Alexandria has experienced a domino effect of incoming special elections since last month, but city election officials and political party leaders are rising to the challenge amid tight deadlines.
Next Tuesday, voters will decide on special elections for seats in Virginia’s 5th House District and the 39th Senate District. Eventually, they’ll also select a new member of City Council, as Councilman R. Kirk McPike departs the post Monday to run for delegate.
Jon DeNunzio, chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee, told ALXnow several weeks in January were busy as the committee held firehouse primaries on two consecutive Tuesdays — Jan. 13 and 20 — for the Feb. 10 election.
The committee later learned it would host a third caucus for McPike’s council seat, when he announced his departure Jan. 27.
The wave of special elections began Jan. 7, when State Sen. Adam Ebbin announced his resignation to join Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration, leaving less than a week for Democratic candidates to announce and make their case to voters before ADC’s Jan. 13 firehouse primary.
Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) won that firehouse primary, leading Democrats to schedule a second firehouse primary for her seat on Jan. 20 — five days after she announced her resignation to seek Ebbin’s seat. Next week, she’ll face Republican candidate Julie Robben Lineberry, who was nominated after facing no opponents in a canceled canvassing event.
On Jan. 20, McPike won the Democratic nomination for the 5th House District. Republicans had announced Mason Butler as their nominee for the same race.
Both seats will be decided Tuesday — eight days before Ebbin and Bennett-Parker’s resignations go into effect. Because the resignations happened when the General Assembly session was underway, the process had to happen quickly.
“The state law is written that when there’s a vacancy during or near a General Assembly session, there’s a really accelerated timeline, and so we had to meet it, but we don’t have a whole lot of choice on that,” DeNunzio told ALXnow. “While it took a lot of free time out of a bunch of volunteers’ lives … it ensures that citizens are represented in the General Assembly as much as possible throughout the session.”
DeNunzio said the party’s hands are tied on the short nominating timeline when the General Assembly is active. That leaves less time for voters to hear from candidates, as evidenced in the candidate forum held one night before the 39th District firehouse primary.
“The voters have less time to learn about the candidates and get that information,” DeNuzio said. “With a longer timeline, I think we would do more, and we’re doing a little more now for the [City Council firehouse primary].”
ADC’s next firehouse primary will be held Saturday, Feb. 21 to nominate a candidate for McPike’s council seat. The Alexandria Office of Voter Registration and Elections has not yet announced a special election date for the City Council race.
Angie Maniglia Turner, the City of Alexandria’s general registrar, told ALXnow that the elections office normally ramps up three months in advance of elections. Workers prepare ballots, test and program voting equipment, train election officers and staff 32 voting locations.
But even during special elections, the registrar said staff and elections officers “are prepared to meet the challenge.”
“Whether mailing 10,000+ by-mail ballots, coordinating with facilities that serve as polling places or managing early voting, our amazing team ensures every detail is covered,” Turner said. “In the event of a special election, we still perform all these same tasks just under a much tighter deadline.”
A total of 197 election officers will assist with the Feb. 10 special election, Turner said, despite some regular election officers not being available on short notice.
On Tuesday, all City of Alexandria voters will have the 39th Senate District on the special election ballot, and part of the city will participate in the 5th House District race.
Early voting continues from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday).
On Tuesday, polling places will be open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. Voters assigned to the City Hall Precinct will vote at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy (530 S. Saint Asaph Street).
Despite short timelines, DeNunzio said ADC did not need to round up candidates. Instead, Democrats could focus on staffing the firehouse primaries.
“Thankfully, Alexandria is full of Democrats who want to serve and give back to the community through public service,” DeNunzio said.
When multiple localities are in a district, the locality with the district’s most constituents takes the lead on the Democratic firehouse primary, DeNunzio said. That was the case for Alexandria Democrats in the 39th Senate District, which includes all of Alexandria and small parts of Arlington and Fairfax counties.
There are five candidates for the Democrats’ City Council firehouse primary, and additional candidates could be announced with the filing deadline today.
The Feb. 21 Democratic firehouse primary will take place from 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. at Charles E. Beatley, Jr. Central Library (5005 Duke Street) and the Leonard “Chick” Armstrong Recreation Center (25 W. Reed Avenue).
ALXnow reached out to Alexandria Republicans for comment.
