Arlington County, Virginia rejects leftward turn, ratifies trolley cancellation

Standing below Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery. I'm looking west, uphill. (Tim Evanson/flickr)

Arlington County, Virginia is a stronghold for the Democrats in the Commonwealth. However the Obama years have led to overreach by the extreme left, and now the voters are giving them a backlash.

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Standing below Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery. I'm looking west, uphill. (Tim Evanson/flickr)
Standing below Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, at Arlington National Cemetery. I’m looking west, uphill. (Tim Evanson/flickr)

In the last election for Arlington County Board, the Democrats’ monopoly on the board seats was broken, as Republican-turned-Independent John Vihstadt was elected in a special election during the debate on the Columbia Pike trolley. He was then re-elected in the following general election.

Vihstadt’s election was shocking to the Democrats, who reacted sharply by canceling the Columbia Pike trolley project, to the howls of the urbanist left. They reacted by attempting to primary Libby Garvey, who was elected against the trolley.

Last night she won that primary race 55-45, winning most of the county. Unsurprisingly, some of challenger Erik Gutshall’s strongest areas were along Columbia Pike, visible in this map I made of the results by precinct:

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Gutshall v Garvey

Columbia Pike is that line going from the southwest to the Northeast, in the southern third of the map. It goes right through one of the two red hotspots for the left-winger. The other hotspot is a bit north, along the Orange Line corridor of very dense development. Garvey’s best results were in the lower-density areas away from the core of the county.

Americans are driving again, after driving less during the Great Recession when we couldn’t afford it. This backlash will continue until the Democrats adapt to the fact that the economy is gradually getting back to normal. It just didn’t seem like it for a while, because Obama’s policies severely retarded our economic growth!

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