v o l. 43, no 1 www .arlingtondemocrats.org january 2018 t

continued on page nine

Vol. 43, No 1 www.arlingtondemocrats.org January 2018

continued on page three

Time to vote for ACDC officers

What party leads in the Houseof Delegates at this hour....?

Two candidates have announced they are run-ning for ACDC chair, making for a rare competi-tive race next week for the leadership of the localparty.

The same evening will see elections for precinctcaptains (126 positions) and posts on the ACDCSteering Committee (15 positions, including chair).

Steve Baker and Jill Caiazzo have announcedtheir candidacies to succeed Kip Malinosky, whois retiring after four years at the helm. Messagesfrom each of the candidates will be found on Page6 of this month’s Voice.

Under state party rules, all precinct captain-cies and all Steering Committee elective posts willbe on the ballot at the January meeting, which willbe held on the second Wednesday of the month,January 10, rather than the usual first Wednesday.

All elective positions are for two-year terms.

Virginia’s House of Delegates election hasturned into more fun than a hanging chad!

The 2000 Florida presidential vote and its hang-ing chad controversy was resolved in six weeks. Butthe Virginia contest is still up in the air after twomonths with a good chance that the House of Del-egates will go into session January 10 with controlstill up in the air.

Two seats remain unresolved. If both go toDemocrats, Dems will control the House 51-49; ifboth go to the GOP, the Republicans will controlthe House 51-49. And if the seats are split, the Housewill be split 50-50, requiring the two parties to ne-gotiate how to run the institution.

Strange as it may sound, such a standoff is notat all rare in the United States. In fact, in all 10even-year elections from 1992 through 2010, at leastone lower house in at least one state was left in a tieevery year. Sometimes, the speakership alternatedby months between the parties and half the commit-tee chairmanships were given to one party and halfto the other. But the possible permutations are al-most infinite.

As we bid adieu to 2017, the party breakdownwas 49-49 with one remaining seat going before a

Anyone wishing to run for either a precinctcaptaincy or a Steering Committee post must file aform declaring their candidacy and enclosing a fil-ing fee of $25 at ACDC Headquarters, 2001Jefferson Davis Hwy, Suite 604, Arlington VA22202, no later than 7 p.m., Monday, January 8.

The forms are posted on the ACDC website,www.arlingtondemocrats.org.

Arlington now has 54 precincts. ACDC hasthree captains in each of the 18 biggest precincts(defined by the number of Democratic voters inNovember’s gubernatorial election) and two cap-tains in each of the other precincts. That makes atotal of 126 captains.

For this election, a candidate for precinct cap-tain must be a registered voter in the precinct forwhich he or she is seeking a captaincy or have served

judge January 5 and the other to be decided by adrawing January 4.

One seat is in District 94 in Newport News.After Election Day, Republican incumbent DavidYancey led by 10 votes over Democratic challengerShelly Simonds. After the recount was finished,Simonds came out on top by one vote. But the nextday, the three judges of the recount court approvedone more ballot for Yancey and ruled the election atie at 11,608 to 11,608. (See that ballot on 0of this issue.)

Simonds has gone to court, saying the goldenballot was brought into play too late. The VirginiaBoard of Elections said Friday it would choose thewinner Thursday, January 4, by drawing a name outof a bowl—unless the court orders some other routein response to Simonds’ suit. BUT, the loser of thedraw is authorized by law to request another recount!That would mean no one from that district wouldbe seated when the House convenes January 10.

Historical footnote: The last time a House ofDelegates election ended in a tie was in 1971. TheDemocrat lost the draw.

The Washington Post surveyed states in 2014

WE’RE

ELECTING A

NEW ACDC

CHAIR

SteveBaker

JillCaiazzo

See the

messages

from our 2

candidates

on Page 6

ACDC Voice, January 2018,

Report from Chairman Kip Malinosky

Published monthly by theArlington County Democratic Committee

2001 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite #604, Arlington VA 22202Mailing address: P.O. Box 7132, Arlington VA 22207

Tel: (703) 528-8588http://www.arlingtondemocrats.org

Chair: Kip Malinosky — [email protected] Editor-in-Chief: Warren L. Nelson —(703) 243-7867 (h), [email protected]

Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the ACDC unless expressly approved by an appropriate committee resolution

Copyright ©2018, ACDC, All Rights Reserved

Jerry Botland

Computer Consulting

Troubleshoot and resolve computer andcomputer related problems.

