ALXnow will be running a series of City Council candidate interviews through the local election filing deadline on April 4.

(Updated 2/15) After the tumult of the pandemic, Alexandria City Councilman Canek Aguirre thought this term would be a breeze.

Turns out it’s been anything but, with the city’s controversial upending of its residential zoning policies and welcoming of the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals to Potomac Yard.

Now running for a third three-year term, Aguirre is touting a number of successes and says that the $2 billion Potomac Yard arena deal is “fragile,” but that it’s a net positive for the city.

“We can’t be stuck holding a bag with a bunch of debt,” Aguirre said. “I think that’s there’s still some questions around that. I just want to say this deal is very fragile. There’s a lot of different pitfalls.”

Aguirre wants more city representation on the Virginia Stadium Authority board, which would own and finance the arena. He also says that new taxes created for and generated from the site will potentially help pay for city services and keep residential property rates steady.

“Transportation is the biggest portion of this that can completely fold the entire deal,”  Aguirre told ALXnow. “Not just funding but also making sure that we’re thinking outside the box to make adjustments to different modes across the region and across the area, because this isn’t just affecting Alexandria, it’s also Arlington and south Fairfax County. And honestly, because this potentially draws people from the entire region, how do we put protections in place for the community, for Del Ray and Arlandria, not just for parking, but also for housing.”

Like his colleagues, Aguirre was sworn in virtually after winning his second election in 2021. Now with nearly two terms under his belt, he is among the more senior members of Council, along with John Taylor Chapman (four terms), Vice Mayor Amy Jackson (two terms) and outgoing Mayor Justin Wilson (five terms).

“I was joking with Chapman and Wilson shortly after the 2021 election that this term was going to be easy,” Aguirre told ALXnow. “During the pandemic I didn’t take a day off for like a year-and-a-half, practically.”

Aguirre says that the city’s ARISE Guaranteed Income Pilot is his proudest achievement, providing $500 a month to 170 randomly selected participants for two years. He also said that the next mayor needs to be a communicator who can run a tight meeting.

“Definitely need a good communicator, someone who is collaborator, someone who’s willing to bring people together, who’s going to listen to everybody, try and bring all the ideas to the table,” said Aguirre, adding that he has not decided on whether to make an endorsement. “Personally, this is just my own thing, I like someone who knows how to run a tight meeting. You don’t want to be keeping people forever at meetings, and so being able to have a good meeting is as important to me as well.”

Aguirre announced that he’s running for reelection to the Alexandria Democratic Committee on Feb. 5.

“We’ve made some great strides together to meet collective bargaining agreements, Landmark Mall finally coming back to life, the first fare-free bus system in the region, and, oh, by the way, the largest electric bus fleet in the Commonwealth,” Aguirre told the ADC. “We opened a new metro station, we fully funded our schools and… all the while we still had time to do a guaranteed basic income pilot here in the city.”

He continued, “I don’t want to stop now. I want to keep on going. I want to keep on fighting for all you keep on fighting for our democratic values. So I’m humbly asking your support. I’m humbly asking for your vote.”

A first generation son of Mexican immigrants, Aguirre was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Latino studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For the last eight years has been chair of the Virginia Board of Social Work, and through City Council is the immediate past chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and is a member of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority board of directors. He lives in the West End with his wife.

Aguirre is also the lone Latino running in this year’s June 18 Democratic primary, and says he’s looking out for the interests of the city’s fastest growing demographic. There are nearly 30,000 Latino residents in the city today (about 18% of all residents), about triple the number in 1990, according to the city.

“Even though I represent Alexandria, there’s a larger burden, if you will, representing for the region in the state, a growing demographic,” Aguirre said. “That’s not lost on me.”

Aguirre said in his next term he wants DASH bus service to continue to be free for riders, and for it to expand into Arlandria.

“That’s very important to me,” Aguirre said. “A huge pet peeve of mine is that the bus doesn’t go all the way down Mount Vernon Avenue. It basically stops at E. Reed Avenue and then doesn’t service the rest of Arlandria.”

Alexandria has also experienced a crime surge since the pandemic, and Aguirre said that the city’s search for a new police chief will help reduce crime.

