Vol. 42, No 7 www.arlingtondemocrats.org July 2017

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Democrats have only 34 seats in the current100-seat House of Delegates, but Dems already have28 seats locked up in the next House of Delegatesbecause that many Dem candidates are running un-opposed.

It’s a huge change from past years when Demshave often had to dragoon candidates to hoist theDemocrats’ flag. Now, candidates see a real chanceof victory. Democrats have candidates in 88 of the100 delegate districts, meaning the GOP has onlylocked up 12 seats so far. For comparison’s sake,two years ago at this time, 44 Republicans faced noDemocratic opposition.

Republicans, meanwhile, have candidates inonly 72 districts, handing early victories to 28 Dems.

Only six incumbent Democrats face opposi-tion (including our own Alfonso Lopez), while 47—count ‘em—Republicans are facing Democraticopposition.

The June gubernatorial primaries produced anumber of surprises, and they mostly pointed posi-tive for Democrats looking forward to November.

First of all, the Democratic gubernatorial pri-mary turnout set a record with 542,816 voters, 10.1percent more than the previous record, set more thana third of a century ago when 493,108 turned outfor the barnburner race between Henry Howell andAndrew Miller in 1977.

But the GOP didn’t set a record. Its guberna-torial race drew just 365,782 voters—32.6 percentbelow the Democratic turnout and 9.0 percent be-low its old record set in 1989 when J. MarshallColeman beat two other candidates.

Retired State Sen. John Watkins, a Republi-can, was asked about the turnout. “Personally, itscared the heck out of me,” the Chesterfield Ob-server reported. “They care and we don’t care thatmuch.” He said the gap in turnout in the primary isa “major problem” for the GOP going into the fall.

Gubernatorial primary givesDems many good surprises

Democrats already half-way toHouse of Delegates majority

Ron Hedlund, a member of the GOP state cen-tral committee, labeled the turnout an “enthusiasmgap” and said, “We had better get our act together.”

Even in Chesterfield County, historically oneof the commonwealth’s most reliably (and large)red locales, Democrats cast 4,164 more ballots forgovernor than Republicans did.

The outcome also produced Democratic unityand GOP disunity. Hours after the polls closed, TomPerriello warmly endorsed Dem winning nomineeRalph Northam. But over on the GOP side, runner-up candidate Corey Stewart snarled, “There’s oneword you will never hear from me and that’s ‘unity,’because, look folks, we’ve been backing down toolong … in defense of our culture, our heritage andour country.”

It wasn’t just Perriello endorsing Northam.Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who had backed Perriello,even came out for Northam, calling him a “great”

None of this, of course, spells victory. Butthere wouldn’t be 47 Dems challenging 47 incum-bent Republicans if they didn’t smell the real chanceof victory.

Del. David Toscano, the House Democraticleader, said the reason so many Democrats soughtnominations this year is obvious. “It’s called DonaldTrump,” he said.

Toscano said opposition to Trump is so strongthat it’s overcome the reluctance Democratic can-didates have had in the past to compete in a districtwith boundary lines drawn to help Republicans.“They feel very strongly that we have to put peopleon the field to give voters a choice, and that’s theonly way we’re going to come back,” he said.

Some Democratic candidates in GOP-leaningdistricts may face long odds, but even running acredible campaign can help the party overall by forc-

YOUR

DEMOCRATIC

STATEWIDE

TICKET

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ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 2

Report from Chairman Kip Malinosky

Published monthly by theArlington County Democratic Committee

2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite #604, Arlington VA 22202Mailing address: P.O. Box 7132, Arlington VA 22207

Tel: (703) 528-8588http://www.arlingtondemocrats.org

Chair: Kip Malinosky — kipmalinosky@gmail.com Editor-in-Chief: Warren L. Nelson —(703) 243-7867 (h), warnelson@aol.com

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

Copyright ©2017, 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: (202) 744-0542 — jbotland@msn.com

Climate crisis & job opportunitiesThere is little doubt that we are now in a

climate crisis. Sea levels are rising faster andfaster, heat waves are becoming more com-mon, the polar ice caps are melting and car-bon in the atmosphere continues to rise torecord highs. The signs are all around us: is-lands are starting to disappear in the Chesa-peake, a heat wave is grounding flights inPhoenix, and billion dollar weather disastersare becoming much more frequent year-af-ter-year. Democrats realize we face an exis-tential threat that is also a remarkable oppor-tunity to create thousands if not millions ofnew jobs.

