Times 2024 Democratic primary endorsements
May 30, 2024
For an endorsement to have meaning there must be a process involved in which similar criteria are applied to all candidates. If the endorsement is coming from an organization, multiple people should be involved in that selection process. It’s also important for the process to be publicly stated.
The Alexandria Times endorsements below were based on a number of factors, including:
1. Responses by the candidates to our voter guide questions;
2. Our candidate profile articles, which as of this week will have run about every candidate in the Democratic primary for both City Council and mayor;
3. Candidates’ responses in forums and debates held during the campaign;
4. The candidates’ “Why I’m running” columns that have appeared on the Times’ editorial pages, which conclude today with columns from mayoral candidates Amy Jackson and Alyia Gaskins. (If you haven’t seen a column from a candidate it’s because they didn’t submit one); and
5. The voting record and actions in office of current members of City Council.
Four members of the Times’ staff had input on our endorsements, and we arrived at a staff consensus on each person who received our stamp of approval. There were five candidates for City Council about whom we were able to reach a consensus, so we are endorsing a slate of five rather than six candidates. It’s important to remember you can vote for as few candidates as you wish in the primary.
Finally, and perhaps most controversially, we were unable to reach a staff consensus on a mayoral candidate, and therefore we are not going to endorse any of the three people vying for the Democratic nomination to be Alexandria’s next mayor. We do, however, offer assessments below of what we view as the strengths and weaknesses of each mayoral candidate.
It’s been a strange campaign season, that’s included large amounts of money coming into Alexandria from around the country in the case of current Councilor Kirk McPike, who is running for reelection. Additionally, the actions of a union, Unite Here, that does not have a single unionized workplace in the city, yet is pumping tens of thousands of dollars into door-to-door canvassing for a slate headed by mayoral candidate Alyia Gaskins, have been puzzling.
The amount of money being spent and level of involvement of a non-Alexandria-based organization in our city’s local election is unprecedented in the 20 years the Times has been publishing. Our fourth story on facets of Unite Here’s efforts to influence this election – in which residents and managers of residential buildings that don’t allow soliciting tell how Unite Here workers have nonetheless been entering and leaving campaign materials in their buildings – is on page 14 of this week’s Times.
We have heard residents who are upset at this outside attempt to influence Alexandria’s election outcome say they won’t vote for a single candidate on the Unite Here slate. We think that’s a bit harsh, since some of the endorsed candidates told us they were surprised by the endorsement, and there is some overlap between our slate and theirs.
Endorsed candidates below are listed alphabetically, while the mayoral candidates are considered in order of the seniority of their current elective positions.
For City Council, the Alexandria Times endorses John Taylor Chapman, Abdel Elnoubi, Jacinta Greene, James Lewis and Charlotte Scherer.
Chapman is the one candidate who seems to have the broadest appeal among varied groups in Alexandria. The lifelong resident is adroit at meeting with civic associations and other groups concerned with livability facets of City Council’s urbanist agenda of recent years, while still voting for that agenda most of the time. During the current Council term, Chapman cast votes in favor of the Zoning for Housing initiative, which is currently tied up in a resident-filed lawsuit, and in his Voter Guide answers said he’s in favor of slowly implementing ZFH Phase II and the planned reconfiguration of Duke Street.
The one prominent vote Chapman cast during this past term that resonated with long-time city residents was against the redevelopment project at 301 N. Fairfax St. Chapman also listed ethics concerns as one of his top five priorities in his responses to our voter guide. With so many newcomers to the city and to Council, Chapman’s institutional knowledge stemming from four terms on Council is valuable. He’s likely to not only win reelection, but to become vice mayor this fall.
Elnoubi has both an appealing personality and backstory. Raised in Egypt under an authoritarian regime, Elnoubi understands firsthand what government repression looks like. While we don’t hold out a lot of hope that Elnoubi, who has lived in Alexandria for 13 years, will buck the urbanist agenda – in fact he’s open about wholeheartedly embracing it – we do think he will be open and honest about where he stands and why. His “day job” of working for the region’s Metro system means he’s ready to help tackle difficult transportation issues facing the city.
