Vol. 31, No. 12 www.arlingtondemocrats.org December 2006 WE WON BIG! It was not a BIG victory in the traditional sense, vide 50,000 votes for Webb, although the county since Jim Webb’s statewide margin of victory was only pumped out 42,319 votes for Tim Kaine last THANKS TO ALL THE a tantalizing and heart-stopping 39/100ths of 1 per- year. MANY HELPING cent. But it was a big victory in the more important But Arlington came through with a 53,021 HANDS WHO sense that it gave Democrats a one-vote majority in votes for Webb, exceeding the target by 6 percent. the Senate. Other election stories appear in this month’s PRODUCED Without Webb’s victory, Dick Cheney would Voice on pages six and seven. A HUGE VICTORY! be ruling the country for the next two years by sit- ting in the presiding chair of the Senate and casting See many of those hands all the tie-breaking votes. Arlington was central to the Democratic take- Madison joins —a total of 1,033 pairs— over of the Senate. In fact, if Arlington were still on Pages 4 and 5. part of the District of Columbia, George Allen would have won easy re-election by a margin of 1.04 per- cent. the Dem fold At the start of the campaign, the Webb staff In past years, Madison precinct has been chal- Congrats and set a target for Arlington. As per usual, they picked lenging to win for Democrats. Located in the far a very challenging number that would be tough to north of the county, it has been the only one of the meet. The Webb campaign asked Arlington to pro- 49 precincts in Arlington that likes to be contrary kudos to our and provide GOP majorities. But not any more. Don’t go to NRECA — In 2004, it was the only precinct Jim Moran winners! lost in Arlington on his road to re-election. So in 2005, even though he wasn’t even on the ballot, Jim Webb we’ve moved this month Moran stationed himself at the Madison polling sta- ACDC’s December monthly meeting has been tion where he was photographed carrying a woman’s shifted to a new location. baby carriage up the stairs to the polling station. The December 6 meeting will be held at Drew This year, Moran won Madison with a solid Model School, 3500 S. 23rd Street, off Shirlington 56 percent of the vote. We hear he ran off with the Road. Do NOT go to our usual location, the NRECA young mom vote. building in Ballston. (It is not available to us this Four years ago, Madison was the only precinct Jim Moran month.) Chris Zimmerman lost on the road to re-election This meeting will pay special tribute to the to the County Board. This year, he said, “I was more than 1,000 volunteers who worked on behalf determined to win there.” He made a point of walk- of Arlington Democrats this year. Don’t miss it. ing the precinct and knocking on lots of doors. After In addition, Anna Weisfeiler, outgoing direc- he finished, he said, “Man that’s a hilly precinct!” tor of Democrats Aboard, a group affiliated with But the effort paid off. Zimmerman won Madi- Chris the Democratic National Committee, will be fea- son with 52 percent of the vote. Zimmerman tured. The role of Democrats Abroad is to maintain As a matter of fact, Madison followed the contact with registered Democrats living outside the Democratic sample ballot to a tee, voting for every United States. Democrats Abroad acts as a liaison candidate and issue as endorsed by ACDC. between the DNC and these registered Democrats Over the entire county, there are 49 precincts and makes sure they get their absentee ballots. plus the Central Absentee precinct. Multiply that To reach Drew, drive south on Glebe and bear by the 12 offices and issues on this year’s ballot right onto South Shirlington Road. (If you reach I- and you had 600 individual races in the county this 395 before bearing right, you’ve gone too far.) Af- year. Of that 600, how many did we win? ter one-tenth of a mile, turn right onto 23rd Street. Six hundred! Sally Baird ACDC Voice, December 2006, Page 2 Report from Chairman Peter Rousselot Victory!