Perform upgrades, set-up wireless routers and print servers.Transfer old files, address book and emails

from an old computer to a new one.Phone: (202) 744-0542 — [email protected]

Chairing the Arlington County Demo-cratic Committee for the last four years hasbeen a great honor and extraordinary challenge.I ran for Chair because I wanted to bring theparty together, recruit new Precinct Captains,continue voter registration and identification,sustain party finances, diversify the party andhelp beyond Arlington. Four years later, wehave made significant progress on all thesegoals and won every election in Arlington forthe last three years. With my final Chair col-umn, I want to focus on lessons learned thatDemocratic Committees should embrace.

First, candidate recruitment is of the ut-most importance. Democrats need to contestevery office. While this has never been a prob-lem in Arlington, it is a problem for most Demo-cratic committees. Even in Arlington, I made itmy duty to meet with anyone interested in run-ning for office as a Democrat. I would encour-age every potential candidate to think long andhard about why they want to run and to encour-age them to get involved in commissions andcommunity work, if they were not already en-gaged. The key is that Democratic committeesshould welcome and recruit a diverse array of

Lessons learnedcandidates for every office.

Second, successful political parties arecoalition-builders. In Arlington, we imple-mented instant runoff voting for our caucusesto ensure that each candidate had a strong in-centive to reach beyond his or her base. OurOutreach Team worked to engage communityleaders from all different backgrounds and hada presence at every community festival. Fur-thermore every new progressive group, (In-divisible, WoFA, Let America Vote, Mobilize,etc) should be welcomed by Democratic com-mittees. Too often Democratic committees be-come small social clubs that aren’t very wel-coming to newcomers. This must change,which leads me to the next point.

Third, embrace grassroots campaigning.You knew I had to write about the importanceof knocking on doors and making phone calls.It is not just about using these tactics, but stra-tegically implementing them. The most impor-tant part of this idea is that local Democraticcommittees must work hand-in-hand withstatewide coordinated campaigns. Local com-mittees can help statewide campaigns find vol-unteer leaders, staging locations and promote

and publicize canvassing, calling and voterregistration events. In return, coordinated cam-paigns should share volunteer lists, trainingresources and events with local committees.Not everyone needs to knock on doors or makecalls, but every committee member needs todo something. Every year a few races are de-cided by a handful of votes.

Fourth, elections are about choices. Ourcandidates always have compelling stories totell about why they are running for office.Their stories, values and positions on the is-sues must be clearly contrasted with theiropponents. Our committees must make ev-ery effort to get the message across for everycandidate through flyers, mailers and, nowespecially, online. Furthermore, committeesmust ensure voters are informed about everyopportunity to vote. If nothing else, commit-tees need to let voters know who the Demo-cratic candidates are by creating sampleDemocratic ballots and offering them to ev-ery voter.

Democratic politics (both big and little“D”) is difficult work. Frustrations are legion.Disappointments are guaranteed. The oppor-tunity to make a difference, however, by elect-ing candidates who believe that governmentshould help people rather than only reward-ing the rich is deeply gratifying. I am step-ping down as Chair, but my commitment toelecting Democrats won’t waver an iota. AndI encourage activists everywhere to get in-volved in your Democratic committee andmake it an even better force for progressivechange.

The Second Saturday Breakfast will beheld on the FIRST Saturday this month, Janu-ary 6, because the governor’s inaugurationwill be on the second Saturday.

The program will be to celebrate the in-credible achievements of our outgoing ACDCchair, Kip Malinosky, after four years of ser-vice and hard work.

We’ll be at Busboys and Poets inShirlington with the doors opening at 8 a.m.We will try to adjourn by 9:30 a.m. so folkscan get to Del. Patrick Hope’s Pancakes andPolitics event. (Maybe you wanna go for anegg and OJ at the ACDC breakfast?)

