Another week and still no Republican candidates are emerging for any of the 13 local/legislative races on Arlington's November ballot.
And even as the days tick down to the June 20 filing deadline, the local GOP chairman is trying to rustle up contenders.
“The Arlington GOP will help you take your message between now and the November general election if you decide to throw your hat in the ring,” party chair Matthew Hurtt said in a missive to the Republican rank-and-file.
But as of now, the party has no candidates for the 2023 races: two County Board seats, a School Board seat, two state Senate seats, three House of Delegates seats and five constitutional offices (clerk of the Circuit Court, commonwealth’s attorney, sheriff, treasurer and commissioner of revenue).
In addition to e-mail requests, Hurtt may make a more forceful in-person push for contenders at the party’s next monthly meeting, to be held May 22.
This year marks the high point, in terms of total races, in Arlington’s eight-year election cycle. It used to be even larger, but in recent legislative redistricting Arlington lost one state Senate and one House of Delegates seat.
While June 20 is the formal filing deadline, from a real-world perspective the effective drop-dead date to kick off a run is probably abound the first of June, given the procedural steps – including obtaining sufficient petition signatures – to meet all the state requirements for ballot access.