Of course, Republicans led by DonaldTrump and Ed Gillespie in Virginia are disre-garding all of this, withdrawing us from theParis Climate Accords, and are trying to re-vive our reliance on failing fossil fuel com-panies. How can we resist?

We must thank our senators and con-gressman for all they are doing and press themto fight even harder against Republican ef-forts to roll-back environmental protectionsat the federal level. However, the most effec-

tive set of actions we can take is at the statelevel to elect Democrats Ralph Northam asgovernor, Justin Fairfax as lieutenant gover-nor, and reelect Attorney General Mark Her-ring along with a new Democratic majorityin the House of Delegates. Every statewideDemocratic candidate is running to protect theenvironment and create new jobs, while ev-ery Republican candidate either ignores orrejects action on climate change.

Lt Governor Ralph Northam, theDemocratic Nominee for governor, states onhis website, “The Trump Administration hasalready begun its all-out assault on the envi-ronmental protections that keep Virginianshealthy and make our communities greatplaces to live.” Northam proposes a slew ofpolicies to make Virginia a leading state infighting climate change. First, Virginia willkeep its commitment to the Clean Power Plan,including joining the Climate State Alliance.Second, he will continue to protect the Chesa-peake Bay with opposition to offshore drill-ing and invest in restoration efforts. Third, hewants to encourage clean energy choice and

competition which would create new jobs inVirginia. By contrast, the Republican nomi-nee for governor, Ed Gillespie, does not men-tion the words “climate” or “environment” onhis website.

Justin Fairfax agrees with Northam onthe importance of fighting climate change andprotecting the Chesapeake Bay. Fairfax stateson his website, “With increased use of cleanenergy, Virginia families could see a 5% cuton average in their electric bills and Virginia’seconomy could see thousands of new jobs.”In other words, clean energy can help us cutcosts, create jobs and address the climate cri-sis. Fairfax also wants to see that we help ad-dress the transition of coal regions to new,sustainable economies and help coastal townsmeet the challenge of increased flooding. StateSenator Jill Vogel, the Republican nomineefor lieutenant governor, also neglects to men-tion the words “climate” or “environment” onher website and she received an “F” from theSierra Club for her votes from 2014 through2016.

Attorney General Mark Herring has al-ready made significant progress fighting cli-mate change in Virginia. In 2016 he success-fully sued and settled the largest environmen-tal protection case in Virginia’s history with a$50 million settlement with the DuPont Com-pany. He has successfully defended regula-tions protecting the Chesapeake Bay. Goingforward, Herring has pledged to join with 20other attorneys general to defend the CleanPower Plan and the Environmental ProtectionAgency from decimation by the Trump ad-ministration. The Republican nominee for at-torney general, John Adams, also does notmention the words “climate” or “environ-ment” on his website.

So, on climate change, the choice isclear: we can recognize the crisis and createjobs with Northam, Fairfax and Herring orignore and hope the coal mines will openagain with Gillespie, Vogel and Adams. WithTrump reversing federal action to meet theclimate crisis, it is imperative that states likeVirginia step up to the challenge.

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 3

Next Monthly MeetingAll Dems InvitedWednesday, July 5, 7 p.m.

Bumper Sticker of the month

NRECA Building, 4301 Wilson BlvdCorner of North Taylor and Wilson, just east of Glebe & Wilson

Free parking under building, enter from Taylor Street

With the primary now history, our July meeting

will see the formal kickoff of the Joint Campaign, which is

ACDC’s annual effort to support the full Democratic ticket

by jointly managing activities that don’t need to be done

by individual candidates, like the organizing of the The

Democratic Messenger and literature distribution at Metro

stops. The program for the meeting will focus on how

Arlington can reach 100 percent renewable energy.

Virginia Republicans will choose their2018 U.S. Senate candidate in a state-run pri-mary after the party’s central committee re-jected the usual resort to a small-scale con-vention at which right-wingers tend to pre-vail.