And please, please, please don’t forgetto bring cash. We get one check for all at theend of the breakfast, so plastic just doesn’tcut it. It’s like the good old days of cash.

It’s Breakfaston 1st Saturday


Yard Sign of the month

Next Monthly MeetingAll Dems Invited

Wednesday, January 10, 6:30 p.m. sign-in

continued from page one

NRECA Building, 4301 Wilson BlvdCorner of North Taylor and Wilson, just east of Glebe & Wilson

Free parking under building, enter from Taylor Street

Elections! You can never get far away from them when

you’re an Arlington Democrat. And this month’s meeting

will be filled with them as we elect our new precinct captains

and ACDC Steering Committee. Note that not all attendees

get to vote. All you ever wanted to know (and probably a

lot more) is in the story starting on Page One. And after

you finish voting, you’ll hear candidate announcements for

the County Board and the School Board.

as a captain in that precinct for at least sixmonths before the election. Any and all whoare interested are encouraged to file. Train-ing sessions will be offered in the spring, socaptains can be up to speed for the electionsthis fall, which will include the re-election ofSen. Tim Kaine. (To learn what a precinctcaptain does, see Page 8.)

The filing fee of $25 is non-refundable.However, the party does not want anyonedeprived of the ability to run by financial cir-cumstances, so anyone who feels unable topay may appeal to Chairman Malinosky, whohas the authority to waive the fee. That ap-peal should be filed with the nomination form.

The precinct captain elections will be thefirst order of business at the January meeting.To be fully transparent, ACDC was last able tofind candidates for all the captains’ slots whenNoah was a precinct captain in the Ark precinct.So, the standard is for all those running to bedeclared elected without any ballot needed.

After the captains are elected, the meet-ing will turn to the Steering Committee andits 15 elective positions, viz., chair; deputychair; precinct operations chair; finance chair;press and public relations chair; outreach andvisibility chairs (three); communications di-rector; The Voice editor; volunteer coordina-tor; secretary; treasurer; sergeant-at-arms andparliamentarian.

The same deadline for filing a nomina-tion form, the same $25 filing fee and the samewaiver rule apply to these posts.

Those attending the January 10 meetingmust check in between 6:30 p.m. and 7:15p.m. The meeting will be called to order at7:15 p.m.

If a ballot for any precinct captain is re-quired, only registered voters from the con-tested precinct can vote. Hint: While captainselected in January must be living in the pre-cinct where they run, captains elected later inthe cycle can come from anywhere in thecounty. Therefore, if three people seek to runin a precinct with two captains, it is usuallysuggested that one step aside and wait to beelected the next month in another precinctwith a shortage of candidates.

After the captains are elected, the elec-tions for Steering Committee will be held.The electorate for the Steering Committee isnot everyone attending the meeting. It is: thenewly elected precinct captains; the immedi-ate past chair of ACDC, Kip Malinosky; thepresident of the Arlington Young Democratsand one other designee from AYD; membersof the Democratic State Central Committeewho live in Arlington; and anyone elected topublic office in Arlington as a Democraticcandidate or endorsee who lives in Arlington.

That last phrase may confuse somepeople, but a number of state senators anddelegates representing Arlington can comefrom Alexandria or Fairfax County becausetheir districts cross county lines. Only thosewho live in Arlington can vote in the ACDCelections.

