Random jottings from Wednesday’s candidate announcements at the Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting.
• Maybe the biggest surprise to the non-insiders (I used to be a semi-insider but that ship has sailed) is that Commissioner of Revenue Ingrid Morroy, who was expected to retire, opted to anoint as her successor Kim Klingler, a veteran party activist, head of the Columbia Pike Parternship and FK-er (fellow Kiwanian) whom I’ve known for a long time. Certainly happy to see Kim make the plunge; not sure if anyone else will be coming along to challenge her in the Democratic primary.
• Sun Gazette readers knew over the summer that Treasurer Carla de la Pava was going to run for re-election, as she told us and then we told the community. But she made it official Wednesday. Seems unlikely she’d pick up a challenge but given the Byzantine internal fights and personal vendettas that go on within the Democratic insider ranks in Arlington as they do in all political organizations, one never knows until the filing deadline passes.
• Retiring Sheriff Beth Arthur formally anointed her chief deputy, Jose Quiroz, who announced plans to seek the job. We reported in this week’s edition that state law says there is no special election between Arthur’s departure and the general election next November, but Arthur said on the podium that the County Board could, if it wished, call a special election.
A special election? Nooooooooooooo!
Speaking for the entirety of the local civic crowd as well as what’s left of the local press corps[e], I say to County Board members, in the immortal words of Sheriff Buford T. Justice: “Oh, you can think about it. But dooooooon’t do it.”
• If you’re a fan of Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti’s style of management and view of how crime should be addressed, you came away happy with her promises-made-promises-kept speech. (Although it is interesting that she keeps harping on some vast right-wing conspiracy trying to remove her from office. Like that’s going to happen in Arlington; there are so few of us right-wing conspirators floating around that even the proverbial phone booth would be too big for out meetings.)
• I spoke to an elected official on the way out the door and mentioned I thought it might have been a mistake for Dehghani-Tafti’s challenger, Josh Katcher, not to have announced the same night and effectively gone one-on-one with her right there. This elected official in question disagreed, believing Katcher was smart to wait a month so he could kick his campaign separately. There is logic in that, but as the NFL referees would put it: After further review, the ruling on the field stands. I still think Katcher should have done it this week. But I accept that nobody really cares what I think 🙂
• There were no County Board candidate announcements, although there almost assuredly will be next month. No School Board announcements, either, nor were there any announcements for General Assembly or the remaining constitutional office on the 2023 ballot.
• It was interesting that there wasn’t a large number of elected officials (outside of those announcing) in the audience. A couple – state Sen. Barbara Favola, Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson and County Board members Matt de Ferranti and Libby Garvey were there – but others were either watching online or skipped the meeting. Hmm.
TO SNOW OR NOT TO SNOW: Wintertime snow predictions are out from the local sources (Capital Weather Gang, TV stations), and most suggest the, cough, deee-emmmm-veeeeeeeeeeee is likely to get somewhat less snow than usual this coming season.
But when it comes to fellow Herndon High School alumnus Doug Kammerer, the chief weathercaster of WRC-TV (Channel 4), he is predicting much less snow than usual. Win or lose, he’s out there on a limb largely by himself.
Not sure how I’d feel about a no-snow winter, particularly now that I’m bundled up in a home that’s within walking distance of the office (plus supermarket). Last winter, I was constantly driving between two homes (one in the midst of a rehab) and, hating to drive in the snow, panicked whenever a few flakes turned up in the forecast. This year, no such worries.
– Scott McCaffrey