The Republican Party of Virginia voted45 for a primary and 35 for a convention. Theparty has seemed to be more open to prima-ries since the 2013 convention enthusiasticallychose the most right-wing candidates for allthree statewide offices—governor, lieutenantgovernor and attorney general—and all wentdown to defeat that November.

The central committee vote clarified theprocess Republicans will use to select theirchallenger to run against Sen. Tim Kaine, butthe field of candidates is far from set. Amongthe long list of possible contenders are formerGOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina,conservative commentator Laura Ingraham,former Gov. Jim Gilmore, former AttorneyGeneral Ken Cuccinelli, retiring state Del.Jimmie Massie of Henrico County and USReps. Barbara Comstock, Dave Brat and RobWittman. Prince William Board of CountySupervisors Chairman Corey Stewart said hemay run for the seat after narrowly losing theRepublican nomination for governor.

Dennis Free, the party’s 2nd Congres-sional District chairman, argued for a primary,

saying the party just had a “very successful”gubernatorial primary that allowed morepeople to participate and gave the party a troveof fresh voter information. Free said prima-ries also vet candidates in ways that conven-tions, which in the recent past have drawnabout 5,000 attendees, cannot.

“Can they raise a statewide organization?Can they raise the funds necessary?” askedFree. “All of these are part of that vetting pro-cess that is so important that we do to makesure we have a candidate that’s going to actu-ally compete on a state level.”

Morton Blackwell, a conservative andparty rules expert who represents Virginia on

the Republican National Committee, said thefact that Kaine likely will not face competi-tion from a Democratic primary challengercould create a “perfect storm” for Republi-cans by allowing meddling Democrats intothe Republican primary process.

“There will be enormous incentives forDemocrats in large numbers to come in andsupport candidates for our nomination,”Blackwell said. “And believe me, they areeither going to be coming in for the most lib-eral of the Republican candidates, or the Re-publican candidate that they think they canmost easily beat. I think this is a slam-dunkcase this time for a convention next year.”

GOP primaryto pick Kaineopponent

TimKaine

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, July 2017, Page 4

Back to the classroom: Robin Tejada, wife of recently-retired County Boardmember Walter Tejada, is out of the frying pan and into the fire. After 13years in the central office at Arlington Public Schools, she will be back inthe classroom next fall. “I’ve enjoyed this job,” she said. “But it’s time toget back to the artistry, creativity, fun and making-a-difference that teachingbrings.”

Venerable Venable man: The Venable law firm recently named formerACDC Chair Larry Roberts its Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year for his goodworks (literally). The award is named for Benjamin Civilletti, a long-timerVenable partner who joined the firm after he served as attorney generalunder Jimmy Carter.

Sticky stuff: Former Del. Rob Krupicka, who retired from politics to selldonuts from his shops in Alexandria and Arlington, is looking for someDC-area themed flavors—ones “that you would actually want to eat,” avery important qualifier. Here are a few of the suggestions he’s received:’Unindicted Co-conut Conspirator; the Alternative Facts donut—says it’sfat free, but the ingredients say otherwise; The Capitol Hill—fluff andsugary perimeter with a hollow core; The Beltway—with jam 24 hours aday; The Metro—red, orange, blue, silver, green and yellow frosting in linesacross the top, slightly charred on the underside from constantly being onfire.

Costly celebration: Edd Nolen, former precinct captain and all-roundvolunteer, and wife Anita celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in grandstyle by dining at the Inn at Little Washington. Edd allowed that it was atad expensive, but considered that okay for a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

Chip off the old block 1: Dan Broder, son of late Washington Post stafferDavid Broder, is writing the “Your Day in Trump” blog to highlight thezaniest thing to happen each day in the Trump orbit. There’s a lot to choosefrom. Check it out at https://yourdayintrump.com/feed/

Chip off the old block 2: Way down south in the House of Delegates District#1, Alicia Kallen of Big Stone Gap has won the Democratic nomination totake on the very difficult challenge of trying to unseat Republican Del. TerryKilgore. Alicia’s grandmother is Vivian Kallen, who failed to win a seat inthe House of Delegates from Arlington in 1969. Alicia’s dad, Greg, waselected as Wise County’s commonwealth’s attorney.

