Press

Recent Press Coverage

March 21, 20424

Audrey Clement is ready to roll for her latest bid for Arlington elected office.

Clement, an independent (and one-time Green Party contender), has been running for local posts – mostly County Board but on two occasions School Board – continuously since 2011. Her 2024 run will be her 15th; Clement’s best showing was winning 31 percent of the vote against incumbent County Board member Jay Fisette in 2013.

https://www.gazetteleader.com/arlington/news/clement-saddles-up-in-another-bid-for-elected-office-8487782?

February 21, 2024

Clement had prepared a two-minute spoken comment and a question to deliver to City Council, asking if a study or analysis of the proposed [Potomac Yard Arena] project had been completed by any independent firm not hired by the city or the Commonwealth.

“I went in there to sign up to speak and they said, ‘You can’t speak. You can ask a question, you can write a question on a three by five card.’ I was shocked,” Clement said. “I thought that this town hall was for the purpose of hearing from the public. Why else would you have a town hall?”

https://alextimes.com/2024/02/opponents-of-potomac-yard-arena-want-opportunities-to-speak-out/

December 18, 2023

“That is an understatement, considering AHIFs total appropriation for FY 2024 is $20.5 million,” said former independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement, the lone speaker this weekend opposed to the [Barcroft Apartments Financing Plan].

She also said the costs are too high for the first renovation phase.

The per-unit cost will be around $600,000 compared to the per-unit cost of new affordable apartments at three developments, which ranged from $410,000 in 2019 to $583,000 in 2023, Clement said.

“The high, exorbitant per unit costs of Barcroft Apartments is due to the mostly grossly inflated purchase price of $425 million or three times the $138 million assessed value of the dilapidated property at the time of sale,” she said.

December 1, 2023

There’s persistence, and then there is Audrey Clement and her decade-plus effort to get elected to local office in Arlington.

Clement talked with ARLnow editor Scott Brodbeck to talk about her latest unsuccessful run for County Board, her allegations of media bias and age discrimination, Missing Middle zoning changes, proposed changes to Arlington County’s governance, and why she keeps running for public office.

Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.

November 1, 2023

Meanwhile, perennial independent candidate Audrey Clement — who presciently made Missing Middle central to her campaign three years ago — is doubling down on her choice to make it a focus in 2023, after the passage of the ordinances in March.

She says “the issue will live on,” no matter how the Arlington County Circuit Court rules on challenge by 10 Arlington homeowners to the Expanded Housing Options ordinance the Arlington County Board “rammed through earlier this year.”

October 26, 2023

Repeat independent candidate Audrey Clement, meanwhile, is focused on lowering taxes and convincing residents not to vote for a straight Democratic ticket.

In a recent email newsletter, she noted Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey discussed a possible tax increase next year during this month’s Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting.

“ACDC is confident that it can quell any taxpayer revolt by simply passing out the Democratic Party Blue Ballot at the polls on Election Day,” Clement said. “When voters refuse to hold their elected officials accountable at the ballot box by blindly voting the Blue Ballot, excessive taxation is the result.”

September 28, 2023

Endorsement #2? Hard as some may find it believe, we’d make the argument for Audrey Clement, who would, if nothing else, shake things up and, to borrow a phrase, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And few are more comfortable (perhaps “self-satisfied” is the right phrase) than the current County Board.

September 19, 2023

Audrey Clement, who is running as an independent for Arlington County Board, said she agreed with Cunningham’s response to the question. Clement added that she believes Missing Middle Housing will inflate land values and will be “a new form of de facto discrimination that will have drastic consequences on Arlington’s minority communities and is already affecting the senior component of the minority communities.”

September 15, 2023

“It is difficult to say what is worse, the danger to our quality of life [by the decline of tree canopy] or the county’s double-speak,” said independent Audrey Clement, in remarks during a Sept. 13 candidate forum sponsored by the Arlington Committee of 100.