“With the Chief retiring, we’re gonna have an opportunity to try and find somebody new and I think that’ll definitely be not just a priority, but something that’s drilled home with the next person in charge,” Aguirre said.

Aguirre’s campaign kickoff will be held at El Cuscatleco Restaurant (3819 Mount Vernon Avenue) on Feb. 17 from 1 to 3 p.m. Alexandria’s Democratic primary is on June 18.

Alexandria’s political scene is heating up, as a number of Democrat candidates formally launched their campaigns over the weekend.

City Council Member Alyia Gaskins held a packed kickoff at Indochen in Cameron Station on Sunday, following her opponent Vice Mayor Amy Jackson’s kickoff on Jan. 21 at Doyle’s Outpost in the West End. On Saturday, City Council Member Kirk McPike launched his campaign at Pork Barrel BBQ in Del Ray and City Council Member John Taylor Chapman did the same at Port City Brewing Company.

In her speech, Gaskins didn’t get into her positions on large projects in the city, like the Potomac Yard arena or the massive WestEnd development, but said that she is devoted to the nitty gritty of policies that maintain a quality of life for residents.

“I am running to be your next mayor to make sure that your city, that my city, that our collective city is a place that is safe, affordable, accessible, and one that truly and finally works for all of us,” Gaskins said.

A third mayoral candidate, Steven Peterson, will announce his candidacy to the Alexandria Democratic Committee on Monday, Feb. 5, followed by his formal kickoff later in the month.

City Council Members Sarah Bagley and Canek Aguirre are also running for reelection and have not announced when their kickoffs will be held. Aguirre is finalizing details for an event in Arlandria next month, he told ALXnow. Candidate Charlotte Scherer, a former Alexandria magistrate, is holding her campaign kickoff on Feb. 21 at Mount Purrnon Cat Cafe & Wine Bar in Old Town.

Chapman has been on council since 2012, and is the most senior member running for reelection. An Alexandria native who grew up in public housing, he said at his kickoff that doing City Council work is a “labor of love.”

“We have a thriving city,” he said. “It takes good policy, it takes advocating for resources.”

The other candidates with intentions to run haven’t announced when their campaigns will formally launch. They include Alexandria School Board Members Jacinta Greene and Abdel Elnoubi, West End Business Association President James Lewis, Del Ray’s Jesse O’Connell and Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Resident Association President Kevin Harris.

The Democratic primary is on June 18. No Republican candidates have entered the race.

Campaign finances

Gaskins is leading the money race so far, raising $46,000 with $34,000 on-hand as of Dec. 31, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Jackson has raised $16,900, and has $15,800 on-hand.

Longtime City Council Member Del Pepper endorsed Gaskins and donated $3,000 to her campaign.

“She has the ability to work with people she disagrees with,” Pepper said at the event. “You’ve got to have that if you want to be a good mayor.”

In the Council race, Chapman leads with fundraising, having raised $19,579 with $16,624 on-hand. McPike has raised $14,790, with $12,087 on-hand, followed by Aguirre, who raised $7,020 and has $10,716 on-hand. Bagley raised $3,320 and has $856 on-hand and Scherer is self-financing her campaign and contributed $900.

Del Ray’s Jesse O’Connell has thrown his hat into the City Council race.

O’Connell launched a campaign website this morning and announced his intention to run in an email.

“I have been really lucky to work across a wide variety of city departments and issues,” O’Connell told ALXnow. “I think I have really good perspective on how all these things fit together. Fundamentally, I’m somebody that likes to solve problems. I think I’m really good at listening to people and sort of building consensus. I’m a collaborator, and I hope to bring that to Council.”

The married father of two is chief advancement officer at the American Council on Education, and has served for more than a decade on a number of city boards and commissions, including as chair of the city’s influential Budget and Fiscal Affairs Advisory Committee. He sees himself as a collaborator, a “servant leader” who believes that the city’s Zoning for Housing policies don’t go far enough in expanding affordable housing opportunities. He also says he’s excited about the potential for a good deal with the controversial $2 billion Potomac Yard arena.