Record-breaking governor: Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s veto pen gets no rest.He vetoed 40 bills from this year’s General Assembly and the assembly didnot overrule a single one. For his four years, his record on vetoes is 111-0.Not a single one has been overruled. Among the bills he vetoed this yearwas one to require that voters sending in mailed ballots must include aphotocopy of a photo ID, just as a person voting in-person must show aphoto ID. Supporters of the bill did not seem to notice that there is no wayto check the voter’s face against the ID with a mailed-in ballot!

The Democratic crowd lining up to chal-lenge Rep. Barbara Comstock in the adjoin-ing 10th District has grown to seven—and theelection is still 16 months away!

Larry Sabato of the University of Vir-ginia lists the districts of three GOP congress-men nationally as toss-ups and eight as onlyleaning Republican. And just three of those11 are east of Mississippi. And the only onein Virginia is Barbara Comstock’s district,which will draw a lot of funds and volun-teers—including from Arlington—next year.

The seat has been in GOP hands since1980. But the demographics have beensteadily changing and the district grows moreDemocratic with each passing year. The dis-trict is centered in Loudoun County but takesin the Potomac shoreline of Fairfax Countyright down to the Arlington line, plus chunksof Prince William County and the strong (butsmall) Republican bastions of Clarke andFrederick counties that stretch out beyondWinchester to the West Virginia line.

As a clear indicator of the changing de-mographics. Hillary Clinton won the districtlast fall. But GOPers note that Comstock ran16 points ahead of Donald Trump last fall andthink she fits the district.

Not so, say the seven folks so far pursu-ing Comstock at this early date. They are:• Alison Kiehl Friedman, executive direc-tor of the Alliance to Stop Slavery and EndTrafficking.• Deep Sran, whose parents are from In-dia, is founder of the Loudoun School for theGifted.• Jennifer Wexton, a former prosecutorand current state senator from LoudounCounty.• Lindsay Davis Stover, who worked in theDepartment of Veterans Affairs during theObama Administration.• Dan Helmer, a Rhodes Scholar and Armyveteran.• David B. Hanson, a retired Navy intelli-gence officer.• Kimberly Adams, past president of theFairfax teachers union.

Long queueof eager 10thDistrict Demsrunning

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 5

Rep. Don Beyer has introduced legisla-tion to completely change the way membersof Congress are elected, the goal being to cre-ate more competition and to encourage morecandidates to appeal to the center of the po-litical spectrum.

Beyer’s bill, H.R. 3057, would have vot-ers cast Ranked Order Ballots (ROB), thesame as Arlington Democrats have used intheir caucuses in recent years. Voters ranktheir preferences first, second, third, etc.

Second, Beyer’s bill would junk the cur-rent system of one congressman per districtand create multi-member districts. Any statewith five or fewer representatives would electthem all at-large. Bigger states would be di-vided into multiple districts. Virginia, with11 congressmen, would have three districts,one with five and two with three representa-tives each.

Third, those districts’ boundaries wouldbe drawn by independent commissions toeliminate gerrymandering.

In an op-ed article in The WashingtonPost June 27, Beyer said the current winner-take-all system can effectively lock out mi-nority party members. He pointed to Massa-chusetts with nine congressional districts.While 24 percent of Massachusetts residentswith party registrations are Republican, noRepublican has won a seat in Congress for 20years.

“This means that the Republican quartileof the electorate rightly feels left out and dis-illusioned, and Democratic candidates largely

Don Beyer proposes new electoral system

run and govern from the left, knowing it isthe source of their only true opposition,”Beyer wrote.

He added, “Applied nationally, we wouldhave more moderate Democrats from districtsleaning Republican, and vice versa, creatinga type of politician—now nearly extinct—known as a ‘bridge-builder’.”

The system means that in a district withfive congressmen, any candidate drawingmore than 17 percent of the vote would win,while in a three-seat district, any candidatewith 25 percent would be elected. That vastlyimproves the chances for ethnic, racial andideological minorities to win seats and repre-sentation.

The Ranked Order Ballot comes into

REDRAW — Virginia’s 11House districts look like theabove now, but could becomethree multi-member districtslike below under the Beyer bill.

play when candidates don’t exceed thosethresholds. Let’s say in a three-member dis-trict, only one candidate tops 25 percent. Thenthe bottom-ranked candidate is eliminated andthe votes cast for him as first-choice are re-allocated to those voters’ second choices. Thisis repeated again as needed until three candi-dates top the 25 percent threshold.

