This November’s election in Virginia and in Falls Church, in particular, are already turning hot. The statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, with the primaries behind us, are now definitely seen as critical on a nationwide level, being the first harbingers of the 2026 midterms when the nation will deliver its judgment on the new Trump and MAGA agendas. In Falls Church, rumors are flying in the wake of the determination that six candidates will be vying for four seats on the City Council, with one Council member not seeking reelection. Rumors involve a controversial letter sent out by a leader of a prominent non-profit group suggesting an active role in the election, even posing the idea of “bullet balloting,” to increase the chances for a preferred candidate.
This November’s Falls Church City Council election will be another very important one, though not as essential to the well being of society as a whole as the race for governor leading into the federal midterms in 2026. For Falls Church, its seven-person City Council currently has at least five members who have been staunchly in favor of the kind of development that has turned the Little City into a genuine regional destination with fine restaurants and entertainment options spread across the entire breadth of its main corridors north-south, east-west and mutli-family developments that now house more individuals and families than all the single family homes in the City. While they also attend to the interests of neighborhoods and the environment, this majority’s policies have also made possible the funding of one of the best school systems in America, and on top of that, the prospect of significant cuts in real estate and other tax rates.
That majority will be challenged with this November’s Council election by candidates who don’t share the values they have put into policy for Falls Church, who reflect more of a “NIMBY” (“Not in My Back Yard”) sentiment, and their current prevalence on the Council could erode to either a bare majority or no majority at all.
So, preparations, and for that matter, machinations, are in play now. It is an important time for citizens to make the effort to become more knowledgeable about the issues of our local government, and thereby be better insulated against anyone’s efforts to advance half-truths or matters taken out of context
This newspaper has been a staunch advocate of the kind of “smart growth” that has come to distinguish our Little City from other regional jurisdictions that just went through a very difficult budget cycle due to lagging revenues, and that now face the prospect of even more challenging realities as the impact of the Trump administration’s program cuts are resulting in mass layoffs of federal employees and those of government contractors.
It will make for big challenges in Falls Church, whose workforce has the highest percentage of federal employees of any of its neighbors.