The Republican nominee in the March 27 County Board special election kicked off his campaign by attacking the priorities and performance of current board members, and promising fiscal responsibility and common-sense leadership.
Mark Kelly said the County Board is run by an “insular group” of Democrats, and that the election of Democratic nominee Libby Garvey wouldn’t change that dynamic.
Garvey “has been part of the Democratic establishment in Arlington for the past 15 years,” Kelly said at the Jan. 25 meeting of the Arlington County Republican Committee.
To shake up the political landscape, “there’s only one way for folks to send a message,” Kelly said.
It will be a second County Board run for Kelly, who lost to Democratic incumbent Chris Zimmerman in the 2010 general election. In 2007, as a newcomer to local politics, he lost to Democrat Paul Ferguson in a race for clerk of the Circuit Court.
In his kickoff, Kelly didn’t mention Garvey (or Green Party candidate Audrey Clement) by name. But he went after current County Board priorities, including the plan by current board chairman Mary Hynes to focus in 2012 on improving community decision-making.
“We’re going to spend a year talking about how we talk about issues,” sighed Kelly, a Capitol Hill staffer.
Throwing out red meat to the crowd, he criticized County Board members for spending months and years on trivialities, then rushing forward despite community opposition with a proposal to seize private property for use as a homeless shelter.
“Instead of talking about the Arlington Way, we could start by actually practicing it,” Kelly said.
Kelly, Garvey and Clement will square off in the March 27 special election, which will determine who will hold the County Board seat recently vacated by Barbara Favola.
Republicans see an opportunity in the low-turnout primary; the party’s last two County Board victories, in 1993 and 1999, came in springtime special elections. But they also acknowledge that, even if the party picks up the seat, it will be difficult to hold when it again comes before voters in November.
anonymous1 posted at 6:12 pm on Thu, Jan 26, 2012.
Why do I have to learn from the Arlington Yupette blog that Mark Kelly is totally anti-environment?
anonymous1 posted at 5:41 pm on Thu, Jan 26, 2012.
Mark Kelly works for a congressman who is so right wing it's scary.
Barry posted at 10:45 am on Thu, Jan 26, 2012.
There is no way I will vote for Mark Kelly. He serves as legislative director for a Tea Party Congressman who wants to repeal all federal laws related to global warming and many federal laws related to pesticide and hazardous substance disposal.