gala. Crawford did double-hat duty,serving also as campaign treasurer, alwaysthinking ahead to who might need reimburse-ment and coming to meetings with checks inhand.

To help get the word out about our ticket,there was a multi-level field operation led byKip Malinosky and the Precinct Ops team,

complimented by Senator-elect BarbaraFavola’s incredible field team in the 31st Sen-ate District.

Several of our candidates had no oppo-nents and a clear run. They helped by work-ing for those candidates with challengers.Treasurer Frank O’Leary shared his intel

Victory had many hands, feet and voicescontinued from page one

JINGLE BELLS — Volunteers kept the phone bells jingling as theyoperated the phone bank long after dusk to remind voters of the upcomingelection and the need to turn out.

FOOT WORK —Volunteers dodged traffic

to put up signs in median strips allacross the county—two signs in each strip segment.

SINGING — Caroline Raphael, 12-year-old daughter of School BoardMember Abby Raphael, helped outby entertaining the crowd veryprofessionally at the Chili Cookoff.

continued on next page

ACDC Voice, November 2011, Page 6

with candidates showing what turf to hit.Delegate-elect Alfonso Lopez and SheriffBeth Arthur knocked on doors and madecalls (aptly named “Calling with the Sheriff”);School Board Member Abby Raphael andCommonwealth’s Attorney-elect TheoStamos’s campaigns got together for calltime. Others unleashed their volunteers to helpwhere the need was greatest.

The campaign had a presence at everyvisibility opportunity in the county since latespring: Gordon Simonett got volunteers andmaterial at day-long opportunities like theColumbia Pike Blues Fest and Clarendon Day,Steve Baker and Team Tejada kept Farm-ers’ Markets patrons blue, cool (with our fans),and well-informed. Kim Klingler, staffingspreadsheet and task list in hand, led a volun-teer committee to coordinate our County Fairbooth, increasing kid-appeal and figuring outsolutions to expected challenges from ourlarge group of candidates on the eve of theprimary.

The Dollars for Democrats ($4Dems)campaign was enormously successful thisyear, grossing more than $14,000 with theactive hands of more than 70 volunteers work-ing with co-chairs Karla Hagan, Jody Olsonand Warren Nelson. Thanks also go to thehundreds of contributors, who were the peoplewho ultimately made the $4Dems effort agreat success.

Stephanie Clifford, with the help ofIngrid Morroy and Jerry Botland lending

their house, got median strip sign placementdown to a science.

We got the word out in high rise precinctsby staffing the Metro stops solidly during thelast few weeks. Nancy Pilchen helped recruitvolunteers to help whenever and wherever theneed popped up, and then joined the crew whospent Election Day ferrying elderly and dis-abled voters to the polls and back home.

Any big operation like a campaign re-quires a strong back shop. That was providedby the likes of Nicole Truhe (scheduler), Jody

continued from previous page

Victory had many hands, feet and voices

Olsen (communications), Terry Belt (newmedia) and Marj Signer (powerpoint guru).

When Election Day came, CarolFontein, Marge Epstein, Peter Owen, andKip Malinosky worked to get every slot filledto ensure victory.

The 2011 Joint Campaign was truly an“All Hands On Deck” operation, which allmay look back on fondly (and on this page)thanks to Clifford’s Photography.

EXTRA HANDS — ACDC ChairMike Lieberman showed up to helpout with an extra pair of hands.

WHERE’S THE GARLIC? — The Kitchen Krew kept everyone verywell fed. Here, from left, Jean Marshall Crawford, Peg Hogan and JoanMcDermott look for a missing ingredient, which wasn’t votes.

ACDC Voice, November 2011, Page 7

The loss of the majority was painful—amere 226 votes made the difference betweena 21-19 Democratic majority and a 20-20tie—and once again showed just how essen-tial feet-on-the-ground are.

That loss was in the 17th State SenateDistrict, which is a diagonal strip dead in themiddle of the state running fromFredericksburg southwest almost toAppomattox. Incumbent Democratic Sena-tor Edd Houck got 22,389 votes to Republi-can Bryce Reeves’ 22,615 votes. The lossmargin amounted to 3.3 votes per precinct, apainfully close outcome.