And that increases the likelihood thatevery voter would feel that at least one repre-sentative truly was his or her representative.

Except in states with only one or tworepresentatives, every constituent would havethree, four or five congressmen, but no more.

Details of the proposed system are avail-able on the website www.fairvote.org.

DonBeyer

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 6

continued from page one

candidate. Northam had helped grease theunity skids during the campaign by avoidingnegative campaigning and even denouncingan anonymously funded PAC attack onPerriello.

Politico wrote: “What Virginia showedis that Democrats are having the more civi-lized internal debate, they are establishingmore common policy ground and they aremaking it easier to join forces after the votesare tallied.... Democrats have the unity edge.And if Republicans continue to treat ‘unity’like a dirty word, Democrats are sure to keepit.”

Most attention focused on the doubleerror of the pre-primary polls. Northam wasexpected to be in a fight for his life withPerriello, but in the end he won by a comfort-able margin of 11.8 percentage points. Overin the GOP primary, Ed Gillespie was sup-posed to be attending a coronation, but he ekedout victory over Stewart—the great defenderof Confederate memorials—by a mere 1.1percentage points.

A Republican finale with a) a close vote,b) a low turnout and c) a rebellious runner-updid not get the GOP’s general election cam-paign off to a good start.

Furthermore, the Libertarian Party en-tered the race—and it usually draws morevoters from the GOP than from the Demo-cratic Party. Cliff Hyra, a 34-year-old patentattorney from Hanover County, submittedpetitions bearing more than 10,000 signaturesto earn a ballot spot.

Hyra is making his first bid for electedoffice. He has a law degree from George Ma-son University and a bachelor’s degree inaerospace engineering from Virginia Tech,according to his law office website. He ismarried with three children.

Four years ago, Rob-ert Sarvis ran as the Liber-tarian candidate for gover-nor, winning 6.5 percent or146,084 votes, which was2-1/2 times the 56,435-votemargin by which DemocratTerry McAuliffe defeatedrightwing Republican KenCuccinelli.

Looking at Arlington,the results were signifi-cantly different than thestatewide statistics. First,Northam polled very

strongly, winning 61.9 percent in Arlingtonversus 55.9 percent statewide. Northam lostonly three of Arlington’s 54 precincts—Rosslyn, Campbell and Gunston.

Second, in the lieutenant governor’s pri-mary, Arlington went with Susan Platt insteadof statewide winner Justin Fairfax—althoughonly by the slimmest of margins. Here arethe percentages:

State ArlJustin Fairfax 49.2% 46.0%Susan Platt 39.2% 46.2%Gene Rossi 11.6% 7.8%

All three candidates hail from NorthernVirginia—Fairfax and Platt from Fairfax

County and Rossi fromAlexandria. In the Republicanlieutenant governor pri-mary, State Sen. Jill Vogelof Fauquier County wonthe nod, so the Novemberrace pits a woman againstan African-American. The turnout in Ar-lington was also verypositive. Where Demo-crats have gotten use todrawing more than 70percent of the vote locally

and where Hillary Clinton won 75.8 percentof the Arlington vote last fall, a total of 84.7percent of primary voters were Democrats inJune.

There was no contest in either party forthe third statewide office, attorney general.Neither incumbent Democrat Mark Herringnor his GOP challenger John Adams faced anomination race.

And, in Arlington, none of the four localmembers of the House of Delegates—allDemocrats—faced a primary challenge.

While the statewide primary outcomesall pointed in a healthy direction for Demo-crats in November, many Democrats hadhoped for a different outcome in the two GOPprimaries. A Republican ticket led by Con-federate flag-waver Corey Stewart for gover-nor and gay-basher Bryce Reeves for lieuten-ant governor would have painted an ugly faceon the GOP and helped even more to rallyDemocrats in the general election.

Reeves had lashed the eventual winner,Vogel, for voting to confirm a gay man for ajudgeship. Vogel only beat Reeves by a mar-gin of 2.82 percentage points.