Time to votefor ACDC’sofficers

Donkey EarsListening to the doings

of Arlington’s Dems

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard byas overheard by

as overheard by

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Dan Steen and

Dan Steen and Mädi

Green Green

Green Green

Green


Passages: The husband of the late County Board member Ellen Bozman,William H. Bozman, died November 30 at Goodwin House in Bailey’sCrossroads. A former senior budget examiner for the U.S. Bureau of theBudget and senior administrator for several non-profit organizations, he was 93and had been in declining health for months due to heart disease. A weekbefore he died, the County Board voted to name the county governmentheadquarters after Ellen Bozman, who died in 2009. Bill Bozman enlisted inthe Army Air Force in 1943. After WW II, he graduated cum laude fromHarvard University. Bozman worked at the Bureau of the Budget from 1948 to1961, starting as a trainee budget examiner. He was then appointed the firstAssistant Administrator for Administration and Finance for the newly createdArea Redevelopment Administration, a position he held until 1964. In thatyear, he was named Director of Field Operations for the newly created Commu-nity Action Program, Office of Economic Opportunity, as the War on Povertywas officially known. In 1967, he became Deputy Director of the CommunityAction Program. Moving to the private sector in1970, he was vice presidentfor administration and then for development for the Urban Institute until 1972,when he was a principal in launching a private management consulting firm.Bozman was comptroller and then vice president of the U.S. Railway Associa-tion from 1974 to1982. He also found time to volunteer for a range of commu-nity organizations, including being a founder and President of the Board ofDirectors of the Alliance for Housing Solutions, which promotes affordablehousing in Arlington. He is survived by a daughter, Martha; two sons, WilliamMcConnell and Bruce, and four grandchildren. His memorial service will beheld Saturday, January 6, at 1 p.m., at the Rock Spring Congregational Church,5010 Little Falls Road.

Moving on: Former AYD Chair and one-time Joint Campaign Co-Chair GordonSimonette had moved into the hinterlands, taking the Silver Line to distantFairfax County where he has now been elected co-chair of the Hunter MillDistrict Democratic Committee. Hunter Mill has a few precincts that are inBarbara Comstock’s congressional district, so Gordon starts out with a demand-ing challenge right off the bat.

Wedding bells: Jarrod Nagurka, who helped organize the YD club at Washing-ton-Lee High School and then organized the campaigns of Patrick Hope forCongress, Rip Sullivan for the House of Delegates, and Christian Dorsey forthe County Board, launched a different campaign recently. He proposed toRebecca Cox in Charlottesville in mid-December. Fortunately for Nagurka,she said yes.

Passages II: The mother of precinct captain Michael Raizen, Senta AmonRaizen, passed away Dec. 23, survived by husband Al, children and grandchil-dren. A 60-year Arlington resident, she was known nationally and abroad forher work on science education, founding the National Center for ImprovingScience Education in 1988.

Blackout: The managers of the building housing ACDC headquarters planned toturn off the electricity for 12 hours one night for some needed work. KimPhillip, ACDC office manager, saw the notice and knew it was Election Night.She got in contact with building management and got the work postponed aweek. Thank you, Kim!

EGAD! It’s the end of the year and westill have not made our goal of cereal boxesfor the Arlington Food Assistance Center(AFAC)!

Of course, that’s nothing new. As nearas we can tell, the last time we made the goalbefore Times Square erupted on New Year’sEve was back when Martin van Buren waspresident. (You remember Martin, don’tyou?)

But the good news is that we aren’t asdeep in the hole as last year. As of December28, with three days left in 2017, we were 75boxes short of our goal of 400 boxes.

At this juncture last year, we were 124boxes short. So being just 75 boxes shyof the goal this year looks downrightbright! (Okay, that’s a little journalistichyperbole.)

What we have regularly done in pastyears is push December a few weeks intoJanuary and keep collecting boxes toward theOld Year’s Goal.

You can help make the goal without everleaving your home. Just go online to https://afac.org/campaign/democratic-values-in-ac-tion/ and make a contribution that will beswiftly converted into cereal.

You can also do it the old-fashionedway—by hand-carrying boxes to any ACDCor AYD event. And, if you arrive and realizeyou left your box at home, there’s a jar therewhere you can plunk down cash toward a boxbuy.

Democratic Values in Action (DVA), thecharitable arm of ACDC, has been collectingcereal for AFAC for many years, way back tothe era when Donald Trump was only knownas a TV clown.

To many, cereal seems an odd food toput at the top of the food agenda. But it’s notso odd at all. For one thing, it’s very nutri-tious—as long as you avoid brands like SugarBombs. And it’s easy to store and will lastsafely for a long time.

So make a contribution now and help usmake our goal before the House of Delegateselections are all wrapped up.

Democratic Values in Action

It’s the madannual rushfor cereal!