“I think a good deal looks like the opportunity to fundamentally change the city’s revenue projections,” O’Connell said. “We’ve made investments in our public safety workers, we are working on stormwater infrastructure, we are spending a lot of money on stuff that we have to spend money on, and a lot of that revenue burden is borne by our taxpayers. I think the chance to get kind of a transformative commercial-oriented source of revenue is a really exciting one for the city.”

O’Connell is a New Jersey native and moved to the area to attend Georgetown University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in social and public policy. He is also a former All-American track star, who placed fifth in the U.S. Olympic trials in 2004 in the 800 meters. He and his wife moved to Alexandria in 2012.

“The whole time we’ve lived here, I have looked for ways to give back and to contribute,” he said.

Since last August, he’s also co-authored an Alexandria-focused blog, ALXtra. It’s a satire blog, O’Connell says, humorously intended for millennials.

“I think the newsletter is very informed by kind of a millennial sensibility,” he said. “I think it’s very informed by kind of a literacy with internet culture.”

On Zoning for Housing, O’Connell said that the city’s elimination of single family zoning is a good start.

“I think where the city landed at the end of this first phase was the right place to be,” O’Connell said. “People want to live here because it’s a great place to live. If we don’t have the housing supply to meet that demand, prices are going to go up. I’ve been really encouraged to see the city think more holistically more creatively about giving this broader set of tools to meet that housing demand.”

O’Connell is also a running buddy with Mayor Justin Wilson, who is not running for reelection. He also said that the next mayor will have to be a collaborator.

“I think we’re losing somebody that is tireless and dedicated,” O’Connell said of Wilson. “I genuinely can’t think of a better example of constituent service. He’s responding to people and interacting with people at all hours of the day and night. It’s clear that he deeply cares about Alexandria and wants to ensure that Alexandria is able to be the city for a whole sort of wide set of people.”

There’s a new member of the Alexandria School Board. Tim Beaty, the retired former global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was sworn into office on Thursday night.

Beaty won a special election on Jan. 9 to fill the seat vacated by former School Board Member Willie Bailey. He will fill the remaining 11 months of Bailey’s term before the next School Board is sworn into office in January 2025. During that time, he said that he wants to help Alexandria City Public Schools edge closer to a collective bargaining agreement with staff.

“I am truly honored to serve on the Alexandria City School Board,” Beaty said in a release. “I look forward to bringing that experience to the division as we move forward with collective bargaining to enhance labor-management relationships between employees and the division.”

Beaty moved to Alexandria a decade ago with his wife, who is a principal at a Fairfax County Elementary School. He retired two years ago, and has been a substitute teacher at two ACPS elementary schools since then.

“We are excited to welcome Mr. Beaty to serve on our School Board,” said School Board Chair Michelle Rief, who also represents District A. “Mr. Beaty has not only contributed directly to ACPS as a substitute teacher but the greater Alexandria community as well, volunteering and serving in various capacities throughout the city.”

(Updated 3:35 p.m.) Early voting will start on Friday, Jan. 19, for the dual Presidential primaries.

The primaries are scheduled for March 5. The deadline for early voting is March 2.

“The ballots will contain a contest for either the Democratic or Republican nominee for President of the United States,” a release from the City of Alexandria said. “In Dual Primary Elections, qualified voters may vote in either Primary, but not both.”

The release said voters must indicate their choice to the polling officer.

Incumbent President Joe Biden is running against Marianne Williamson and Dean Benson Phillips in the Democratic Presidential Primary.

On the Republican ballot is:

• Chris Christie
• Ryan Binkley
• Vivek Ramaswamy
• Donald Trump
• Ron DeSantis
• Nikki Haley

Christie and Ramaswamy have since dropped out of the race. In the Iowa primary, Trump led the pack with 51% of the vote, with DeSantis at 21% and Haley at 19%.

The Office of Voter Registration & Elections is open for in-person voting from 8 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

(Updated at 11:30 p.m.) Tim Beaty, the retired former global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was declared the winner in tonight’s special election for the open School Board District A seat. He defeated Gina Baum, an Alexandria City Public Schools parent and former longtime member of the city’s Park and Recreation Commission, and will be sworn into office next week.

Beaty won the election 1,270 votes (56%) to Baum’s 962 votes (43%), and 5.5% of the registered voters in District A (41,335 voters) cast ballots on this rainy Tuesday. District A includes Old Town, Del Ray, Potomac Yard and Arlandria. The results will be certified in the Alexandria Voter Registrar’s office near City Hall on Friday.

