This is all true. If JV couldn't carry the SFH moderates of NA by a larger margin, he had no chance to overcome the SA voters who were still miffed about the Streetcar, the SA voters who would never vote for anyone without a D next to their name even if that someone has mostly voted along with the Ds, coupled with the Orange Line singles and DINKs who likely voted straight D without any other information. It remains to be seen whether MdeF will be a return to the old days. Frankly, they don't have the money they once did so a lot of what anyone hopes to do will just not happen, this includes more AH. Hopefully MdeF will make good on his promises about schools. It's not likely, but JV wasn't able to keep his promises there either because he was too cozy with the Parks groups who oppose funding and land for schools. |
What is your source for your assertions that the absentee ballots came disproportionately from NA, and that the voting trends among those ballots were different from in-person voting? Surely you have more foundation than "This would help my argument so I want it to be true." |
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The N/S debate here misses the point. JV got way more votes from people on both sides of Route 50 who actually follow local issues. The bigger question is why the 47% of us who obviously follow Arlington closely enough to understand why MdeF will be a disaster can’t get involved and takeover AC/DC. And I am asking that seriously. Because most of the millennials who voted the sample ballot aren’t showing up for Arlington Dem meetings either. We need to find a Dem who cares about school issues to challenge Cristol in the caucus.
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You are ridiculous. South Arlington voted for de Ferranti by a 16-point margin. How can you say his win has nothing to do with South Arlington when it’s exactly what they voted for? |
Yes. This. Look to the future. I was the OP who asked the original question. I was having a hard time deciding because while I recognize neither one is perfect, I like both JV and MdF and would like for them both to be on the Board actually. OTOH, I CANNOT stand Katie Cristol. With her attitude about schools, she needs to GO. Who will challenge her? Her challenger will have my support 100%. |
Agreed. To the poster trying to blame this on N Arlington - sorry, your neighbors clearly voted against your (and probably their) interests. There’s no way around that. |
GREAT question! |
I didn't say that. I said that north Arlington provided matt with more votes than did south Arlington, and that his win was "not without help from SA." You quoted my post, did you even read it? You're still stuck on percentages. Can you at least acknowledge that North Arlington is not half of Arlington in terms of population, but more like 2/3rds? |
I don't stake any of my argument on that suspicion, but since you ask, my guess is that a large portion of absentee ballots are college students studying/living elsewhere. That is a common way one becomes eligible to vote absentee. And yes, there are more of icy voters from north Arlington than south. Another example of how north Arlington is bigger than south: it has two high schools and south has one. For the purposes of my argument all that's required is to acknowledge that we don't know precisely how many are NA or sa and that matters wen we're talking about "winning" NA by 1 percentage point. |
If you're not staking your argument on your suspicions about absentee ballots, then I can't tell what your argument is because nothing you say seems to hold if you're willing to acknowledge the possibility that the majority of North Arlington voters really did vote for Vihstadt. I also do not understand the relevance of your "North Arlington is bigger" point unless you're trying to claim it somehow effectively disenfranchises South Arlington, even though that clearly didn't happen here because MdF won despite the best efforts of neighborhoods like Williamsburg, East Falls Church, Rock Spring and Westover. |
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Can we stop blaming "millennials"?!? Especially when the word you're looking for is "young people"!!! The oldest millennials are almost FORTY YEARS OLD.
-A Millennial who has lived in Arlington for over 15 years, owns property, and has kids and who voted for JV. Plus, I would wager that the old people are probably to blame for JV's loss. The ones who couldn't care less about the schools. |
| The reason JV lost is b/c of the stupid sample ballots. People want to send a message of the national level, but don't realize how different politics are at the county level. Uninformed or unmotivated voters take the sample ballot and just check off whatever is on the blue sheet. I know, I used to be like that, too. It's easy, but it sucks. |
Thank you! -fellow parent/homeowner/Xennial |
And JV voter! |
A non-provable assertion. |