Further, he has been by far the most accessible member of the School Board these past 2 ½ years – the only one who has even slightly pushed back on the “circle the wagons” mentality that often prevails at Alexandria City Public Schools when something goes wrong. We believe that Elnoubi would vote his own mind on every issue that comes before Council, and that he would not be afraid to confront conventional wisdom.
Greene has an impressive background, having worked in the corporate world for many years along with serving a term on the School Board. She was unfortunately not responsive to media inquiries and didn’t seem to be an independent voice on that board. Still, we think her knowledge of the school system would be a plus on Council. We also like many of her answers to our voter guide, beginning with ranking ethics as her most important concern and education second.
She also identified the biggest problem facing the city as the need to diversify the tax base, which is hard to disagree with. Greene identified her top priority as providing access to safe affordable housing. Greene, along with John Chapman, said she believes Alexandria needs a second high school.
Lewis is an all-around impressive guy. He’s smart, informed, experienced, nice and capable. We think he’s overall the best candidate for Council after John Chapman. His experience as chair of the Traffic and Parking Board, one of the most important Council-appointed boards in the city, means that he’s more familiar than anyone else running with the details of Alexandria’s worsening traffic situation.
While we don’t think we’d always agree with Lewis – who generally favors the urbanist policies that have been enacted in recent years – we find him invariably responsive and believe he would give the genuine concerns of residents a fair hearing on all issues. Lewis listed equity first and ethics concerns second in the ranking section of our voter guide. He said the biggest problem facing Alexandria is the need to diversify the tax base and said a top priority would be working to make mental health care a key part of public health planning.
Scherer is an extremely impressive newcomer to Alexandria’s political scene. She was the first candidate or member of Council to oppose the arena proposal. She ranks ethics issues and the need for historic preservation as key concerns. Scherer said her top priority would be improving our city government’s transparency and accountability.
Scherer also gave the single best answer of any candidate responding to our voter guide when she said the city’s biggest long-term challenge is “balancing growth against the strains of growing.” She identified Alexandria’s greatest strength as its neighborhoods – a sentiment we wholeheartedly share – and said these neighborhoods must be protected. The 13-year resident, who is an attorney by training and has also served as a magistrate, would be an excellent member of City Council who we think would be responsive to residents while also voting her convictions.
Vice Mayor Amy Jackson has much going for her in her bid for the mayor’s seat. She grew up in this city and her perspective on how some changes through the years have been beneficial while others have not, can only be gained through time spent here. Jackson does not have a deft touch in candidate forums and can come across as being organizationally challenged.
In addition to her deep knowledge of the city, we think Jackson has a maturity that is often refreshing. An example of Jackson being the grownup in the room was when former Police Chief Don Hayes kept insisting last fall that the Alexandria Police Department had not violated its own policies by failing to notify the public about a violent assault that took place behind the Firehook Bakery on Wilkes Street. It was finally Jackson, rather than the police chief, who admitted that mistakes had been made and pledged to work with APD to make sure there wasn’t a repeat.
Councilor Alyia Gaskins is an exceptionally bright and impressive young woman who is clearly going places. Her grasp of the nuances of policy is striking and she has a well-thought-out plan for virtually any topic raised with her. Our concerns with Gaskins stem mainly from her age – 35 today, happy birthday! – her relatively short tenure in the city and her close ties to outside groups that seek to influence policy in Alexandria, including the YIMBYs and the Unite Here union.
Gaskins is quick on her feet and has a well-funded and well-organized campaign. She’s clearly good at multitasking, as evidenced by her ability to serve on Council, campaign for mayor and be mom to two small children all at once.
Former developer Steven Peterson seems like a nice guy, though we are still puzzled by his mayoral candidacy. His supporters view him as the anti-establishment candidate, yet we find it odd that someone who has made transparency his campaign theme was strikingly untransparent on his own candidate financial form. Despite living in a large, beautiful Old Town home where property taxes alone, based on the home’s assessed value, would cost at least $30,000 per year, Peterson claimed to have no income or assets of more than $5,000. While that answer might be technically true, it’s an example of the opposite of transparency.
Regardless of who you support for Council and mayor, we encourage all city residents to vote in the June 18 Democratic primary, which is open to all registered Alexandria voters.