“I’m looking forward to getting to work,” Beaty told ALXnow. “I’m very grateful for everyone who endorsed me, from the two other School Board Members in District A, to the teachers union, four City Council Members and Sheriff Sean Casey. The endorsements were a reflection of some good friendships and relationships that I’ve been lucky to be involved with over the last few years.”

Baum called Beaty to concede at around 9:15 p.m.

The District A seat became available in late November when School Board Member Willie Bailey abruptly resigned, prompting the Alexandria Circuit Court to order the special election for Jan. 9. Beaty will serve out the remaining 11 months of Bailey’s term before the next School Board is sworn into office in January 2025.

Baum told ALXnow that having the month of December to campaign for political office was a daunting challenge.

“I think I started off slow, and started to gain traction with the (online candidate) forums when people heard my thoughts about improving schools, academic achievement and restoring teacher’s steps,” she said. “Hopefully that will influence the current budget process. The teachers really got the short end of the stick last year with their steps being frozen. Falls Church City is offering teachers step increases and a 3.5 COLA adjustment for an average 6% increase on top of their higher pay scale. ACPS leadership is not willing to compete at that level or provide that to our educators, who quite frankly deserve it.”

Beaty’s been a substitute teacher at two ACPS elementary schools since his retirement from the Teamsters two years ago, and will have to quit earning an ACPS paycheck in order to be a School Board member. He was previously global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and says that he wants to help the school system, get closer to a collective bargaining agreement with ACPS staff. He’s lived in Alexandria for a decade, has six grown children and is married to a Fairfax County Public Schools elementary school principal.

“I would really like to push hard in the direction of getting union recognition and collective bargaining much further along than it is now,” said Beaty. “I would also really like to make myself particularly available to the efforts that the school system is making with the Latino community so that they can take full advantage of the system in educating students.

Beaty’s seat, along with the eight other school board seats, is up for grabs in the Nov. 5 general election. Beaty says he will decide in the next few months whether he wants to run for the same office in November and complete a three-year term.

There’s less than a week to go until the Jan. 9 special election for Alexandria’s open District A School Board seat, and things are getting interesting.

With a focus on helping Alexandria City Public Schools craft a collective bargaining agreement with staff, retired labor leader Tim Beaty has secured key endorsements from the two other School Board Members in District A — Board Chair Michelle Rief and Jacinta Greene, as well as from City Council Members Canek Aguirre and Kirk McPike, Sheriff Sean Casey, NOVA Labor and the Education Association of Alexandria teachers union.

His opponent Gina Baum, a former longtime member of the city’s Park and Recreation Commission has positioned herself as a candidate willing to fight with her colleagues on the dais and to ask City Council to pony up millions to restore step increases to teachers.

The candidates have had a few notable public appearances since the seat opened up in November. In a Liberally Social podcast moderated by Alexandria Democratic Committee Chair Sandy Marks on Dec. 26, Baum expressed concern over a perceived lack of public discourse between the Board and the public, and questioned whether School Board Members are operating within their guidelines by when going into closed session during meetings. They also spoke Tuesday at an Alexandria Democratic Committee meeting, and last night in an Alexandria PTA Council forum.

“I think one of the oddities with this board as opposed to some of the other boards I’ve served on in the city is that we on other boards actually fight with each other,” Baum said on the podcast.  “I’m finding with this board for whatever reason, there seems to be a lack of open public discourse in our community, I believe feels like that, that they’re hiding things from us, right and they’re not being transparent. “

Beaty, on the other hand, positioned himself as a Spanish-speaking bridge-builder who wants to improve relations with non-English speaking families within the school system.

“I think we have to help parents understand what their kids are going through,” Beaty said. “I think I can I can be part of a link to do that.”

Beaty’s been a substitute teacher at two ACPS elementary schools for the last two years, and was previously global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He says that he has 40 years of collective bargaining experience and that a good agreement will result in staff retention.

“My experience throughout my life is that a strong relationship between labor and management does a lot of good for the efficiency of any institution where it exists,” he said in the podcast. I think it’s important that we recognize our teachers by letting them form a union, by encouraging them to form a union and to encourage this process of collective bargaining, leading to a contract. I think it’ll attract it’ll help maintain our current staff.”