Governor Terry McAuliffe calls his termin office “the honor of my life.” And he mightfollow it up with a run for the presidency in2020. But he’s not prepared to run yet.

McAuliffe spent much of December giv-ing end-of-term interviews to individual re-porters who covered him in Richmond. In-variably, they asked him about his presiden-tial thoughts.

“I’m going to finish here strong. I’mgoing to travel extensively around the coun-try, all through 2018, and then we’ll see wherewe are in 2019. So if you’re asking me today,it’s no.”

“In 2019, we’ll see where we’re at. To-day the answer is no. I never take anythingoff the table, but I loved being Governor ofVirginia, loved it,” he said.

“I mean I never take anything off thetable. I don’t. I’d like to be the pope. I’d liketo be Tom Brady’s backup quarterback,” helaughs. “I love life! And I go for it. And I justdon’t take anything off the table.”

However, as to running for the Senateor House, he does give a firm no. He saysthey don’t get enough done.

Looking back at what he’s done over thelast four years, Governor McAuliffe said he’smost proud of creating jobs after the reces-sion and sequestration.

“The numbers speak for themselves—$19 billion in new capital investment. Unem-ployment has gone from 5.4 to 3.6 percent.We’re now the second lowest in the country,”said McAuliffe.

His other top goal when he took officewas to improve transportation—“$10 billionin projects, no political roads. The Port ofVirginia, we saved that. That was about to gounder. It’s now been profitable for threestraight years in a row.”

For those accomplishments and others,Governing magazine just named McAuliffePublic Official of the Year.

His biggest regret is not succeeding inexpanding Medicaid.

He says his toughest day as governor waslast Aug. 12 when he learned a protester andtwo state troopers he worked with were killedat the Charlottesville alt-right rally.

“The hard part was when I had to ad-dress the nation at that press conference. Itwas hard on me personally, because I was sodevastated by what I’d seen and heard fromthese people,” he recalled.

“I never in my life had ever experiencedsuch hatred, such divisiveness and I kept ask-ing myself, ‘Where does this come from in

this country?’” The governor recalled speaking to Presi-

dent Trump during the chaos and feeling as-sured Trump understood the need to unify thecountry, but then something changed.

“I don’t know what happened. After ourcall, he delayed his press conference for anhour and I think the folks in the White Housegot in touch with him and he went on nationaltelevision and blamed both sides.”

McAuliffe said he doesn’t think Presi-dent Trump is racist, but instead has no moralcore.

“This is a function of him wanting to win.In his whole life, he will say or do anythingto win. So if he has to come off and act like aracist to get the good ‘ol boys down there,he’s going to say it.”

As for advice he would give Governor-elect Ralph Northam, McAuliffe recom-mended further increasing teacher salaries.

“The big thing I think he faces is teachershortages. We have 1,000 teacher shortagesright now. I’m proud we did two pay raises,two under my term, but we’re still $7,900under the national average in Virginia,” hesaid.

Among the things he says he’s mostproud of: restoring rights to more ex-felonsthan any governor has; transforming the waytransportation dollars are spent; and bringingin craft brewers like Deschutes and BallastPoint, to name a few. He says those brewer-ies in turn boost agriculture and local farm-ers, as well as tourism.

McAuliffe believes Ralph Northam’sleadership will piggyback on the progress he’smade. “It will be a continuation,” he said.“But the crazy legislation, the very anti-so-cial legislation, that will never see the lightof the day. So I do think my 120-veto recordwill be here forever,” he laughed.

McAuliffe not yet ready to run for president

Will Terry McAuliffebe a candidate again?


Your candidates for ACDC chair

Steve Baker

Jill Caiazzo

As we start the new year and get readyfor the next election, some changes will beinevitable. I spelled out three priorities forACDC at our December meeting that relateto how we operate as a committee, governourselves and work with the community. Intoday’s difficult political environment, it iscrucial that we continue to adapt, recruitinggood candidates and electing Democrats inArlington, advocating for better schools anda better community while running up the scorein our statewide elections and collaboratingwith our neighboring committees, sharing bestideas and practices.