The other loss was also close. That wasin the 20th District in Southside where twoincumbents were pitted against each other asa result of redistricting. Republican WilliamStanley outpolled Democrat Roscoe Reynoldsby 644 votes. That election was complicatedby the fact that independent Jeff Evans took3,887 votes or six times the vote separatingthe Dem and GOP candidates. Evans ran fromthe far right as a concealed carry permit holderwho believes that life begins at conception.

Combined, fewer than 900 added voteswould have kept those two seats in Demo-cratic hands and left the breakdown at 22-18as before.

In Arlington County, the main contestwas the race to succeed retiring State SenatorMary Margaret Whipple. The district wasre-drawn and many Democratic precincts re-moved.

In the end, Barbara Favola won handilyin Arlington—but she lost in the additionsmade to the district from Fairfax and Loudouncounties.

The district’s population remains 57 per-cent Arlingtonian. But the real key was thatFavola won hugely in Arlington with a domi-nating 71 percent and easily overcame themuch smaller majority Republican Caren

Merrick rolled up in Fairfax and Loudoun.Here are the percentages.

Favola MerrickTotal 58.1 41.7Arlington 71.2 28.5Fairfax 47.0 52.9Loudoun 44.0 55.0

(The fractional percentages missing from thefigures above were write-in votes.)

With less than 30 percent of the Arling-ton vote, Merrick appears to have failed toappeal to many members of her own GOPbase. Some may have found her too conser-vative. Others may just have preferred anArlingtonian they knew over an “outsider.”

Favola won every single one of the 28precincts in Arlington, six of the 17 precinctsin Fairfax County and one of the six precinctsin Loudoun County.

Of the 14 local posts up at this election,Democrats ran for eight without any opposi-tion.

For the other six, the results in Arling-ton County were:

Sen. Adam Ebbin 74.2%Sen. Janet Howell 70.8%Del. Bob Brink 72.7%CB Mary Hynes 83.1%CB Walter Tejada 80.2%The numbers cannot really be compared,

however. The first three candidates were allrunning in different subsets of the county. Thetwo County Board members were runningcounty-wide. The first two candidates facedGOP opposition. The bottom three faced op-position from independents or third party can-didates.

With regard to the very high vote for thetwo Democrats running for the County Board,those percentages are probably too high.These percentages assume that everyone whovoted did so for two candidates. But somevoters, especially non-Democrats, likely votedonly once for the one non-Democrat on theballot. That would mean the actual percent-ages are probably a few points lower thanshown here, in the high-70s.

Statewide, in the House of Delegates, themost notable loss was that of Del. WardArmstrong, the Democratic leader in theHouse who has visited Arlington often andspoken to many gatherings here. Armstrongwas redistricted to stick him in a highly unfa-vorable new district. It worked. Armstrongdrew 47.2 percent in the district on the NorthCarolina border.

Altogether, the GOP saw its total in the100-seat House of Delegates grow from 59seats to 68 seats, a better than two-thirdsmajority.

continued from page one

Dems win giant victories in ArlingtonBARBARA FAVOLABig margin in Arlington offsetRepublican majorities inFairfax and Loudoun counties

EDD HOUCKLosing by just3.3 votes perprecinct lostState Senate

ACDC Voice, November 2011, Page 8

Democratic Values in Action

The frequently mobile First SaturdayBreakfast will fall again on the second Satur-day in December.

The featured guest will be Rep. JimMoran, who will give a wrapup of the year’sdevelopments and set the stage for 2012.

The breakfast on December 10 will beat the usual place, Busboys and Poets inShirlington, and at the usual time, 8:30-10a.m., and with the usual appeal that you bringcash to avoid the hassle of fumbling with doz-ens of credit cards.

In recognition of the upcoming holidays,Democratic Values in Action (DVA) hasbroadened its menu beyond the usual break-fast cereal collections.

At the December ACDC meeting, as wedid in November, DVA will also collectcanned sweet potatoes, canned cranberrysauce, stove top turkey stuffing (or dressing,if you prefer), and canned vegetables for theArlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC).

DVA is also collecting gently used coatsand new men’s work gloves for the homelessshelter.