— and now let’s build on it If you have not already done so, all Ar- are 49 precincts plus the Central Absentee pre- Fanelli (Moran), and many, many others to lington Democrats should take a bow! In this cinct. Multiply that by the 12 offices and is- orchestrate our victory. Thanksgiving season, Arlington Democrats sues on this year’s ballot, and you had 600 A moment like this is special—some- sure do have a lot to be thankful about!! individual races in the county this year.” Of thing that rightly deserves to be savored and In my last two columns, I explained that those 600 individual contests, our Democratic celebrated, but not for too long. As this col- we had a wonderful opportunity not only to volunteers won: 600! umn goes to press, important plans are under continue turning Virginia blue, but also to turn This perfect record—600 out of 600— way to get us ready to move to a new head- the U.S. Senate blue. Well, guess what: we was achieved this year by the leadership of quarters, to unveil a new website, to reach out did it! The eyes of America and the world the Co-Chairs of our Joint Campaign: Ingrid further to underrepresented parts of our com- were on Virginia as the last key race to de- Morroy, Peg Willingham, and Jason munity, and to assume even greater leader- cide control of the Senate, and we won. Isn’t Faberman. They made the critical decisions ship in Virginia Democratic Party activities. that exciting after the disappointments of other regarding when, where, and how to deploy We will have more details on all of these ac- elections like Bush-Kerry and Bush-Gore?! the wonderful volunteers we had, and they tivities in future issues of The Voice. Elsewhere in this issue of the Voice, and should take an extra bow! They worked at our December 6 monthly meeting, we cel- collaboratively with many other great Arling- ebrate the people who achieved this victory ton Democratic leaders: Maureen Markham, for Arlington, for Virginia, and for the na- our Precinct Operations Chair, Marj Signer, Eisenberg bill tion—our Arlington Democratic volunteers. our Volunteer Coordinator, the Arlington- To get a sense of the breadth and scope of the based Webb campaign team, the campaign victory our volunteers achieved, consider managers for individual candidates, Gabe would protect these statistics from one of the election sto- Snow (Zimmerman), and Karla Hagan ries in this issue: “Over the entire county, there (Baird), deputy campaign manager Christi kids in court Del. Al Eisenberg is seeking to protect juveniles charged with violent felonies from making false confessions by requiring the use of electronic recordings during their interro- gations. A hearing on legislation introduced by Eisenberg during the last session of the Gen- eral Assembly was held recently in Arlington by a panel of the Virginia State Crime Com- mission. Studies show that youngsters charged with crimes are likely to confess 69 percent of the time to crimes they did not commit. The use of electronic recordings of their in- terrogations would enable a court to determine whether excessive pressure had been used to elicit a false confession. Panel members included Arlington Com- monwealth Attorney Dick Trodden (Chair), Del. Beverly Sherwood of Winchester and Senator Janet Howell of Fairfax. The Crime Commission staff and panel suggested a num- Published monthly by the ber of changes to the bill which Eisenberg will Arlington County Democratic Committee include when he reintroduces the measure in 4620 Lee Highway, Suite 214, Arlington, VA 22207 the 2007 session. Tel: (703) 528-8588 Fax: (703) 528-2321 http://www.arlingtondemocrats.org Chair: Peter Rousselot —703-276-1584 (o), [email protected] Calendar items Editor-in-Chief: Barbara van Voorst —703-522-6294 (h), [email protected] Deputy Editor: Warren L. Nelson —703-243-7867 (h), [email protected] To submit items for the calendar—either Views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the ACDC for the website or The Voice—go to http:// unless expressly approved by an appropriate Committee Resolution www.arlingtondemocrats.org/ Copyright ©2006, ACDC, All Rights Reserved submitevent.phtml . ACDC Voice, December 2006, Page 3 Bumper Sticker Next Monthly Meeting—All Dems Invited of the Month Wednesday, December 6, 2006, 7 p.m. MOVED—JUST THIS MONTH—to Drew Model School, 01-20-09 3500 South 23rd Street. See Page One for directions. Bush’s We will be having a special thank you ceremony for all our terrific volunteers. We will also hear how Democrats Abroad Last Day mobilizes votes from Democrats spread all around the globe. Jim Webb did battle with a rag-tag army that included many enthusiastic bloggers Senator-elect Jim Webb affectionately After researching his record, Feld, along with his behalf. calls them his “rag-tag army.” The pundits Josh Chernilla and Lee Diamond, met with “Contrary to our public image,” Feld are giving them significant credit for Webb’s him and came away saying, “We liked what said, “we don’t sit at our computers in our win. They’re talking of the blogging com- we saw. We were walking on air.” He trans- underwear all day.