A small blow was struck against Arlogance Tuesday, as Republican-turned-independent John Vihstadt won a special election — convincingly — for a seat on the county’s Board of Supervisors and becomes the first non-Democrat on the BOS since 1999:
Vihstadt countered the party’s overwhelming strength in Arlington by telling voters that the board would benefit from fresh thinking and a more skeptical approach to spending tax dollars on costly projects such as streetcars and high-end swimming pools.
“They threw everything they could at us,” Vihstadt said Tuesday evening from a neighbor’s home, where he was celebrating. “We forged a true coalition of Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians and independents who yearn for accountability, transparency, fiscal responsibility and balance rather than a continuation of the echo chamber and status quo.”
Imagine that…a coalition builder. I thought it was a lost art.
The Washington Post story goes to some lengths to say that local issues trumped any wider considerations:
Tuesday’s election may have focused on local issues more than ideology, however. Vihstadt hit the County Board hard over its support of the Columbia Pike streetcar, a $1 million bus stop, the over-budget Long Bridge Aquatics Center and other capital projects.
Ah yes, the million dollar bus stop. And the streetcar line.
With issues like those, the only real wonder is that Arlington hasn’t witnessed a general uprising. Or not…we are talking about the People’s Republic.
All this aside, there was one other tid-bit worth mentioning:
Most state and local Democrats supported Howze, who won a contested primary for the party nomination. “I got four phone calls last night,” including a robo-call from Sen. Mark Warner (D), said Ann Hitt, who voted for Howze at Kenmore Middle School. “I was trying to make up my mind, and they made it up for me.”
Not even Mark Warner’s silver tongue could overcome the streetcars and bus stops. The real fun? That he was involved in the contest at all.
Still, Warner isn’t alone. We can recall Eric Cantor’s disastrous involvement in the commonwealth’s attorney race in Henrico county a few years back. It resulted in the election of the first Democrat to hold the position in almost a generation.