Our first priority is to restructure ourmeetings. We need to take a page from theIndivisible Handbook and make our meetingsmore interactive and activity focused. Weneed more Q&A, more break-out sessions andworking groups. We need to give our mem-bers more opportunities to participate. Byaccomplishing more business at our meetingswe can eliminate some redundancy of meet-ing that sometimes drains our valuable vol-unteer time.

Arlington Democrats,Like so many of you, I have written

scores of postcards over the past year askingDemocrats to exercise that most precious of

Secondly, we must ensure a fair andtransparent process so that everyone has avoice. We must place a high priority on be-ing small d democratic. Important decisionsshould be brought to the full committee tobuild the broadest support. As the big tentparty, Democrats want to welcome a widevariety of ideas and give voice to them all.One of the casualties of our current politicalsituation has been civil discourse. We needto re-learn how to communicate. We need toembrace discussion, respect our differencesand not be afraid to compromise; and we needto engage our YD’s and communicate acrossmultiple channels, including texting and so-cial media. Getting the process right will helprestore public trust and broaden our efforts.

Third, we need to do better outreach toall our communities. We can’t just show uparound election time to the African Americancommunity, the Latino community, the Asiancommunity and others, asking for votes andthen disappearing the other 11 months of theyear. Outreach needs to be a year round ef-fort. It’s an ongoing conversation. Our com-mittee and our government need to be reflec-tive of our entire Democratic family. Thereis so much more we can do. The best ideas

will be yours and they will always be wel-come. Please join me in taking our commit-tee through these important two years. Thankyou!

rights — voting! It seems only fitting to close2017 with one final note to my fellow Demo-cratic warriors here in Arlington. I write toyou today to ask for your support as the nextchair of the Arlington Democrats.

We live in interesting times! As Arling-ton Democrats, we are fortunate to have arobust local party infrastructure able toweather most political storms with an unri-valed steadiness. You can count on me to be afaithful steward of this organization’s best-in-class practices – including our poll greet-ing operation, our farmers market and festi-val participation, our support of the Coordi-nated Campaign with the multi-candidate gripcard, and more. I have learned these practicesas a Precinct Captain, an Area Chair, DeputyChair of Precinct Ops, and Co-Chair of the2017 Joint Campaign, and I know that theymust be preserved.

But my solid working knowledge of theArlington Democrats — and equally impor-tant, my grassroots experience — also havemade clear to me that there is room for inno-vation. I know this because, in my time withthe Arlington Democrats, I have championednew initiatives that have made a difference:• In the aftermath of the 2016 election, I

led the charge on our Open Houses and ourparticipation in the Women’s March – criti-cal activities that brought in hundreds of newvolunteers;• With respect to Precinct Operations, Ihave focused on reorienting our strategy totackle head-on the challenges posed by thelarge residential buildings;• And with the Joint Campaign, I pushedto improve the volunteer experience by orga-nizing different types of free activities, en-hancing the sign-up system, and leveraginggrassroots communication networks.

As chair, I would press for additional in-novations to meet the challenge of these times,and I would empower others — especiallythose historically underrepresented in politicsand government — to do the same. In short, Iwould act boldly to build on the tremendousblue momentum of 2017. The DemocraticParty should strive for nothing less.

I invite you to learn more about my goalsfor the Arlington Democrats at—facebook.com/Jill4Chair and to join the morethan 50 Area Chairs, Precinct Captains, andcommunity leaders supporting my campaign.Together, we will win in 2018 and beyond.Let’s get started!


Were the polls bad in Virginia thispast fall? The vast majority of thepolls showed Ralph Northam winningthe governorship, but with one excep-tion they got the margin of victory waylow.

The last 13 polls—that is, allthose taken at least partly in Novem-ber—produced an average margin ofvictory for Northam of 2.8 percentagepoints, which was not even one-thirdof his actual margin of 8.9 percentagepoints.

Only one poll taken in those fi-nal days got it right. Quinnipiac (seeblue box in table at left) showedNortham winning by nine points. Butearlier polls taken by Quinnipiac inOctober showed Northam flying tovictory by 14 and 17 points!

