The Democratic National Convention is a gathering this week of Democrats from across the country, including several prominent voices from Alexandria.
Attendees include Sandy Marks, Chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee, Rep. Don Beyer (who is a superdelegate), Del. Charniele Herring, Del. Alfonso Lopez and City Council Member Kirk McPike.
While Alexandria and Arlington are widely known as Democratic strongholds in Northern Virginia, the real question is which locality’s Democratic leaders are better at kickball.
All will be revealed at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, when the Alexandria Democratic Committee faces the Arlington Democrats at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center baseball field (2701 Commonwealth Avenue).
With an eye on becoming Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney says he’ll be spending a lot of time in and around Alexandria before next year’s election day.
With just five months left in office, the 43-year-old two-term mayor of Virginia’s capital city says that his statewide strategy to “dominate the landscape” with his presence has worked in the past, and will work again.
Turnout is low so far in Alexandria’s Democrat primary for Mayor and City Council.
As of noon, about 11% of the city’s registered voters cast ballots. Of the 11,249 votes, about 6,844 were absentee ballots, which is about 60%, according to the Alexandria Office of Registrations and Voter Elections.
Sarah Bagley says that Alexandria residents have invested time and energy into making her an effective member of the Alexandria City Council, and she says she’s running for reelection to honor that investment.
A lot has changed in the city since Bagley was first elected and then virtually sworn in in January 2022. Alexandria was on the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic and has since gone through a crime surge, the introduction and the failure of the Potomac Yard arena deal, a number of key changes in departmental leadership (namely the police and fire chiefs) as well as the controversial upending of the city’s residential zoning policies.
Without the pandemic keeping James “Jimmy” Lewis and his campaign team from unleashing their ground game, he says that years of door-knocking experience will significantly improve his second Democratic primary bid for Alexandria’s City Council.
Lewis faces 10 opponents, including four incumbent Council Members, for the six Council seats in the June 18 Democrat primary. He placed eighth in the 2021 primary with 6,606 votes, and that was 730 votes behind Kevin Harris. Like Lewis, Harris is trying again this cycle to get in the top six spots to secure his nomination for the November election.
With the June 18 primary for Alexandria mayor and City Council around the corner, candidates have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for what is anticipated to be a low-turnout election.
The only seats in contention for the Democrat primaries are Mayor and City Council, and there is also a single candidate running for Council in a Republican primary.
Outgoing Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson publicly criticized a mailer for Vice Mayor Amy Jackson‘s mayoral campaign that used a photo of former Fire Chief Corey Smedley with her at a city event.
Wilson said at the end of last night’s City Council meeting that the integrity of the city government is at stake, and that it should be insulated from the “vagaries of politics to the extent possible.” Without calling out Jackson by name, he described the mailer and said that former Chief Smedley did not give his permission to be in the ad.
A majority of Alexandria’s Democrat candidates for City Council rank climate action high on their priority lists.
A number of candidates recently expressed their opinions in a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions and Build Our Future questionnaire.
With less than two weeks until the June 18 primary, the city’s zoning overhaul, the failed Potomac Yard arena and residential taxes were among the top issues discussed by Alexandria’s mayoral candidates in the Chamber ALX‘s debate Tuesday night.
Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, Council Member Alyia Gaskins and former real estate developer Steven Peterson were cordial to each other as they were questioned by NBC4 Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial.
After missing an important mayoral debate this week due to a “freak accident” while canvassing that led to his hospitalization, Steven Peterson says that he’s done sitting on the sidelines.
Peterson said that got 10 stitches in his nose and suffered a concussion after his 105-pound Golden Retriever chased a squirrel and he face-planted on a gravel path at the West End Farmer’s Market on Sunday. He said that the leash was wrapped around his legs and that he flipped over after the dog bolted.