Clement was channeling the views of many tree advocates and the Arlington Tree Action Group, which for years has criticized county officials for not doing enough to promote increases in the tree canopy and for engaging in rhetorical sophistry to keep critics at bay.

September 14, 2023

Clement further argued against increasing the budget for APS, citing falling enrollment projections over the next decade.

“I understand that the greatest problem facing our schools is the achievement gap, which grew significantly during Covid,” she said. “I don’t think throwing more money at that particular problem is going to solve it.”

September 13, 2023

“We are really imposing a huge tax burden on our residents,” she said. “I believe it is unsustainable because it’s over twice the rate of inflation and I think we ought to look at ways to streamline our budget, not ways to increase it.”

Clement further argued against increasing the budget for APS, citing falling enrollment projections over the next decade.

September 11, 2023

At a Sept. 5 campaign forum hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation, independent Audrey Clement said that, if elected, she would push his colleagues to press their federal-government counterparts on a 1970s-era executive order that, to some, seems to give the District of Columbia and Arlington priority in locating federal agencies in the Washington area.

September 11, 2023

Audrey Clement, an independent candidate for Arlington County Board, was the first to answer and the only candidate to directly respond to the question.

“Yes, a forum next year to discuss alternative solutions to Missing Middle would be on the top of my agenda if elected,” Clement said.

September 8, 2023

Campaign signage for Audrey Clement, making her latest run for County Board, has begun sprouting in medians across the community.

A county-government ordinance limits campaign-sign placement on medians to “31 consecutive days before an election or party nominating caucus called by a governmental body (including all primaries) or a political party.” Which, for the Nov. 7 election, would be Saturday, Oct. 7, and which would make such early placement both impolite and illegal.

But there’s a loophole: Arlington zoning officials have used a somewhat creative interpretation of the ordinance’s verbiage to divine that what it really means is 31 days before the beginning of early voting – which this year begins Sept. 22.

Clement told the GazetteLeader that she doesn’t like that interpretation, preferring just a 31-day window before Election Day, but since it is what it is, she’s getting her signs up.

September 7, 2023

Clement, who has been running non-stop for office for more than a decade, pointed to County Board members earlier this year setting the stage for a whopping pay raise for themselves without advance public notice.

The action was “a slap in the face to Arlington County taxpayers,” but ultimately such behavior is the fault of an electorate that lets Democrats get away with it in Arlington, Clement said.

June 14, 2023

Independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement is throwing her weight behind the challenger in the June 20 Democratic primary for commonwealth’s attorney in Arlington and Falls Church.

And she is encouraging her supporters to do the same, suggesting that incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti is not up to the job.

September 7, 2023

Clement, who has been running non-stop for office for more than a decade, pointed to County Board members earlier this year setting the stage for a whopping pay raise for themselves without advance public notice.

The action was “a slap in the face to Arlington County taxpayers,” but ultimately such behavior is the fault of an electorate that lets Democrats get away with it in Arlington, Clement said.

June 12, 2023

The issue of County Board salaries already has been raised in the 2023 County Board election, with independent candidate Audrey Clement suggesting board members surreptitiously included a raise (to $89,851/$95,734) under the radar of the public during the budget process.

Clement is mostly correct – while County Board members have been increasing their pay incrementally to reach the existing cap in recent years, they largely have been doing so without providing much advance notice of their plans.

June 9, 2023

In a county dominated by Democrats, the two winners of the primary on June 20 are expected to be victorious in the general election in November, although independent candidate Audrey Clement could receive a significant number of votes, given her anti-Missing Middle stance, popular among many Arlingtonians, and her criticism of the county board for not offering any property tax relief to residents in recent years.

May 28, 2023

Audrey Clement, who has spent much of the past decade seeking elected office in Arlington, believes the county government should attempt to invoke an executive order, issued by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, to pressure federal-government agencies to maintain and expand their footprint in Arlington.

The executive order (which is still in effect) directs federal agencies to give first consideration to locating in “a centralized community business area with adjacent areas of similar character.” By one reading, that would mean the District of Columbia as well as Arlington, rather than more suburban locales.