Politico commented, “The wins byGillespie and Vogel indicate that a thin ma-jority of the state’s Republicans are not con-sumed by bigotry, while the strong secondplaces for Stewart and Reeves suggest thatthe hard right is getting only harder to placatein Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”

The GOP this year chose to hold a pri-mary rather than its usual convention, in partto avoid a hard-right outcome, rememberingvery unpleasantly how four years ago a GOPconvention chose the most rightwing candi-dates seeking all three statewide offices andall three went down to defeat in November.

In the fall campaign, President BarackObama will join only his second campaignsince leaving office. He didn’t campaign forany candidates in the special congressionalelections this spring, but he did record a videoendorsing Emmanuel Macron in the Frenchpresidential election!

Obama will not only be campaigning forNortham, but also trying to get out the youthand black votes in order to win more seats inthe House of Delegates. Obama has said re-districting is his main cause right now—andto counter GOP gerrymandering, Democratsmust win back the many state legislatures theyhave lost. Voting maps will be redrawn afterthe 2020 Census.

A national Democratic Party effort to win

NORTHAM. . . for governor

continued on next page

FAIRFAX

Statewide ticket looking set to win

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 7

continued from page one

state legislative races and see more fairlydrawn boundaries is being led by former At-torney General Eric Holder, who told the Vir-ginia Jefferson-Jackson Dinner a few weeksago that Virginia is at “the epicenter of thepolitical universe in 2017” and pledged tobring Democratic all-stars into the common-wealth for the fall campaign. There is nogreater all-star than Obama.

The Washington Post pointed out thatObama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, kepta low political profile after leaving office andhas only campaigned for one candidate—hisbrother, Jeb, in the 2016 GOP presidentialprimaries.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespiestarted off the general election campaign witha typical tailing candidate’s ploy—challeng-ing the front-runner to join in a horde of de-bates. Gillespie specifically proposed 10 de-

ing Republicans to spread out their spending.In past years, a lack of competition let Re-publicans pool resources and spend heavilyon a handful of competitive districts.

Democrats have also noted that last No-vember Hillary Clinton won in 17 delegatedistricts that are currently occupied by GOPdelegates. That has a lot of people lickingtheir chops. Needless to say, some on the GOPside disagree. Christopher West, the spokes-man for House Speaker William J. Howell,told the AP: “The model may say one thingbut the truth is Republicans hold 17 Houseseats won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Their[Democrats’] problem is weak candidateswho run poor campaigns based on bad ideas,not the districts.” That may have been trueonce, but that’s history now.

This year is also looking like a Year ofthe Woman. There were 20 contested prima-ries to choose the Dem nominee for delegateseats. In 15 of those districts, a woman wonthe nomination. In only one district was awoman defeated by a male candidate. In 10of the 15 nominations won by a woman,women defeated men and in the other fivethere were only women running.

Most noteworthy was the nomination ofDanica Roem to take on rabid right-wingerBob Marshall, a 13-term incumbent in the

Manassas area. Marshall, 73, has drafted suchnoteworthy legislation as the constitutionalamendment to bar same-sex marriage and lastyear’s North Carolina-style bathroom bill.The first became law before it was declaredunconstitutional. The second was rejected byMarshall’s own party colleagues.

Now he will face 32-year-old Roem, whois transgender! A former Prince WilliamTimes journalist, she gained renown duringthe campaign for her detailed knowledge oflocal issues. She defeated three others to winthe nomination, two white guys and an In-dian Sikh. She ranked third in fund-raising.

“The frustration with [Marshall] plus myidentity is certainly headline-grabbing,” shesaid after winning the nomination. “But whatI really hear mostly is ‘You are so thought-ful,’ ‘you really seem to know what you aretalking about,’ and ‘you really seem to have afirm grasp of the facts’.”

Looking forward she said, “We’re go-ing to bring a fight to Delegate Marshall thathe’s never seen.”

Marshall’s district is changing, alongwith most of Northern Virginia. In the 1990s,he topped 80 percent of the vote. But twoyears ago, he got 56 percent and four yearsago he just limped back to Richmond with 51percent.

Roem told a voter in Manassas, “BobMarshall is more concerned about where I use

the bathroom than how to get people to work.”She then launched into an explanation of howto speed up traffic on Route 28.

Of the four delegates representing Ar-lington, three—Mark Levine, Patrick Hopeand Rip Sullivan—face no opposition, eitherfrom the GOP or independents. AlfonsoLopez will face Republican Adam Roosevelt.

