"Libby Garvey has a deep understanding of the critical issues confronting our community and public schools. I have often drawn on her knowledge and experience in addressing the challenges of the federal-state partnership in K-12 Education."
As of last week, Arlington County Democrats were made aware of a new state law requiring that nominating caucuses be held at least 60 days before the general election, now set for March 27th. This, unfortunately, means that the prior caucus dates of Feb. 2nd and 4th were too late by law. So the caucus has been moved up by two (2) weeks to Jan. 19th and 21st. This has also changed the location of the Thursday voting from NRECA to W-L High School.
On Wednesday, December 7th, Libby announced her intention to seek the party nomination for Arlington County Board at the Arlington Democrats monthly meeting.
Watch her speech here. The full text of the speech follows.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get good candidates in office last week. While last week’s elections were not all that we wanted, we did great work here in Northern Virginia and many good Democrats are going to work for us in Richmond, including Barbara Favola and Adam Ebbin. My congratulations to them and my thanks to you for all your hard work.
As we all know, Barbara has been a wonderful supporter of our schools and human services during her tenure on the County Board. With her departure, there is a real need for someone to play that role. While helping on her campaign, she and I spoke often about her work on the County Board and what might come next for Arlington. Through these and other conversations over the past several months, I have made two decisions about how I can best continue to serve Arlington. I plan to announce these on December 7 at the Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting. However, I wanted to give you – my strongest supporters and friends – a heads up before that.
My first decision is that I will not run again for the School Board when my term is up in 2012. I have accomplished every goal I set for myself when I originally ran 15 years ago for school board. Together, we’ve helped make our schools among the best in the nation. Most importantly, our schools are continuing to rapidly improve and are poised to make some very exciting advances. It is time for someone else to have the incredible opportunity I have had to learn and grow in public service with a world class institution.
Second, with Barbara’s election to the Virginia Senate, I have decided the Arlington County Board is a natural place for my skills and 15 years of experience. New perspectives are always a good thing, and they are most effective when combined with experience and proven leadership skills. I can offer this unique combination to our community as we enter a time of unprecedented growth and change for Arlington.
I am excited about this next possibility for me to continue to serve our community. Over the next few weeks I look forward to having conversations with many of you about my candidacy and how we can continue to work together for Arlington County.
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard to get good candidates in office last week. While last week’s elections were not all that we wanted, we did great work here in Northern Virginia and many good Democrats are going to work for us in Richmond, including Barbara Favola and Adam Ebbin. My congratulations to them and my thanks to you for all your hard work.
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