May 3, 2023

Audrey Clement, making her latest bid for County Board as an independent, on May 1 criticized the incumbent Arlington County Board for gouging taxpayers by not reducing the real-estate-tax rate despite ever-increasing home assessments.

January 24, 2023

Clement fingered the Arlington County Democratic Committee, or ACDC, as the “obvious suspect.”

“My signs were gone where the ACDC had removed theirs,” she said. Clement came in second, with 28 percent of the vote, in the 2022 County Board race, trailing incumbent Democrat Matt de Ferranti, who took 61 percent. Independent Adam Theo received about 10 percent of the vote.

November 17, 2022

But Clement managed to best de Ferranti in four of the county’s 54 precincts in Election Night reporting, although that number was expected to fall or disappear entirely as the early-voting tallies are merged into precinct results and several thousand outstanding provisional ballots are added to the mix. But regardless of how many, if any, precincts Clement comes away winning, there’s no doubt that large swaths of North Arlington single-family neighborhoods voted for Clement to send a message on the Missing Middle issue.

November 2, 2022

But Clement acknowledges that getting to 40 percent won’t likely be enough to surmount incumbent Democrat Matt de Ferranti. A little higher vote percentage, though, and things could become the one word that no incumbent wants to hear: Interesting.

“Estimated conservatively, this race looks like de Ferranti has it in the bag. Estimated liberally, this race looks like a cliff-hanger,” Clement said in response to a Sun Gazette query.

November 2, 2022

Clement, not surprisingly, sees it differently. She says that if she and Theo garner more than 50 percent between them, that will show a level of voter dissatisfaction with the County Board that has not raised its head since the 2014 election that brought independent John Vihstadt into office.

October 31, 2022

Clement — who declined to state her age — lives in the exact type of housing that might be legalized across Arlington under the framework: She rents a one-bedroom in an eightplex in Westover.

The software developer said she would only support adding density along transit corridors, citing concerns about how missing middle housing will jeopardize Arlington’s tree canopy and strain county infrastructure.

“It would provide more unaffordable housing,” said Clement, who has tried to appeal to mostly non-Democrats in her campaign. “It will not provide home-buying opportunities for anybody because most of these units are going to be rentals.”

October 27, 2022

Clement, who has been running nonstop for elected office for a decade, noted at the NAACP forum that households would need incomes well into the six-figure range to afford even the most inexpensive properties likely to come about through the initiative.

“Black and Latino household income is just a fraction of that,” she said, pointing to county-government data. “These folks will not be able to benefit from housing derived from Missing Middle upzoning . . . that housing will be unaffordable.”

October 25, 2022

Former Arlington County Board member John Vihstadt has weighed in to support independent Audrey Clement in the 2022 County Board race.

Vihstadt did not say so explicitly at a recent rally organized by opponents of the Missing Middle housing/zoning proposals, but his remarks left little doubt about his sympathies.

“If you want to send a message to the echo chamber and add diversity of thought and perspective to this County Board, pick your candidate wisely,” Vihstadt said at the rally.

In case anyone missed the implication, he added that if one was a praying person, “pray for ‘in-Clement’ weather” on Election Day.

October 24, 2022

“Sources I’ve heard within the Democratic Party are concerned about Democrat Matt de Ferranti’s chances of re-election, because of a groundswell of opposition to Missing Middle,” Clement said in a recent statement, before in the next sentence walking back that confidence ever so slightly.

“At the very least, they’re concerned that de Ferranti and Adam Theo, who also is plugging for Missing Middle, will split the YIMBY [‘Yes in My Back Yard’] vote,” she said.

October 18, 2022

“About $50,000 of de Ferranti’s large donor intake is from people and organizations outside the county, mostly outside the state, including $13,500 from construction trade unions destined to benefit from the Missing Middle building boom,” [Clement] said. “If the donations from those with no vested interest in the county were subtracted haul, his receipts would shrink to $19,000 and the election would be more competitive.”