In the entire campaign, only fourpolls (see red boxes in table) showedEd Gillespie winning—but they gar-nered news coverage all out of pro-portion to what the polls as a groupwere showing.

Two of those Gillespie-winningpolls were taken by The Polling Com-pany, a GOP outfit. But in its last polltaken just days before the balloting,even The Polling Company showedNortham ahead, albeit by only onepoint.

Monmouth University took a pollin mid-October showing Gillespieahead by one point. That was the firstpoll to show Gillespie on top and drewenormous media attention.Monmouth took the last poll of thecampaign and that showed Northamup by two points, but that poll drewlittle attention.

The only other poll to showGillespie ahead was taken in mid-Oc-tober by Hampton University andshowed Gillespie ahead by an astound-ing eight points. Hampton did not takeanother poll before Election Day.

The table shows all the pollstaken in October and November. Ear-lier polls were shown in the Novem-ber issue of The Voice.

How badwere thepolls?


All 126 positions as precinct captain inArlington County are up for election nextWednesday, January 10. Each of the county’s54 precincts has at least two captains, withthe largest third having three. So there is al-ways someone else to work with. A total of126 is a lot of posts to fill, and ACDC is con-stantly on the lookout for folks who are inter-ested in serving as precinct captains. But justwhat does being a captain involve?

What is the mission of a Precinct Captain?In general, Precinct Captains are the link

between the Democratic Party and the votersof their precincts. The Precinct Captain worksyear-round to get to know her/his neighbors,listen to their concerns and issues and com-municate these issues to the Democratic lead-ership. This creates a sense of community,promotes the idea that “we are all in this to-gether” and ultimately builds a strong teamthat can maximize Democratic turnout andperformance in local, state and federal elec-tions.

What does a Precinct Captain do?Every precinct is different, but, in gen-

eral, Precinct Captains:• Recruit volunteers for literature drops inthe fall and poll greeting on Election Day plusdistributing our Democratic Messenger toevery accessible door in the precinct in mid-September;• Act as a campaign point of contact; and• Work with their Area Chairs and othernearby precincts to recruit volunteers formulti-precinct voter-ID and get-out-the-votecanvasses and/or phone banks.

But this is only the beginning. PrecinctCaptains provide the pivotal points of con-tact and leadership for all our campaign ac-tivities and are encouraged to be creative andpro-active in pursuit of a higher Democraticturnout. Precinct Captains are leaders ofneighborhood teams that are in turn supportedby Area Chairs and others on the PrecinctOperations leadership team. The goal andexpectation is that you will have volunteersto help you; the Precinct Ops team will assistyou at every turn and give you lists of pastvolunteers to get you started.

What are the benefits of being a PrecinctCaptain?• Be a member of the Arlington CountyArea/Neighborhood Team• Be a Democratic grassroots leader inyour neighborhood

• Meet and work with great Democrats inyour precinct• Meet and work with elected officials whorepresent you• Enjoy doing good work to elect leadersfrom the schoolhouse to the White House whowill make Arlington a safer, healthier andbetter place to live• Be a voting member of the ArlingtonCounty Democratic Committee

Precinct Operations TimelineIn 2018, our November ballot will in-

clude four Democratic candidates—one eachfor US Senator, US House of Representatives,Arlington County Board and Arlington

County School Board. We may have a pri-mary and/or caucus earlier in the year for anyor all of these seats.

ACDC’s mission is to elect Democratsin all these races and Precinct Captains arethe cornerstones of our efforts from recruit-ing volunteers to getting out the vote.

Below is our best-estimate overview ofthe 2018 monthly activities for Precinct Cap-tains. Remember: You are not doing thisjob alone. The Precinct Ops leadership, yourArea Chair and experienced volunteers fromyour precinct will all help you. Please shareyour successes and ideas and ask for helpwhenever you need it. Good communicationis the key!

Just what does a precinct captain do?


and reported that 35 used a draw, coin toss orother chance selection to resolve ties.

