Election Day is just around the corner in Alexandria. Here’s what to know about Tuesday’s special elections for State Senate and the House of Delegates.
Ballots tomorrow will include races for Virginia’s 39th District in the State Senate and 5th District in the House of Delegates. The following candidates are running.
At least two well-known Alexandria Democrats are interested in running for Elizabeth Bennett-Parker’s 5th District seat in the House of Delegates, following her firehouse primary win last night.
City Councilman R. Kirk McPike and former Alexandria City School Board Member Eileen Cassidy Rivera have confirmed to ALXnow they intend to run to fill Bennett-Parker’s 5th District seat, which she has held since 2021. They have also each published campaign websites.
The number of unemployed Alexandrians is up by a third from a year before, according to September jobs figures that were delayed by the federal government shutdown.
A total of 96,711 city residents were counted as employed in the civilian workforce, with 3,479 reported unemployed, according to figures reported Dec. 18 by the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement.
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.
Virginia State Sen. Louise Lucas (D-18) says Monumental Sports and Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis can afford to pay for the entire $2 billion Potomac Yard arena project, as well as supporting transportation and other associated infrastructure projects.
“Anything having to do with enriching billionaires, they need to pay for themselves,” Lucas told ALXnow. “They can proffer anything they want to. They can build the arena and make a profit. They could complete the roads and also provide the perennial upkeep.”
(Updated 9:55 p.m.) Bailing Metro out of its $750 million budget shortfall is going to sting the budgets of localities next year, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) expects to release a plan addressing it next month.
COG Director Clark Mercer said that the organization’s Chief Administrative Officers (CAO) Committee work group on Metro’s cost structure will release a report next month outlining three options for Metro to consider. One of those options includes a one-time option to use Metro’s preventative maintenance fund against the balance for the next year or two, potentially cutting the shortfall by hundreds of millions of dollars.
One month after a study found that the Virginia state government is underfunding schools, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson called on state leaders in Richmond to reconsider their approach.
The core issue identified by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission is that the Local Composite Index (LCI) incorporates local real property, gross income and taxable retail sales to determine how much a locality can fund their school system.
Alexandria City Public Schools says it will not comply with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s policies restricting transgender services.
School Board Chair Michelle Rief and Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt informed parents of the school system’s stance on Monday. It’s the second straight year that ACPS has refused the policies, which are updated annually and recommend restricting trans bathroom and pronoun use.
The tension between Alexandria’s leaders and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is not exactly a secret, but there have been a few surprising examples of overlapping policy goals.
Most recently, Mayor Justin Wilson shared vocal support for Youngkin’s new Make Virginia Home plan.
(Updated 8 p.m.) Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin is scheduled to visit an Alexandria Safeway (3526 King Street) today to discuss efforts the Governor’s office said aims to reduce the cost of living.
“Governor Glenn Youngkin will visit a grocery store in Alexandria, Virginia today,” Youngkin’s office said in a press release. “The governor will discuss the elimination of the grocery tax, the rising costs of groceries, and the impacts of inflation on Virginia families and the high cost of living.”
Last week, Gov. Ralph Northam’s office announced a new batch of flood prevention grants, and this time around Alexandria’s getting more than the pocket change it did the last time around.
Two Alexandria projects were featured in the new round of funding, with one project design, in particular, getting a major boost.