October 14, 2022

Saying she is the one candidate who will do the right thing for Arlington’s most-in-need residents, the Arlington Green Party has announced it will support independent Audrey Clement for County Board.

“She will stand up to the developers and bring an independent voice for Arlington residents to the board,” said Mark Antell, a Green Party member and longtime local activist, in an Oct. 13 release from the party announcing its selection.

September 30, 2022

If they’d been forced into a choice, the committee probably would have gone with Clement, whose opposition to the county government’s proposed Missing Middle zoning changes has won her some support among conservative voters.

And she certainly has name recognition among activists, having been running for various local offices continuously for more than a decade.

“I am certain if I ask everyone in this room, they have voted for Audrey at least once,” Hurtt said. “She’s a very smart woman who’s very versed in local issues.”

September 20, 2022

Independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement, the only candidate opposed to the Missing Middle upzoning proposal, told those attending and watching the meeting that she would “debunk some myths about it.”

Reciting excerpts of a speech she has presented during the Arlington County Civic Federation and Chamber of Commerce candidate fora, Clement argued that Missing Middle will not add to the county’s stock of 3-bedroom, and will reduce Arlington’s tree canopy, and will not increase home-buying opportunities for people of color — though the latter is an assertion with which the local NAACP disagrees.

September 16, 2022

“I am concerned about excessive taxation, particularly real estate taxes, but if you can start with shaving off some of those business taxes, that would be just fine with me,” Clement said.

September 15, 2022

At the Civic Federation forum, the third candidate on the Nov. 8 County Board ballot, independent Audrey Clement, said ranked-choice voting was “a necessary tool” to break the Democratic monopoly in Arlington, but would only work in a community “where media are unbiased and endorse candidates on their merit.”

September 15, 2022

Clement ripped into community-engagement efforts as “woefully inadequate” and derided de Ferranti’s contention that online forums on the matter shouldn’t be made available to the broader public as
“truly laughable.” She said that, if elected, “I would first halt the current process,” albeit offering no inkling of how she would get two other County Board members to go along with her.

September 15, 2022

The elimination of the two bodies [Emergency Preparedness Advisory Commission and Aquatics Committee] will become part of the discourse during election season, if County Board candidate Audrey Clement has anything to say about it. Clement has been critical of the decisions, saying the public had no input and arguing that both bodies have provided ongoing, useful service.

September 7, 2022

Clement reiterated her equally entrenched opposition to [Missing Middle] as “a scheme to rezone Arlington’s residential neighborhoods for much higher density multi-family dwellings,” which will keep housing types out of reach for anyone not making six figures.

September 7, 2022

Independent Audrey Clement finally has an issue that could prove a winner with voters (she’s the only one of the three opposed to the Missing Middle zoning plan), but as I’ve noted again and again, she refuses to build a campaign infrastructure and raise funds in order to actually be competitive.

September 2, 2022

Clement and Theo have run before – the latter once, the former multiple times – and we think they’ve got it in them to discern and enunciate de Ferranti’s weaknesses.

July 13, 2022

Clement, who has been running nonstop for local office for the past decade, argued that what critics contend are the Missing Middle proposal’s negative impacts – tree-canopy destruction, excessive stormwater runoff, overcrowded schools, traffic congestion, reduced street parking and escalating property-tax assessments – are “issues the county [government] itself has either downplayed or avoided altogether.”

June 27, 2022

Independents Adam Theo and Audrey Clement were the lone challengers who made the ballot to take on incumbent Democrat Matt de Ferranti in November. The filing deadline was June 21.

June 16, 2022

“I oppose County Board’s at-large system of representation, because it is as undemocratic in its operation as it was racist in its origins,” Clement told the Sun Gazette.

June 9, 2022

“Adding two more at-large seats to the current mix is a prescription for more of the same undemocratic governance,” Clement said. “If I were a delegate in Richmond, I would demand to know why an at-large board is even permissible under the state constitution, given that it is as unusual in its construction as it is undemocratic in its operation.”

