Arlington - The Connection Newspapers

Politics
Taking Sides in 47 th Race
It used to be an unspoken rule within the tight-knit Arlington
County Democratic community
that elected officials were not to make
public endorsements in a primary race.
In recent years, this rule has been tested,
as the County’s leaders waded into intra-party
contests. Last week, the rule
was obliterated.
County Board Members Barbara
Favola (D) and Mary Hynes (D) announced
their support for Patrick
Hope, a local activist and chair of
Arlington’s Community Services Board
who is running in Arlington’s 47 th district
for a seat in the House of Delegates.
Patrick Hope
Hope has four competitors in the race — Miles Grant,
Adam Parkhomenko, Andres Tobar and Alan Howze
— who are all vying to win the June 9 Democratic primary.
But thus far, Hope is the only one to have received the backing
of a local elected official. “I think it just builds momentum,”
Hope said about the endorsement. “It also gives me
credibility.”
The endorsements of Favola and Hynes are not unprecedented.
Last year’s School Board race saw several School
Board members pick sides in a six-way race for the Democratic
endorsement. In 2007, former School Board member
Frank Wilson was highly involved in the primary campaign
of Bob James, who unsuccessfully sought to oust
Treasurer Frank O’Leary (D).
But it is unusual for someone on the County Board to
take sides in a primary, especially this early in the race.
Favola said she came out for Hope because of her work with
him on human services issues, which is her area of expertise.
“I have known Patrick for many years now,” she said. “I
believe he is the best qualified to be an advocate for the
most vulnerable in the area.”
“I think he’s the real deal,” Hynes said. “This is someone
who has worked to make people’s lives better here in Arlington.
… I think he is a phenomenally well-qualified person
to send to Richmond.”
Favola said she has not received flak from any party insiders
who might see her as interfering with the race. “I
don’t mean to alienate anybody,” she said. “I’m coming at
this as a human services advocate. People who know me
are not surprised that I’m supporting Patrick.”
Potential Candidates Waver
Thus far, there are five candidates fighting to succeed Del.
Al Eisenberg (D-47).
Many local political watchers assumed there would be
more candidates vying for the Democratic nomination. But
several of those who were considering entering the race
have, in recent weeks, changed their minds.
Ted Bilich, the president of the Ashton Heights Civic
Association, was thinking about a candidacy. But last week,
he announced he would stay out of the race to support Hope,
his close friend in the neighborhood.
Many were certain that Alfonso Lopez would enter the
race. However, in an interview last week, Lopez said he is
seriously considering sitting this one out. To enter the race,
he would have to quit his job as Virginia’s top lobbyist on
Capitol Hill and, with the recent passage of the economic
stimulus bill, Lopez is not sure he wants to do that. “I’m
doing a lot of good right now,” he said. “I think I’d be an
asset to Arlington [in Richmond], but I think I’m an asset to
Arlington right now.”
Local attorney Mike McCarthy is all but out of the race
at this point. McCarthy, a 25-year-old who graduated from
George Mason University Law School last year, was scheduled
to formally announce his candidacy earlier this month
but postponed it at the last minute, saying he wanted to
“give it a few more weeks of thought and preparation.” Since
then, he has not responded to repeated phone and email
requests for comment.
— David Schultz
Photo courtesy
News
50 Years On
From Page 3
beginning in 1959 instead of integrating.
“Fifty years ago it was a more important value to
separate people and keep them apart because of the
color of their skin then it was to educate them,” Kaine
said. “That’s a strange thing to think about.”
The four students did more than just integrate Virginia
schools, said Kaine — followed later that day by
a group of black students in Norfolk — but they also
dragged Virginia into the modern age.
“It wasn’t just about equality and it wasn’t just about
education — we were a backwards state and we were
behind,” Kaine said.
Walking through the front doors of Stratford wasn’t
that difficult to do as relatively unaware 12-year-olds,
said Deskins. They knew what was going on, to be
certain, but it was their parents who had a more complete
grasp of the situation and who made the bold
decision to send their children forth.
“They had the courage to stand on principle knowing
there was danger for their children,” he said.
ONCE THEY GOT INSIDE and settled down to class
that morning 50 years ago, things were about as normal
as they can be for any new student in a new school,
said Michael Jones. The surroundings and their fellow
students were new, but on the whole people were relatively
friendly to them, Jones said.
