Kaine, Beyer, Downs Also Get FCNP Nod
America is on the eve of its most consequential election since 1860, characterized by the major media as a dead heat for U.S. president between the remarkably competent and hopeful campaign of Democratic nominee and current U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and the increasingly angry, anti-American hate-filled Republican juggernaut of convicted felon Donald Trump.
Overshadowed by this epic confrontation are critically important U.S. Senate and House elections – including those on the ballot in the Falls Church area pitting incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine against Republican Hung Cao and incumbent U.S. Rep. and Falls Church ‘Native Son’ Don Beyer against Republican Jerry Torres and two independents, and a myriad across the U.S. local governing board races.
In Falls Church, there is an important local race to fill for a year a vacancy on the Falls Church City Council that pits former elected School Board chair Laura Downs against former Board of Zoning Appeals appointee John Murphy. On the ballot to fill a vacancy on the Falls Church School Board running unopposed is Anne Sherwood.
As of the end of the day Tuesday, 45.9 percent of registered voters in Falls Church had already cast their ballots through early-voting in person at City Hall or through the mail. Citizens have until this Saturday to vote early in this way, and otherwise the City’s three precincts will be open for voting next Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Two precincts will do their voting at the F.C. Community Center, 223 Little Falls, and the third at the Oak Street Elementary, 601 S. Oak St.
The Falls Church ballot shows four minor party or independent candidates
running for president in addition to Harris and Trump.
Incumbent Senator Tim Kaine made an appearance at the Pimmit Hills Library early voting location just west of Falls Church Tuesday, greeted there by Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi, F.C. area State Del. Marcus Simon and Fairfax Dranesville District representative Jimmy Bierman.
Kaine, who is expected to win a third six-year term handily, told assembled supporters there that he thinks the Harris ticket will win Virginia by a four to six percentage point margin, and that he is optimistic about their overall chances, as well. He pointed to the 25 former Republicans in Virginia who’ve signed on for Harris over Trump, led by former U.S. Barbara Comstock.
He said he’s been concentrating his efforts in three key Congressional districts in Virginia – the 10th, 7th and 2nd – vital to his party’s efforts to gain a majority in the evenly-divided U.S. House.
He said he thinks Democrats hold the neighboring 10th District where State Sen. Suhas Subramanyam is running in place of Rep. Jennifer Wexton, who is not seeking reelection due to illness. The 10th District is mostly Loudoun County but comes into parts of Tysons Corner.
Kaine also thinks Democrats can hold the 7th District north of Richmond in central Virginia, where Democrat Eugene Vindman is running against Derrick Anderson where the incumbent Democrat Abigail Spanberger is also not seeking re-election, instead has already well begun a race for governor of Virginia.
The effort to pick up a seat in the 2nd District presents a challenge, Kaine said. Democratic candidate Missy Smasal, a surface warfare officer during the Iraq war, is making women’s choice a key to her effort to unseat incumbent Republican Jennifer Kiggans there.
Kaine said that the three key issues in all campaigns are the economy, health care and women’s choice, which he said, “is powerful everywhere” by cutting across party lines on the unifying idea of “keeping the government out of our bedrooms.” Immigration as an issue is “dropping away,” he said.
“Don’t even talk to me about The Post,” he added, noting its last minute decision not to endorse in the presidential race or henceforth in any race. In the recent past, the Post has been very influential with its endorsements in Northern Virginia.
But Kaine said, “Buckle your seat belts for after the election,” noting his concern that “there could be a lot of post-election disruption if Trump does not win.”
In the Falls Church City Council special election, final pitches before Election Day are represented by letters to the editor published in this week’s edition of the News-Press (see elsewhere this edition).
One letter supporting Downs is signed by 31 prominent former and former School Board and school community leaders, including Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan. A second was sent by current F.C. City Council members Marybeth Connelly and Debora Shantz-Hiscott.
A letter of support for Murphy was submitted by attorney Kathryn Kleiman. All such letters of endorsement received by the News-Press have been published.