May 25, 2022

An independent candidate for Arlington County Board suggests the county government will rely on a “biased survey” to shoehorn more housing into neighborhoods across the community.

In a recent missive to supporters, Audrey Clement said that county government’s online “Missing Middle” survey does not give residents the opportunity to say they want no other types of housing in current single-family neighborhoods, only the opportunity to pick among a number of pre-selected options.

“When the survey results are tabulated, the county can claim universal support for Missing Middle housing, with respondents differing only over the types of multi-family housing they prefer,” Clement said.

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/candidate-rips-arlington-housing-survey-as-biased/article_610339fe-dc66-11ec-a00b-e306122fcbf6.html

May 10, 2022

An independent candidate for Arlington County Board says she’d be OK with a major pay raise for County Board members, if they were providing adequate oversight duties.

But they’re not, Audrey Clement contends.

“Where is the hard work in avoiding hard decisions by kowtowing to staff?” Clement asked in a recent campaign missive to supporters. “This is how the board routinely operates.”

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/independent-candidate-arlington-elected-officials-not-worthy-of-pay-raises/article_6d858d46-d084-11ec-93c4-1b4c13d569d8.html

January 20, 2022

“With the appointment of [Andrew] Wheeler and [Michael] Rolband to lead the state’s environmental program, Virginia voters have been driven from pillar to post. On the one hand they don’t deserve a Department of Education that promotes CRT. They also don’t need a Department of Environmental Quality that promotes climate denial. (p. 6)”

https://sungazette.news/e-edition/

December 9, 2021

“The intramural conflict [among government agencies about permitting the Mountain Valley Pipeline] bodes well for environmentalists seeking to keep fossils in the ground and landowners seeking to preserve their natural surroundings. (p. 6)”

https://sungazette.news/e-edition/

November 11, 2021

“I regret that I have but one opportunity a year to challenge the all-Democrat County Board,” Clement said in a post-election missive to supporters, after she rolled up a second-place finish in the four-candidate field.

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/clements-perpetual-runs-draw-a-mix-of-derision-and-admiration/article_e40030ca-42f9-11ec-92c0-ef01900974c5.html

September 23, 2021

“The fourth candidate on the ballot, independent Audrey Clement, scoffed that things had been ‘fixed.’ She called the oversight body ‘a toothless tiger’ and wanted a police auditor ‘who is not beholden to the county manager.’”

https://sungazette.news/candidates-split-on-details-of-police-oversight-body/

September 21, 2021

“Clement was asked about her stance critical of restorative justice reforms, which Jones said communities of color support.

“’I am concerned about its potential for abuse in the schools,’ Clement said. ‘I will insist it be used to supplement rather than replace traditional judicial process.’”

https://www.arlnow.com/2021/09/21/candidates-differ-on-some-racial-justice-issues-during-naacp-forum/#more-254015

September 17, 2021

“’I question the county’s commitment’ to environmental issues, independent Audrey Clement said at the Arlington County Civic Federation’s Sept. 14 candidate forum, held online.

“Clement said the county government was good at ‘double-speak’ and taking credit for things, but its efforts (or lack of same) on issues like tree canopy have left Arlington with ‘more runoff, erosion and heat-island effects.’”

https://sungazette.news/arlington-candidates-do-battle-over-environment-at-forum

September 16, 2021

“It was not a bad showing by the three Arlington County Board independents running against incumbent Democrat Takis Karantonis, as campaign season kicked off with the Committee of 100 debate last week.

“Audrey Clement, Mike Cantwell and Adam Theo presented themselves well and followed our advice (proffered in this space last week), unsheathing the knives and thrusting away at the Democratic oligarchy running the county.”

September 10, 2021

“Clement also is hitting the county government’s “missing middle” housing policy, which supporters say aims to use zoning tools to increase housing options. Like other critics of the policy, the candidate warns of repercussions.

“‘Missing middle’ is a euphemism for upzoning that will not make housing more affordable,” she said.