The school’s teachers and administrators, though,
were well aware of the enormity of the situation at
the time. Joe Macekura, a Stratford guidance counselor,
remembered walking into the school with the students
to ensure that all went well, walking them to
their classes, and monitoring them throughout that first
From Page 3
in value over the last year. The owners of these homes
would experience a tax bill increase of greater than
$4.25 per month under Carlee’s budget.
Carlee also proposed the postponement of the Arlington
Mill Community Center reconstruction project,
which would have included a new affordable housing
apartment complex. County Board Chair Barbara
Favola (D) has said that she does not want to decrease
funding for affordable housing in this year’s budget.
The County Board will consider Carlee’s budget over
From Page 3
dren to connect to their classrooms via the Internet.
The laptop is outfitted with a video camera, as well
as the Internet telephone software Skype. The hospitalized
students can log on and communicate with their
classmates, both verbally and visually.
“This is a turning point in the lives of children with
cancer,” Becky’s oncologist at the hospital, Dr. Aziza
Shad, said. “Typically, children with cancer are isolated
from friends and school. … It’s just not been possible
to get them to interact with their friends the way this
webcam will.”
GEORGETOWN University Hospital now has six
webcam-ready laptops in its Pediatric Oncology department.
The computers were purchased with
$23,000 in funds raised by the National Capital Area
chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Donna McKelvey, the chapter’s executive director,
said that the webcams don’t just help the patients. “The
classmates get to see that they’re OK,” she said.
In a special presentation before the evening’s
program, Ubaldo Sanchez presented Gov.
Timothy Kaine with one of his original art
works. Kaine said that the piece would hang at
the DNC headquarters in Washington D.C.
day. The doors they walked through that morning were
more than just those to their junior high school, they were
doors to public facilities, institutions, and opportunities
that had until then been closed to them and to countless
others, Macekura said, doors that they helped to open.
Thompson said that they were prepared by their families,
friends, neighbors, churches for the challenge that
they were given, and that preparation helped them to
succeed.
The remembrance of that day was an opportunity to
reflect, but also to look at the challenges that still lay
ahead, said Elizabeth Weile, who was the president of
the Women League of Voters during Virginia’s battle to
integrate its schools, and she said that the battle to bridge
remaining socio-economic and racial achievement gaps
was not yet over.
“Since I am 94-years-old, I will leave the job to you and
you and you,” Weile said, pointing around the capacity
crowd in the H-B Woodlawn auditorium. “Will you accept
the challenge?” The hundreds gathered loudly
cheered an affirmative response.
Manager Proposes Tax Increases
the next several months and will adopt its own finalized
version in late April.
Board Member Walter Tejada (D) bristled at Carlee’s
proposal to eliminate the Neighborhood Day parade and
called on Arlingtonians to email the County Board with
their thoughts on whether the annual event should be
continued.
Board Member Chris Zimmerman (D) said that more
spending cuts may be coming. “We’re not done scrubbing
the budget yet,” he said.
David Schultz can also be heard on WAMU 88.5 FM.
Cancer-Stricken First Grader Uses Webcam
“This is a huge deal,” Dr. David Nelson, chairman of
the pediatrics department at Georgetown University Hospital,
said. “How a child feels about themselves affects
their treatment. … Losing contact is a big problem. This
enables them to stay connected.”
SPORTING pink shoes, apple-print stockings and a bushy
head of hair, Becky dialed into Helaine Ortiz’s first-grade
classroom — with some help from the hospital staff.
She took notes as her classmates informed her of what
they were learning: literary genres, ancient China, weather
disasters. She told them about the books she’s been reading
and the playground she’s building for her toy bear.
“Don’t be shy!” Becky told her friends as they began to
crowd the camera.
The first graders in Ortiz’s classroom seemed almost as
excited as Becky to be able to use this new technology.
“You sound better,” one of her classmates said. “Do you
know when you can come back?” another asked.
“Not yet,” Becky replied, the only point during the demonstration
when her voice betrayed a hint of sadness.
4 ❖ Arlington Connection ❖ February 25 - March 3, 2009 www.ConnectionNewspapers.com
Photo by Louise Krafft/Connection