Baum is a managing broker with Keller Williams Metro Center. She has not been endorsed by any groups, but has gotten the endorsement of a number of individuals, including former Mayor Bill Euille, and one current public official — City Council Member John Taylor Chapman. If elected, Baum said she would get the support of her colleagues to ask City Council to find upward of $8 million to solve a staffing crisis by restoring step increases for teachers.

“I would suggest that (ACPS Superintendent) Dr. Kay-Wyatt and the School Board write to Council and say, ‘We need this amount of money because we have to restore teacher’s steps,'” Baum said on the podcast. “They deserve their salary increases. They deserve the cost of living increases, and it’s a political year. All of our council members are going to be running a campaign. We have the campaign for the mayor happening. I think if we go to them and say this is for our teachers, they will, in fact, find the money.”

Baum said that the proposal is procedurally possible, drawing criticism one Council expert, who called it a “fairy tale.”

“Sure, it’s possible,” said the source, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. “I mean, anything is procedurally possible. The reality is a completely different thing. All you have to do is look at the budget right now, and that the school system had to take $50 million out of the Capital Improvement Program budget. How are we going to find the $8 million for teachers? Don’t get me wrong, it’s an admirable thing to do, but you don’t just find money out of the blue and do this overnight. Where you realistically find it is within the collective bargaining process.”

ACPS approved funds to develop an official ACPS plan and policy for collective bargaining with employees in the current budget.

The District A seat became available when School Board Member Willie Bailey abruptly resigned, prompting the Alexandria Circuit Court to order the special election for Jan. 9. The winner will serve out the remaining 11 months of Bailey’s term before the next School Board is sworn into office in January 2025. It also means that the seat, along with the eight other school board seats, is up for grabs in the Nov. 5 general election.

(Updated at 11:30 a.m.) The field of candidates is getting crowded in Alexandria’s Democratic primary for City Council.

The list of nine candidates includes four incumbents, two School Board Members, two community leaders and a former magistrate, who, if elected would be the first transgender City Council member.

Two City Council slots (out of six) are up for grabs since Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and Council Member Alyia Gaskins are vacating their seats in their quests to replace outgoing Mayor Justin Wilson. Nine candidates have announced their intention to run, and six of them spoke last night at the Alexandria Democratic Committee’s monthly meeting.

City Council Members John Taylor Chapman, Sarah Bagley and Kirk McPike announced their intention to run last night, and Councilman Canek Aguirre will be announcing his candidacy in the coming days, he told ALXnow. Alexandria School Board Members Jacinta Greene and Abdel Elnoubi are also running, as are West End Business Association President James Lewis, Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority Resident Association President Kevin Harris and former Alexandria magistrate Charlotte Scherer.

Chapman, an Alexandria native, is seeking a fifth three-year term, making him the senior candidate running in the race.

“I’m going to be, hopefully, one of those individuals that can bring the experience of the last 11 years with the City Council to bear as we hopefully start a new tour with council members,” Chapman said. ” We’ve been through a lot, through recession, we’ve been through a pandemic, we’ve been through changes in state and federal leadership that, frankly, desire to take our city backward. And it’s this local part of the energy we have here that says to state changes and federal changes, ‘We need to have more.'”

Bagley is seeking her second term, and said that she’s been effective over the last three years.

“What I’m really proud of is in our first few years on council, we created an Office of Climate Action that cost $1.8 million,” she said. “We got a green business program now that’s being promoted.”

McPike is also seeking his second term in office and said that it wasn’t easy growing up gay in Texas, but that he found his home in Alexandria.

“We need to take the next step to our green building program and not only focus on what we’re building, but what we’ve already built, and how can we reduce the carbon emissions from our current buildings and infrastructure,” he said. “We need to take a real hard look at Alexandria’s long-term budget to make sure that we’re balancing our revenues, addressing our expenses so that we can continue to be a city that is prosperous, and most importantly, continue to fully fund the budget for Alexandria City Public Schools.”

Elnoubi was uncontested in his election to the School Board in 2021. That year, he decided against a City Council campaign and decided instead to run for the open District C slot.