ROEM. . . against Bob Marshall

continued from previous page

Dems united; GOPers see that as dirty wordbates. Northam countered by proposing threedebates and seven joint appearances.Gillespie called that “insulting” to Virginia’svoters. Northam said he didn’t takeGillespie’s proposal seriously since Gillespienever reached out toNortham to discuss de-bates before making hispublic pronouncement.

Northam held fivedebates with Perriello. Acomputer search by TheVoice found that Gillespieonly appeared in threedebates with his primarychallengers, on February18, April 13 and April22—none of them evenclose to the June 13 pri-mary date. Gillespie’stwo opponents both ac-

cused him of trying to duck them because hewas ahead in the polls. Gillespie respondedthat voters had plenty of opportunities to hearfrom all the candidates and choose accord-ingly.

Interestingly, eight yearsago, Gillespie was the chair-man of Bob McDonnell’sgubernatorial campaignwhen McDonnell proposed10 debates with DemocratCreigh Deeds. They heldfour debates. Four yearsago, McAuliffe andCuccinelli held three de-bates.

The first major post-pri-mary poll, taken byQuinnipiac University June15-20, showed Northamwith an eight-point lead47%-39%.

HERRING

Many are now eager to run for delegate

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 8

Louise Fishbein, a long-time precinctcaptain and volunteer-for-everything, passedaway peacefully at her Arlington home June12 at the age of 91.

She had been a teacher for decades inthe Arlington Public School system, a life-long advocate for progressive causes and anactive participant in ACDC.

Louise Agnes Pillsbury was born March26, 1926, in Grantham, New Hampshire. At18, she left Grantham and moved to Wash-ington to work as an FBI “fingerprint girl,”part of a wave of rural women who were re-cruited to fill the federal government’s grow-ing clerical needs.

She later worked as a librarian at TheWashington Post where she met her husband,Seymour, to whom she was married for 63years. They settled in Arlington in 1957 andraised four sons. She served as a den motherand softball coach of Den 3, Cub Scout Pack116.

In mid-life, she entered university, gradu-ating cum laude from Marymount Universityin 1977. This resulted in a 27-year career as apublic school teacher. She taught in Arling-ton at Claremont and Fort Myer ElementarySchools and for many years at KenmoreMiddle School.

Even her youngest students were assuredof a comprehensive introduction to the worksof Shakespeare. Louise received The Wash-ington Post’s Agnes Meyer OutstandingTeacher award for the 1993-1994 school year.

She lobbied Congress for more accurate

FISHBEIN. . . Westover precinct captain

Louise Fishbein passes away at age 91food labeling. She joined efforts to supportcivil rights marchers in the 1960s and farmworkers. She opened her home to anti-war ac-tivists in the 1970s.

She was a Democratic precinct captainin the Westover Precinct. In 1992 Louise wasa delegate to the Democratic National Con-vention, and in 2004 she received the Demo-cratic Grassroots Award for the 8th Congres-sional District.

Up to the end of her life, she volunteeredeach summer to address envelopes forACDC’s annual Dollars for Democrats cam-paign.

Louise worked actively in the ArlingtonEducation Association where she was a presi-dent of the retirees’ chapter and served on theExecutive Board. Louise also served as theSecretary of the Virginia EducationAssociation’s Retirement Council and oftenspent weekends lobbying in Richmond foreducational and other policies.

Louise enjoyed spending time at thebeach in Delaware, in the mountains near herNew Hampshire childhood home and in hergarden. She was fiercely proud of her Irishheritage and loved recounting her return toher family’s farm in Inchigeelagh, CountyCork.

She was predeceased by her husband, herparents, her brother Paul and her five belovedrescue dogs. She is survived by her sonsJonathan, Jeffrey, James and Jerry, her daugh-ters in-law Martha Fishbein, Kim Gilman,Jacqueline Heilman and her eight grandchil-

dren, Sarah, Katie, Alex, Skye, Marina, Eli,Aaron and Cotter.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may bemade to the Arlington Community Founda-tion Scholarships, 818 N. Quincy Street, Suite103, Arlington, VA, 22203 or to the AnimalWelfare League of Arlington, 2650 S. Arling-ton Mill Dr, Arlington, VA, 22206.

