November 13, 2023.
First, I want to thank those of you who voted for me for your support in my recent campaign for Arlington County Board. I was the top non-Democrat vote getter in the November 7, 2023 election with 14,379 votes or 12.7 percent of the total.
By contrast Susan Cunningham, the top Democrat vote getter, reported a lopsided 69 percent of the vote. Come again? According to the Virginia State Board of Elections, Cunningham got just 38.5 percent of the vote, substantially less than the number reported on her website.
Evidently Cunningham used the number of voters who cast ballots rather than the total votes cast in a 2 seat race as the denominator in her inflated percentage.
If the Democrats’ top vote getter cannot accurately report her percent of the vote–which voters surely have the right to know–how is she going to report the real estate tax increase coming down the pike in 2024?
As for my own share of the vote, what can you expect when the media predict the outcome of the election months in advance and on Election Day itself before the polls close?
It’s also a shame that so many voters see the Democratic Party’s blue sample ballot as a ticket to freedom rather an invitation to poor government and outright political corruption.
For evidence of maladministration, consider that a lawsuit challenging the County’s so-called Missing Middle or EHO up-zoning ordinance has gone to trial on several charges–among them that the County refused to perform impact studies on the ordinance, as required by law.
Under these circumstances, I regret that I have but one opportunity a year to challenge the all Democrat County Board and am delighted that Republican Juan Carlos Fierro also put his name in the hat this year.