“Rather than provide a net increase in tax revenue, Clement said shoehorning ever more housing into Arlington’s 26 square miles will exacerbate the need for schools, transportation and other infrastructure, and ‘could bankrupt the county.’”

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/incumbent-takes-flak-from-challengers-as-arlington-board-race-kicks-off/article_6f421c3a-122a-11ec-840c-ef2a29739ad0.html

September 9, 2021

“Clement said the Missing Middle Study will create more housing, but nothing truly affordable, predicting people will continue to get priced out of their neighborhoods. She added that it won’t promote racial equity, citing a study from New York University that found between 2000-2007, upzoning in New York City “produced an influx of whites in gentrified areas, even as white population plummeted.”

‘A far better solution is to repurpose unrented luxury units in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor to moderate income housing,’ she said.”

https://www.arlnow.com/2021/09/09/county-board-candidates-talk-ranked-choice-voting-housing-and-sustainability/#more-253541

July 23, 2021

“If the public is unhappy at the cavalier manner in which [the] County Board disposed of a big piece of its Civil War heritage, and the heavy-handed way in which the Circuit Court extinguished its legal rights, then it can elect new leaders,” Clement said, echoing the legal ruling, in an e-mail to supporters. “I believe Arlington needs public servants who honor rather than disparage the rights of its citizens.”

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/stymied-in-court-preservations-hope-legislature-will-provide-help/article_fa171288-ebde-11eb-882d-a7faf7b4c188.html

April 12, 2021
“The county will tell you it can’t afford to reduce the real estate tax rate because the pandemic has drained the commercial real estate tax revenue, but where were your real estate tax rates heading when the county was flush with revenue from corporate tenants?” [Clement] said. “They were going up.”
https://www.arlnow.com/2021/04/12/some-call-for-real-estate-lower-tax-rate-amid-sunnier-revenue-projections/#disqus_thread

March 31, 2021
“Clement suggests that Arlington elected officials don’t seem to care much about the pandemic’s impact on county residents, having allowed real-estate tax bills to balloon up in 2020 and, apparently, planning the same again in 2021.”
https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/arlington-contenders-zeroes-in-on-increasing-tax-burden/article_1b2badda-9216-11eb-9905-ff2ea54e313b.html

March 22, 2021

As for the events of March 20, a veteran civic activist – Audrey Clement – said it was emblematic of the county government’s disinclination to fully address the preservation issue.

“Your contempt for Arlington’s historic legacy as well as the process for preserving it is shocking, and your treatment of Tom Dickinson is contemptible,” Clement said in an e-mail to the County Board.

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/miscommunication-or-attempted-censorship-on-rouse-debate/article_8a49d628-8b23-11eb-8863-079c1d8f185b.html

2/22/21

“While these initiatives conform with the county’s social-justice agenda, they come at a price,” said Audrey Clement, a former and potentially future County Board candidate and veteran budget-watcher.

“Twenty vacant police and sheriff positions are to be gutted,” Clement noted after perusing the voluminous budget plan. “A host of other police-related positions will be frozen. Of particular concern are reductions in the 911 call center.”

https://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/arlington-homeowners-will-see-higher-tax-bills-in-budget-proposal/article_db27d124-7536-11eb-886c-131870e5bdb9.html

1/25/21

“Clement, an independent, has run more or less continually for either County Board or (less often) School Board over the past decade. Depending on the year and the number of candidates in the race, her general-election percentage of the vote has ranged from the single digits to slightly more than 30 percent.”

https://www.insidenova.com/news/politics/potential-arlington-board-candidates-enter-2021-with-limited-cash-on-hand/article_1fc55bb2-5e49-11eb-8f1b-c7f6906336b8.html#tncms-source=login

9/16/20

https://www.insidenova.com/news/election/challenger-blasts-arlington-board-vote-restricting-gun-possession/article_55163b02-f831-11ea-b4e9-8f49da0a04f7.html

“A candidate for Arlington County Board says the board’s recent actions restricting guns on county-government sites assures only that ‘future targets of gun violence are unable to defend themselves on public property.’

