Arlington Sun Gazette, November 15, 2012 Political Notes……………….(part of a larger article)
http://www.sungazette.net/arlington/news/political-notes-edition/article_be320002-2d9c-11e2-90a8-001a4bcf887a.html

GREEN PARTY GETS A BOOST FROM VOTERS, BUT CAN IT GO HIGHER?
Green Party County Board candidate Audrey Clement wasn’t catapulted into office on Nov. 6, but her double-digit showing in the race did raise the bar for future Green candidates.

While Clement’s 12.4-percent share of the vote was well below Democrat Libby Garvey (58.2 percent) and Republican Matt Wavro (28 percent), it roughly doubled the percentage of the vote Green candidates have received in previous County Board races when both Democrats and Republicans were on the ballot.

The better-than-before results for the Greens lead to two questions: Who is voting for the party’s candidates, and can the Greens take that vote percentage higher?

Conventional wisdom suggests that, barring some anomaly in a given race, Democrats in Arlington usually can count on between 57 and 63 percent of the vote in general elections, with other parties splitting the rest.

Garvey’s victory was on the lower end of that spectrum, so some of Clement’s votes probably came from disaffected Democrats. But with Republicans held to less than 30 percent of the vote in the race, Greens also may have picked up votes there, too.

“Clearly, most of my votes came from independents rather than Democrats, as Libby Garvey actually increased her margin of victory by 9 percentage points over the March special election,” said Clement, who was making her third bid in 12 months for County Board.

“I believe most of my vote came from those who are unhappy with the status quo, specifically the county’s reckless and irresponsible capital-spending program. So the question is, why the independents didn’t vote for Wavro?”

Clement said. “I think the answer lies in the uneasiness of many voters over the lack of affordable housing, and their general agreement with me that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are addressing the issue adequately.”

While their candidates’ fortunes have been trending upward, challenges facing the Arlington Green Party include the lack of significant political infrastructure and lack of “bench strength” from which the party could draw future candidates.

The Arlington Green Party largely has focused its efforts on County Board races; when there have been no Republicans challenging Democratic County Board candidates, the Green Party has won up to 32 percent of the vote. The party occasionally has supported candidates for School Board and House of Delegates.

The national Green Party did have a presidential candidate on the ballot in Virginia, but Jill Stein received just 0.23 percent of the vote statewide and just 0.31 percent in Arlington. The vote for Stein in Arlington was about one-third the total received for Libertarian Gary Johnson, representing a party that doesn’t have a significant local presence in Northern Virginia.

Thank you to all Virginia Greens who supported our three candidates on the ballot this year. I thank everyone who got signatures for the candidates to get on the ballot; for helping distribute campaign literature, and who gave of their own money and time to help them.

Jill Stein for President got about 8,000 votes (0.3%) statewide, fairly well distributed across the state with slightly more in the 8th, 11th and 1st Congressional Districts. Audrey Clement got 9,400 votes in Arlington County Board of Supervisors election or 12 percent of the total votes cast. Green Joe Galdo in his first campaign for office for the 11th Congressional seat in Fairfax area got about 1,200 votes.

Arlington Greens have had a Green candidate for county board for six years straight. Audrey got the highest percentage of the vote for any Green facing both a Republican and Democratic candidate. In 2009, the Green candidate got about 32 percent of the vote against only a Democratic candidate for County Board in Arlington.

Unfortunately, Jill Stein only got about 350 votes in Arlington County, despite Audrey’s excellent vote results. Many, many Green voters for local candidates showed they would NOT vote for our national Green presidential candidate.

Jill Stein got nearly three times the number of votes our 2008 Green candidate Cynthia McKiney received. Nationwide, Stein is expected to get over 1 million votes, the highest for any Green candidate since Ralph Nader in 2000. The Stein campaign did well and was organized, despite widespread media blackout and considering its lack of funding.

The two major parties spent a reported $2 billion directly for the presidential race, plus independent political campaign comittees funded largely by rich people and corporations spent probably another $2 billion. With about 135 million votes cast, the two major parties and their corporate allies spent about $35 per vote cast.

Arlington Introduces New Waste Reduction Effort
Great news! Arlington County now offers a free online service for residents to opt out of unwanted mail, catalogs, and phonebooks. Starting now, residents can visit http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/EnvironmentalServices/SW/page87611.aspx to manage their personalized opt-out requests. This Catalog Choice program is just one of the steps we are taking to foster waste reduction in the County.

Arlington County would greatly appreciate your help in sharing our Catalog Choice information with the community by including it in your Civic Association’s newsletters, listservs, websites, meetings, etc.

By continuing to stop unwanted mail and telling others about this program, you are supporting our goal to save the community’s natural resources. Thank you very much for your continued participation and support.

If you have any questions about this service, please feel free to contact Arlington County at 703-228-6570.

Laura G. Smith
Communications Specialist
Arlington County Government
Department of Environmental Services
T: 703.228.6596 | M: 571.255.9216 email: [email protected]

After you vote on Tuesday, November 6, join us at our post-election Green Party celebration this year at the home of Don Rouse, at 5010 11th St N, Arlington, VA 22205, starting around 7 PM on Tuesday, Nov. 6. Win, lose or draw, we Greens have won already presenting our hopes for a better country and better county through our two candidates Jill Stein for President and Audrey Clement for Arlington County Board. Vegetarian chili, corn bread, hot and cold drinks.

Driving Directions: from N. Washington Blvd and N. George Mason Drive, go south on George Mason Drive to 11th Street (next to Lacey Woods Park), and go left (east) on N. 11th Street about two blocks to 5010 N. 11th Street.

Location: 5010 N. 11th Street
Arlington, VA 22205

Time: Beginning around 7 PM, Tuesday, Nov. 6

We hope to see you there. Thank you for all the people who have donated their time and talents and resources to our Green Party candidates. As Jill Stein has said, “we are voting our hopes, not voting our fears.”

Note-our regular November meeting on Nov. 7 is cancelled owing to the Election. See you at the regular December meeting.

John Reeder
chair - Arlington Greens