“As your school board member, I’ve championed and supported several initiatives, such as pay increases for our educators, secured additional funding for additional teachers to adjust class sizes, added psychologists to address mental health,” he said. “We passed a resolution for 15 mile-an-hour school zones, and we’ve protected this community from (Republican Virginia Gov.) Glenn Youngkin, when we beat him in court during the height of the pandemic.”

Greene, who was elected to the School Board in 2018, did not announce on Tuesday night, and sent ALXnow the following statement: “As a proud Alexandrian for the past 21 years, an Alexandria School Board Member and a dedicated public servant, I am excited to announce my intent to run for the Alexandria City Council.”

Lewis said that the city needs to go beyond the Zoning for Housing initiative Council recently passed in order to continue increasing its stock of affordable housing.

“We all live in Alexandria because it’s a great city,” Lewis said. “But as with any place, we know that there are challenges, and I think front of mind for everyone is our affordable housing challenges. Council has taken some significant steps to get us there, but we all know that those are just steps… What’s really important to me personally, though, is also looking not just at affordable housing, but affordable homeownership to help families get out of the rat trap, build generational wealth and put roots down in this city.”

Scherer, a retired attorney and former Alexandria magistrate, is running her first campaign. If elected, she would be the first transgender member of Alexandria’s City Council. She said that she wants to build upon the city’s Zoning for Housing initiative, and that she’s a fast learner.

“I’m running to continue my journey of service and advocacy for the community I call home,” she said. “I’m dedicated to improving housing affordability, making substantial investments in our infrastructure and schools, extending transportation options for better accessibility, saving Metro first, and enhancing water and sewer management to protect our environment.”

Harris said that he will launch his campaign later this month.

“As a proud servant of Alexandria with a track record of working to improve the quality of life of it’s citizens and of working to help our city realize it’s potential, I’m excited about the opportunity to partner with and serve the citizens of our city at another level,” he said. “It’s definitely my intention to run for City Council. We will be making our official announcement and launch this month.”

The filing deadline for candidates is in late March and the Democratic Primary is on June 18.

(Updated at 11:45 p.m.) The race for the next mayor of Alexandria has officially begun, sort of.

Last night, Vice Mayor Amy Jackson formally announced her candidacy to the Alexandria Democratic Committee (ADC), a rite of passage in Alexandria elected politics since the city has only ever elected a Republican mayor once, in 1872. Jackson’s opponent, City Council Member Alyia Gaskins, made her own announcement to the ADC on Dec. 2, and used the opportunity last night to announce her latest endorsements.

Jackson said that neither she nor Gaskins would likely be able to fill the shoes of outgoing Mayor Justin Wilson, but that she and her opponent would try “because we love Alexandria.”

“I made a commitment to our community a long time ago, in my youth and again, formally when I was elected to council,” Jackson said. “I promised I would continue to lead on several items of importance to our community, for our people and our programs, for our environmental, educational and economic growth, and align what’s important to our city’s welfare and our progressive values.”

Gaskins announced Tuesday that she’s been endorsed by former City Council Member Del Pepper and NOVA Labor. She said that she’s voted to make the city more equitable with her Zoning for Housing vote, as well as her vote ensuring collective bargaining rights to Alexandria firefighters and police — all measures that her opponent also voted in favor of.

Gaskins told the ADC last month that, if elected, she would be the first Black female mayor of Alexandria. The Pittsburgh native was elected to Council in 2021, and works as a public health strategist. She said she will launch her campaign at Indochen (4906 Brenman Park Drive) in Cameron Station at noon on Sunday, Jan. 28.

“We also know we’ve got some challenges that we have to fix — housing, infrastructure, safe schools, youth mental health and resilience,” Gaskins said. “This council has taken action and I have worked with each of you to take action as well.”

Jackson, a former Fairfax County Public Schools educator and administrator, was elected to the City Council in 2018 and became vice mayor in 2021. She’s an Alexandria native, having graduated from T.C. Williams High School, and has so far gotten the endorsement of fellow Titan, Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter, as well as Circuit Court Clerk Greg Parks, Virginia State Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw (D-35), Del. Holly Seibold (D-35) and Prince William County Supervisor Andrea Bailey.