“’I’m afraid that the current County Board, led by my opponent Libby Garvey, is endangering the citizens it has sworn to protect,’ candidate Audrey Clement said following the vote.”

9/14/20

https://www.arlnow.com/2020/09/14/board-approves-gun-ban-in-county-buildings-and-parks/

“Among the speakers was independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement, who said the ordinance endangers lives.

‘I’m afraid that the current County Board led by my opponent, Libby Garvey, is endangering the citizens it has sworn to protect,” she wrote in an email to supporters earlier today. “It adopted a blanket gun ban on County property and County sponsored events, thus assuring that future targets of gun violence are unable to defend themselves on public property.'”

8/14/20

https://www.insidenova.com/news/election/independent-rips-arlington-democrats-on-redistricting-stance/article_e941ed5e-de31-11ea-94e4-f7264922d1ed.html

“The state and local Democratic parties say they oppose the amendment because it doesn’t go far enough,” she said. “This argument is misleading, because without an independent redistricting commission, another partisan gerrymander is inevitable following the 2020 census – this time a Democratic gerrymander, which is evidently what they want.”

4/27/20

Sun Gazette on County Board’s Push Back Against Critics of Its Luckluster Coronavirus Response

“A number of activists, including perennial County Board candidate Audrey Clement, were critical that the county government on March 13 asked, but did not require, restaurants to close in-person service as the crisis began to ramp up.”

4/8/20

Sun Gazette Coverage of County’s Coronvirus Response

“Will the performance of the Arlington County government addressing the COVID-19 public-health situation become fodder for November’s general election?

“A candidate who already is on the ballot is pressing the case that it should.

“Audrey Clement, who has been running campaigns for elected office for more than a decade, said last week that the County Board failed to use its powers to force restaurants to close in the earliest days of the crisis.”

3/16/20

Sun Gazette Announcement of Candidacy for Arlington County Board

“Audrey Clement has filed the necessary paperwork with county election officials to run as an independent in the Nov. 3 election.

“Clement is a perennial candidate, most often for County Board but occasionally for School Board, who has focused on issues including housing, transportation and government transparency.

“In past runs, Clement’s bids have generated varying degrees of public support. In races where she is the lone alternative on the ballot to a Democrat, she has garnered upwards of 30 percent of the vote. But other times, her vote totals have been significantly more modest.”

ARLnow Coverage of Arlington Court Suites Redevelopment

2/11/20

“’I really do support this project,” Clement said. “This is right up my alley. It does not involve the demolition of an existing property… I’m very impressed with this project, but in one respect it is not consistent with County policy, and that is the parking ratio.’”

“In 2017, the county adopted a new policy that said the parking ratio should be reduced from one space per unit to as low as 0.2 spaces per unit in certain areas near Metro stations.

“’I do believe this project would be more consistent with county policy if it reduced the number of parking spaces and what I’m particularly interested in is the surface parking. Has the developer considered replacing some or all of the surface parking with green space? This would be a benefit to the residents of this facility.’”

ARLnow Coverage of Planned “Missing Middle” Housing Study

2/10/20

“Transportation Commission member Audrey Clement was more wary of the plan, saying that it calls to increase types of housing but says nothing about affordability or equity. Instead, Clement echoed concerns of some in Arlington that the plan is an effort to quietly curtail single-family zoning.

“’This is about the densification of the county and further gentrification of the county,’ Clement said. ‘Given that is implied in the goals, to implement such a plan would require upzoning. Therefore it is disingenuous to say this is not about upzoning because that’s precisely what would be required to increase housing in residential neighborhoods.’

“Clement pointed to the Veitch Street home to be replaced by several townhouses, discussed earlier in that same meeting.

“’We’re really replacing every million-dollar home with up to seven million-dollar homes on residential lots,’ Clement said. ‘That will serve the purpose of densifying the county, but it won’t provide more affordable housing and it’s a misnomer to call this a Missing Middle plan.’”