The other contested seat is inFredericksburg’s District 28, an open seat.The ballot count there showed DemocratJoshua Cole trailing Republican Bob Thomasby 82 votes. But the ballot count is actuallynot a solution since some residents of the dis-trict were improperly assigned to another dis-trict and at least 100 voters living in District28 were given the ballot for an adjoining dis-trict. In other words, a recount cannot solvethe problems in that district. A judge has theoption to decide whether to order a new elec-tion—a do-over—and will hear argumentsJanuary 5.

If both those seats remain in the air Janu-ary 10 when the House of Delegates convenes,the chamber will have to organize with 49Democrats and 49 Republicans.

Good luck!In the 94th District in Newport News,

Simonds argues that the three-judge panelassigned as a recount court made a “clear le-gal error” when it reviewed and counted aballot that was not initially tallied because ithad too many bubbles filled in.

The judges were presented with a letterfrom a Yancey-chosen recount official, New-port News teacher Kenneth Mallory, who saidthe ballot in question should have gone toYancey. The panel agreed and decided thateach candidate had earned 11,608 votes.

The recount official wrote the letter over-night saying he felt he had erred in not insist-ing that the ballot be sent to the three judgesfor a ruling. He had simply agreed with aDemocratic recount official that the ballot wasan “overvote”—meaning too many candidateswere chosen—and agreed to set it aside as avoided ballot.

It isn’t clear how the ballot even gotthrough Election Day. Ballots are immedi-ately inserted in a scanner and read. New-port News Registrar Vicki Lewis said anyballot with more than one bubble for an of-fice filled in is supposed to be spit out and thevoter given a replacement ballot. But some-times, she said, voters walk away before thatprocess is finished.

Newport News Electoral Board memberSusan Devlin told the Richmond Times-Dis-patch that Simonds picked up votes in the re-count mainly where voters had filled in the“D” after her name rather than the bubble infront of it.

Simonds has filed a “motion for recon-

sideration” — asking the judges to reconsidertheir decision on the golden ballot.

If the judges deny Simonds’ motion, therace would go back to the draw unless shewants to take further legal action, her lawyer,Ezra Reese, told the Daily Press of NewportNews.

The State Board of Elections plans tochoose the winner by drawing one of two filmcanisters, each containing a candidate’s name,out of a bowl.

Simonds and her attorneys argue thatNewport News Circuit Court Judge Bryant L.Sugg, Powhatan Circuit Court Chief JudgePaul W. Cella and Chesterfield Circuit CourtJudge David E. Johnson should never havereviewed the ballot in question. Recount rules,they said, say that recount officials are sup-posed to set aside any ballots they can’t agreeon and let the judges make the final decision.However, no ballots were challenged in thatmanner on the day of the recount.

Simonds also argues that the ballot

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And today’s House of Delegates winner is...shouldn’t have been counted at all because itwas an overvote, meaning it had marks nextto multiple candidates.

In court, Republican lawyers argued thatthe recount isn’t over until the judges makethe final decision, making the late ballot re-view valid. They also argued that the voterhad filled in both bubbles in the delegate race,but had then put a slash through one bubble,indicating the voter was canceling what he orshe had done.

The Board of Elections has a handbookshowing all sorts of markings that have ap-peared on ballots in the past and saying whatsort of ruling should be made in each case.But a ballot with both bubbles filled in and aline through one of them is not in the hand-book. However, the guidebook says that whena voter selects two candidates but clarifies theintention by using “an additional mark ormarks that appear to indicate support” for one,then “the ballot shall be counted.”

Last month, the Daily Press reported thatYancey was one of the Hampton Roads law-makers who suggested Sugg’s name when itwas time to fill an open spot on the NewportNews Circuit Court in 2014. Experts con-tacted by the Daily Press did not agree onwhether Sugg should have recused himselffrom the recount hearing, but they said thatpublic perception could be tainted.

UNRESOLVED 94TH DISTRICT — Shelly Simonds (foreground)is challenging David Yancey (hovering in the background).


THE GOLDEN BALLOT — This is the ballot that tied the House of Delegates race in NewportNews. The voter went straight Republican for the statewide offices. In the last column, he or shevoted for an independent, Woodruff, running against a Democrat, Boyle.

v o l. 43, no 1 www .arlingtondemocrats.org january 2018 t

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