Jackson said that she supports a fully funded Alexandria City Public Schools system, and that the city “must strive to compensate our teachers and staff in a coordinated effort with ACPS collective bargaining procedures.”

“I think we can get that done for our teachers,” Jackson said.

Jackson will launch her campaign on Sunday, Jan. 21 from 3 to 5 p.m. at Doyles Outpost (4620A Kenmore Avenue).

The Democratic primary is June 18.

A group of women Alexandria women are on a mission to ensure no candidate is just a name on a ballot in Alexandria.

The Liberally Social podcast, started back in 2021 to explore the 13 candidates running for City Council, has come together again to profile two candidates who could shape policy in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS).

In the mix of Potomac Yard arena news and the holidays, the School Board special election to replace School Board Member Willie Bailey has flown a little under the radar.

Real estate agent and former Parks and Recreation commissioner Gina Baum is running against Tim Beaty, a substitute teacher in ACPS and former Global Strategies Director at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The podcast interviewed both candidates in 30-minute profiles posted earlier this week.

Liberally Social has a rotating group of hosts, but the school board candidates were interviewed by Alexandria Democratic Committee chair Sandy Marks, Marta Schantz, a senior vice president at the Urban Land Institute, Kristen Weber, a senior director at the National Center for Youth Law, and Anh Phan, former outreach representative for Sen. Mark Warner.

“We’ve got two very different candidates on the ballot,” said Schantz. “From what I’ve gleaned, they’d engage in school board members in different ways, with different priorities and passions and a different way of doing business. That’s one big takeaway from what I’ve learned.”

The podcast doesn’t endorse candidates and asks every candidate the same questions, from personal questions to thoughts on specific topics affecting Alexandria.

“It’s very egalitarian, it’s the same prompt, and we just listen,” Schantz said. “Our listeners are smart… We try not to poke holes or be too ‘gotcha’, we let the candidates speak for themselves.”

“And sometimes we say ‘they just said that,'” Phan said. “Invariably, when it gets published, when [listeners] hear what outside the box things get said, it gets noticed.”

Even as one election nears on Jan. 9, another significant election looms later this year. Mayor Justin Wilson is not seeking reelection and Vice Mayor Amy Jackson and City Council Alyia Gaskins have both thrown their hats into the ring to replace Wilson.

Additionally, Jackson and Gaskins running for Mayor leaves two empty seats on the City Council that will be up for grabs.

“There’s so much speculation about the City Council election,” said Schantz.

“Everybody is running,” Marks joked, “and nobody is running.”

Marks said while the Potomac Yard is one of the most talked about issues, she’s hopeful that election discourse can focus on other fundamental issues.

“People want to talk about the arena because it’s feisty, but there are a lot of other things happening in the city,” Marks said.

Schantz said she hopes that election discourse can address climate change and equity issues affecting the city. While both are national and international issues, Schantz said there’s much that elected leaders can do at a local level.

“We act where we have the influence,” Schantz said. “Everyone has an impact to make on climate change, on equity, on being a good human. There are so many things you can do locally. If everyone sat in a dark corner and said ‘no one makes a difference,’ then no one would do anything.”

Marks said she hopes the podcast helps Alexandrians get to know more about their candidates and helps humanize them for the electorate.

“It started with ‘how can we do voter education?'” Marks said. “Because there are so many candidates, it’s difficult to do a deep dive with each one, so you get charts with checkboxes, yes or no on specific issues.”

Marks also said she hopes the podcast helps understand that the city’s elected leaders are people too. Marks said, particularly since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, she’s seen an uptick in online conspiracy theories, even at a local level.

“Getting to know them personally dispels some of that,” Marks said. “It’s about inoculating the social electorate against fear.”

Phan said that while online interactions have gotten more polarized, she gets some hope from the fact that returning to in-person human interactions has helped combat some of the vitriol.

“This really helps dispel some of that cynicism that might occur when you talk about electoral politics,” Phan said. “I mean, you have to be a little ‘called to it’ to be running for public office. That’s not something that should be squashed. The podcast gets you to know them as a human person, reinforcing the idea that they are trying to do something in the community. That makes me feel better; more idealistic.”

Image via Democratic Social Club/Facebook