Notwithstanding one School Board slot technically still up for grabs, all incumbents won Tuesday’s re-election in the City of Falls Church’s City Council and School Board elections Tuesday in a strong show of support for the City’s achievements in recent years, including its 17 cent reduction in the real estate tax rate while building a new $120 million state of the art high school.
In the fourth-place spot on the School Board, incumbent Kathleen Tysse holds a 56 vote lead over newcomer Sharon Mergler with about 150 provisional ballots still to be processed by Voter Registrar David Bjerke’s office. The resolution of those ballots should be done before this weekend, Bjerke told the News-Press.
Two big parties overlapped at the Little City’s Clare and Don’s Beach Shack after the polls closed Tuesday night. The local Democratic Committee and two of the incumbents on the Council held their events side-by-side, with big winner Del. Marcus Simon hosting one and Council members Marybeth Connelly and Laura Downs the other.
Connelly and Downs were joined by fellow incumbent Dave Snyder and newcomer Arthur Agin in the Council race winning column, and in the School Board race, it was incumbents Lori Silverman, Anne Sherwood and Kathleen Tysse joining first-time candidate MaryKate (MK) Hughes in the winner’s circle.
Just two days earlier, the State Theater next door to the popular restaurant, the Democratic slate in the statewide election rallied supporters, all winners, led by Virginia gubernatorial candidate and now governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, showing up with all the state party’s elites.
Spanberger wound up winning in Falls Church by an incredible margin of 84.39 percent to 15.39 percent for Republican Winsome Earle-Sears (Spanberger won with 57 percent statewide), with 81.9 percent for lieutenant governor candidate Ghazala Hashmi and 77.6 percent for attorney general candidate Jay Jones. As all three won handily statewide, the Democrats picked up a whopping 13 additional seats in the State Legislature to add to the 51 they already have for what will be a 64-36 majority come January.
The landslide will spur the Democrats to push ahead with plans to redistrict the state’s congressional districts (see State Del. Marcus Simon’s article. elsewhere this issue).
Nationally, Virginia’s joined an historic blow-out for the Democrats, winning everything not tied down handily. New Jersey, New York City and California were scenes of historic romps.
Falls Church’s representative in the U.S. Congress, favorite son Don Beyer Jr., who was at the State Theater bash Sunday, issued a statement Wednesday saying, “It is hard to overstate the magnitude of Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger’s victory yesterday. She won by the largest margin of any Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia since the parties realigned during integration, with broad support that overcame differences of age, race, gender, and political affiliation. She flipped rural counties that haven’t supported Democratic candidates in years, and her success helped deliver the biggest Democratic wins in the House of Delegates in nearly four decades. She also shattered Virginia’s glass ceiling at long last, and I cannot wait to address my friend as ‘Madam Governor.’”
Among the significant factors in the Democrats’ victories was a return of the Hispanic vote. In Prince William County, according to the CASA Hispanic advocacy organization, the vote for Spanberger was a 16 percentage point increase over what Trump got last November, and the biggest differences were in the most predominantly Hispanic areas.
In Falls Church’s City Council race, with a total of 66 percent of active registered voters casting ballots, Downs had the highest vote total of 5,147, followed by Connelly with 4,404, Snyder with 4,161 and Agin with 3,304. Trailing were James Thompson with 2,060 and Brian Pendleton with 1,631. There were 194 write-in votes.
All the candidates endorsed by the News-Press won.
For Falls Church School Board, Hughes had the highest vote total with 4,498, followed by Sherwood with 3,925, Silverman with 3,820 and Tysse with 3,475. Those winners were trailed by Sharon Mergler with 3,419 votes, so far.
According to Voter Registrar Bjerke, there are about 150 “provisional ballots” still to be counted, mostly from people registering to vote on Election Day. With the difference between Tysse and Margler being only 56 votes, that outcome still hangs in the balance. Bjerke says the provisional ballots should all be processed by Friday.
As the top Council vote getter, Downs, first elected to the Council in a special election only one year ago, said in a statement to the News-Press, “I am humbled to have been elected by such a large number of Falls Church City residents and extend my heartfelt thanks to my supporters and campaign volunteers. I feel my message of taking a moderate approach, seeking compromise and building consensus on the Council, and making decisions based on both data and community input, resonated with our community.”
As top vote getter for the School Board, Hughes told the News-Press, “Falls Church City – thank you for electing me to our School Board. I am honored and grateful. I am excited to join this dedicated team and to partner closely with our phenomenal educators, students and families. Together, we will build on what already works and elevate transparency, collaboration, and candid communication.”
Snyder, who has served on the Council since 1994, told the News-Press, “The large turnout for the statewide elections demonstrates again our citizens’ commitment to defending democracy. Voters also made clear their expectations for City Council, including controlling dangerous driving, applying reasonable restraints on development, and addressing high housing costs.”
Silverman stated, “I am honored and excited to continue serving our community and building on the progress we’ve made over the past four years. Congratulations to MK Hughes, Anne Sherwood and Kathleen Tysse on their victories, and thank you to Sharon Margler for an excellent campaign. I remain committed and accessible to all.”
Falls Church City Democratic Committee chair Jeff Person added, “Tuesday was a moment of pride and purpose for Virginia Democrats. We not only made history by electing Abigail Spanberger as the Commonwealth’s first female governor — we reaffirmed that Virginia stands for progress, inclusion, and opportunity for all.”
Democrats also scored big victories in Georgia (with 60 percent winning statewide for the first time since 2006), Pennsylvania (Supreme Court, Superior and Commonwealth courts, and in purple Bucks County, in bellwether Erie, Lehigh and Northampton counties), in Mississippi (breaking the GOP supermajority in the state legislature), in Georgetown, South Carolina (flipping all three city council seats), in Orlando, Florida, and in Connecticut mayoral races, in Syracuse, New York (Democrats controlling the county legislature for the first time in half a century), in Charlotte, North Carolina (Democrats winning a city council seat for the first time since 1999), and with progressive Democratic wins in Detroit, Atlanta and Cambridge, Massachusetts, among others.