2/5/2020

Washington Post On Former Opponent Christian Dorsey’s Removal from WMATA Board

“After Audrey Clement, a frequent candidate who sought a board seat last year, complained that Dorsey had yet to repay the union donation, Arlington board Chair Libby Garvey (D) said Dorsey gives ‘incredibly good service to us.’”

Washington Post Coverage of Ethically Challenged Incumbent Board Member

11/6/19

“Dorsey said he realized he had neglected to disclose the union contribution to Metro after Audrey Clement, an opponent in his campaign for reelection in Arlington, criticized him for both the $10,000 ATU donation and an equally large one from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. She said the money should disqualify him from discussions or votes involving labor negotiations.”

InsideNOVA.com Coverage of Public Comment At Recent County Board Meeting

10/25/19

“Audrey Clement’s perpetual County Board campaign took the offensive at last Saturday’s board meeting, attacking board chairman Christian Dorsey for accepting campaign contributions from unions that potentially could benefit from decision-making during his service on the board of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.”

ARLnow Coverage of 2019 Chamber of Commerce Candidate Forum

9/10/2019

Overall, Clement argued that development drives up costs to build housing and that even dedicated affordable housing units come at a steep cost.

InsideNOVA.com Coverage of 2019 Civic Federation Candidate Forum

9/6/2019

“I would characterize Arlington’s growth as growth on steroids,” said challenger Audrey Clement, portraying current County Board members as putting their heads in the sand on its ramifications while allowing “developers and builders to line their pockets.”

ARLnow Coverage of 2019 County Board Independent Candidates

Clement also told ARLnow she believes she’s able to earn the support of Arlington voters now more than ever thanks to those who oppose the Board’s approval of the HQ2 deal with Amazon, which has led to rising rents and home values, and potentially higher real estate taxes. She’s pledged to fight for tax relief for those “priced out of their homes” if elected.

“For those who want to make a killing by selling their property, Amazon HQ2 was a good thing. For voters who want to stay here on fixed incomes, it may be up and out,” she said. “If so, they have Katie and Christian to thank.”

InsideNOVA.com Coverage of FY2019 Arlington County Adopted Budget

“Placing vital programs on the chopping block is the best way for County Board to push a tax increase while concealing real pork in the budget,” Clement said.

InsideNOVA.com Coverage of 2018 Arlington Civic Federation Debate

Kanninen, who won the 2014 election over Clement by a two-to-one margin, also stayed true to her own past performance: She was willing to accept her opponent’s verbal body blows during the debate, while pressing home her message that the school system is acting as responsible stewards with the public’s money.

Clement, who has run multiple times for several local offices, was having none of that argument. She promised the voters would “get more bang for the School Board’s buck” if they elected her.

“Arlington spends 2.5 times the state average for new classroom capacity,” she said at the heavily attended forum. “The additional money that Arlington is spending . . . is not resulting in better performance. We don’t have better schools.”

ARLnow.com Story On Design of New Reed Elementary School

“It will force 9- and 10-year-olds to march up three flights of stairs several times a day,” Clement told the Board. “While this scheme furthers APS’ commitment to a more-car diet, it will impose physical hardship on students and drive up costs.”

InsideNOVA.com story On Changing Name of Washington-Lee High School

“Had not George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson – all Virginia native sons and slaveholders – greased the skids of institutionalized slavery by agreeing to write it into the U.S. Constitution, Lee would not have taken up arms against his own nation,” Clement said in a missive to supporters. “To strike Lee’s name from Washington-Lee High School without also striking Washington’s name is hypocrisy in the extreme.”

ARLnow.com Editorial on Decision to Run for School Board

“If past track record is any indication, the odds will be overwhelmingly against Clement, who would be running to unseat incumbent Barbara Kanninen. On the other hand, uncontested elections are rarely a good thing in a democracy, and Clement has added to the civic conversation whenever she has run.”

InsideNOVA.com Editorial on Decision to Run for School Board

“I say this as one who likes Clement and thinks she brings valuable points of view to the community conversation: It’s time for her to stop running for office.”