The Arlington County Republican Committee is hoping to reconstitute its policy committee and use it to have a greater voice in the civic arena.
Such a committee, which once was robust but in recent years largely has been dormant, would allow the GOP to have a more public seat at the table on contentious issues such as the county government’s controversial Missing Middle housing proposal.
The committee “could formulate a well-researched, thoughtful reply when issues like this arise,” party spokesman Matthew Hurtt said in an e-mail to the rank-and-file, asking them to “help build the infrastructure to accomplish it.”
“The Arlington GOP is only as strong and engaged as the members who show up,” he said.
The Republican Committee used to have a rather healthy policy apparatus, led for some time by Eric Brescia. But after Brescia’s departure for Manassas (his wife recently was elected to the School Board there) and other members moving on or passing on, the effort largely fell into dormancy.
The party often has conducted online polls of members to gauge their views on current issues (one in 2022 showed large levels of opposition to Missing Middle), but largely is reliant on limited media coverage and social-media postings to get those views across to the broader population.