and in local news....
We had a primary election here today. This is a heavily-Democratic county, so (like Washington, DC) some of our positions are contested at the primary election rather than the general election in November. The only office on our ballot today was the county treasurer. The incumbent (sorry, but every page on the site seems to have YouTube videos) has been serving for 23 years, and plans to make the next term his last. The challenger promises to get rid of the decals, a property tax on motor vehicles. The incumbent points out that this isn't the treasurer's decision, but the County Board's (and the Board is "addicted" to this revenue). The local Green Party put in a Freedom of Information Request and found out that the challenger has repeatedly been delinquent in paying his vehicle tax. The challenger's other main allegation involved a small number of taxpayers who received notices late ("17 residents in Fairlington whose real estate tax bills may have been lost in the mail") and ended up paying late and being charged fines, which the current treasurer would not forgive. Apparently state law forbids dropping the late fees. Meanwhile, the incumbent has an outstanding record and national peer recognition. He's brought the tax delinquency rate down from over 9% to under 1% (meaning those who pay aren't subsidizing those who don't), and introduced many innovations. And the challenger's campaign literature had bad grammar on the first page. The lighter the turnout, the better the challenger's chances.
Late update - election results:
Arlington Treasurer Frank O'Leary won a convincing victory in the Democratic primary June 12, turning back a challenge by Bob James in one of the most acrimonious elections in recent county history. O'Leary received 4,191 votes, or 73.6 percent, to 1,501 votes for James. The incumbent won 47 of 49 precincts. With no opposition looming from Republicans or independents, O'Leary will likely cruise unopposed to victory in his seventh, and he says final, general election race. Turnout was 4.5 percent of Arlington's nearly 127,000 registered voters, in line with expectations.