Don’t get too relaxed post-election asthere will be a heavily-contested caucus andthen a county-wide election coming up in amatter of weeks to fill the soon-to-be vacancyon the County Board.

Since County Board Member BarbaraFavola was elected a state senator, she willbe resigning her County Board seat by year’send. And five Democrats are already con-tending to succeed her.

The party nominee for the post will beselected at an “unorganized caucus,” some-times called a firehouse primary. The datehas yet to be set but tentative planning hasstarted for a caucus early in February.

The County Court will set a date for thespecial election. That is expected to be heldin March or April.

Thus far, five Democrats have indicatedplans to run, but more may well join. In al-phabetical order, the five are:

Melissa Bondi, ACDC parliamentarian

It’s only 11 months until the Big One—Election Day 2012 with the presidency ofBarack Obama on the line.

The fall ballot next year will be a BigOne indeed.

At the top will be Obama, trying to re-peat his 2008 victory in the commonwealthwhen he became the first Democratic presi-dential candidate to win the state since LyndonJohnson in 1964.

Next will come the race to succeed re-tiring Senator Jim Webb. Tim Kaine hasdrawn nominal primary opposition thus far

who has been active in the community onsmart growth and affordable housing issues.

Peter Fallon, ACDC’s River Area chairin precinct operations, and a member of thecounty Planning Commission.

Libby Garvey, 15-year School Boardmember who recently ran in the primary forthe 30th State Senate District nomination.

Kim Klingler, ACDC’s membership co-chair, who has been active in AYDs,theKiwanis Club and the Arlington EconomicDecelopment Commission.

Terron Sims, ACDC outreach and vis-ibility co-chair who sought the ACDC en-dorsement for School Board a few years ago.

Since no date has been set for the caucus,there is yet no deadline for candidates to file.

The election will be to fill the remainderof Favola’s term, which expires at the end of2012. The seat will, therefore, be up for elec-tion again this coming November.

The GOP may well field a candidate in

the special election. Although there has beenno GOP candidate in recent County Boardelections, common wisdom holds that theparty’s best chances are in special elections,when voter turnout is notoriously low. Thelast Republican to sit on the County Boardwas Mike Lane, who won election overDemocrat Charles Monroe in a special elec-tion in early 1999 and then lost to Monroe inthe fall election that year.

The term “unorganized caucus” does notmean the caucus will be chaotic. The partyhas “organized caucuses” and “unorganizedcaucuses.” In an organized caucus, voters mustall assemble at one time and remain togetherwhile assorted procedures are carried out andthe balloting held. In an unorganized caucus,voters may come at any time during the ap-pointed hours, cast their ballots and leave.

An unorganized caucus is, in otherwords, like a normal election, while an orga-nized caucus is like a convention.

Another election waiting in the wings

The really Big One comes next fall

1st becomes 2nd againfor Dec. breakfast

for the Democratic nomination and GeorgeAllen appears to have only nominal opposi-tion for the GOP nomination. That race be-tween two former governors should be abarnburner—and one that will draw muchnational attention as control of the US Senatewill be on the line.

The next slot is Jim Moran’s congres-sional seat. Last year’s GOP opponent,Patrick Murray, has just announced he plansto run again. Last yar, Moran won with a 24-point margin, the smallest since he enteredCongress in 1990.

At the local level, three posts will be onthe line. The seat now held and soon to bevacated by State Senator-elect BarbaraFavola, will be up, as will two seats on theSchool Board—those now held by LibbyGarvey and Emma Violand-Sanchez.Garvey has announced she will not run again.Violand-Sanchez has said she will decideshortly.

Here is what the busy electoral calendarlikely looks like for 2012:• Early February—Arlington DemocraticCaucus to pick a nominee for special electionfor County Board.• March or April—Special Election forCounty Board.• March 6—Presidential primary, almostcertainly only for Republicans.

• May 9 & 12—Arlington DemocraticCaucus to endorse candidates for two SchoolBoard seats (assuming more than two peoplefile).• June 12—Democratic primary to be heldfor U.S. Senate, Congress and County Board,as necessary.• November 6—General election with thesix posts listed above on the line.

Holiday foods beingcollected at monthly