The Arlington Young Democrats took up the issue of money inJune, but not campaign fund-raising.

AYD focused on an issue very important to young people—fi-nancial literacy—at their monthly meeting June 21 at George MasonUniversity’s Hazel Hall.

The meeting was a financial literacy workshop focused on itemsof interest to young professionals in Arlington. Financial advisors fromFirst Command Financial Services (www.FirstCommand.com) dis-cussed topics such as the priorities of financial planning; student loansand public service loan forgiveness programs; and budgeting and in-vesting.

July will see AYDers relaxing and recharging their batteries be-fore the fall campaign kicks into high gear. They will have a barbecueSunday, July 23, after their monthly meeting Wednesday, July 19. Fulldetails are on the AYD Facebook page.

May saw three board members serving as Deputy Caucus Direc-tors for the County Board/School Board Caucus: Chris Leyen, NicoleMerlene, and Juanita Tolliver. Additionally, AYD created a videoexplaining the caucus voting process.

The Second Saturday Breakfast this month will focus on the“Coordinated Campaign,” which is the term used for the statewideeffort to link all Democratic campaigns being held in a year in acoordinated movement. The Arlington equivalent is what is calledthe “Joint Campaign.”

These two campaign systems don’t replace individual candi-date campaigns, but supplement them by organizing efforts on be-half of all candidates, such as door-to-door canvassing.

The Second Saturday Breakfast this month will fall on Satur-day, July 8, and will be held at the same old stand, Busboys and Poetsin Shirlington.

The Regional Director of the Virginia Coordinated Campaign,Chris Bolling, will talk about the statewide strategy to elect the topof the ticket—governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general—and pick up House of Delegates seats. Chris will bring along theField Organizer for Arlington to talk about the local role in bringingabout a statewide Democratic Victory in November.

After breakfast, there will be a coordinated campaign canvassinto targeted precincts in Arlington.

AYDs talk money 2nd Sat. Breakfast

ACDC Voice, July 2017, Page 9

We lost all four special elections to choosenew members of the U.S. House to replacethose who joined the Trump Administration,causing much anguish.

But all four elections were held in fairlyred districts and Democrats picked up an av-erage of 9.2 percentage points over the four—enough to easily take control of the House nextyear, if that average prevails then.

At right is a table showing how the GOPand Dem candidates did in those districts lastfall and how they did in the special elections.Note that the percentages do not all add to 100because there were some third and even fourthparty candidates in some of the elections.

Okay, just how bad was it really inthose specialelections

Tom Perriello will spend the rest of the2017 election cycle working on another po-litical dream: Democrats taking over the GOP-dominated House of Delegates.

The former congressman will lead a newpolitical action committee, Win Virginia, thatwill provide financial and campaigning sup-port to Democratic House candidates. ThePAC is expected to invest about $800,000 tohelp Democrats try to flip Republican-heldseats.

The GOP holds a 66-34 majority nowand Democrats need to pick up 17 seats inthe 100-member House. Last November,Hillary Clinton won 17 House districts thatare now held by Republicans.

“If we can connect that unprecedentedenergy out there to state races, including thedelegate races, I think you could see a verydifferent political landscape in Virginia thanyou’ve seen previously,” Perriello told theRichmond Times-Dispatch in an interview.

In addition to financial support, Perriello

said, the PAC will help Democratic campaignsuse lower-cost, technological solutions toreach new audiences such as the FacebookLive town halls that were a regular feature ofPerriello’s gubernatorial campaign.

The PAC’s funding comes from a smallgroup of donors, mostly in Northern Virginia,who decided to pool their resources to makean impact in House races, said Shaun Daniels,the PAC’s executive director. Among the earlycontributions to the PAC are $100,000 fromEdward Rice, a Vienna stockbroker and ma-jor Democratic donor; $60,000 from HerndonIT executive Shashikant Gupta; and $50,000from Reid Hoffman, a San Francisco venturecapitalist and co-founder of the professionalnetworking site LinkedIn, according to datacompiled by the Virginia Public AccessProject.

Most of the strongest pickup opportuni-ties are in the Northern Virginia suburbs, butDemocrats will also target a handful of GOP-held districts west of Richmond.

PERRIELLO. . . heads new campaign

Perriello to focus now on helping to winDem majority of delegates