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Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Remove a Va. elected official? Just isn’t likely to happen
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NoVA Politics!
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Date: June 26, 2014 02:04PM
Remove a Va. elected official? Just isn’t likely to happen
http://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/remove-a-va-elected-official-just-isn-t-likely-to/article_5d6d3088-fc90-11e3-bfc2-001a4bcf887a.html
Want to liven up the debate over the Columbia Pike streetcar? Why not launch a recall drive against Arlington County board members on one side of the issue or the other?
While Virginia law does provide voters the ability to recall elected officials, it’s a near impossibility to get the measure on the ballot – as just was proved in Loudoun County.
Out there, a Circuit Court judge dismissed a petition by political opponents of Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), effectively ending two years of extended controversy related to the supervisor’s use of office staff and funds.
The case directly involved two Arlington legal figures: Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos oversaw a special grand jury that investigated the matter, and former 17th Circuit Court Judge Paul Sheridan presided over arguments related to the recall.
In a motion asking Sheridan to dismiss the recall petition, Stamos said the petitioners “have tried to achieve through this misbegotten removal process what they could not achieve at the ballot box – namely, the political defeat of Mr. Delgaudio.”
Stamos told the judge that the court couldn’t rely on “conjecture, speculation, suspicions and assumptions” to take the extraordinary step of ordering the measure to the ballot, according to a report by Leesburg Today, a sister paper of the Sun Gazette.
Those backing the recall move, led by Loudoun attorney John Flannery, have criticized Stamos’ involvement in the matter. But the ruling by Sheridan went her way and is likely to end the matter, at least until November 2015, when Delgaudio’s seat again comes before voters.
Delgaudio, who has been no stranger to controversy during his years in office, says he expects to run again next year.
Could this kind of brouhaha play out in Arlington?
Arlington General Registrar Linda Lindberg said her office occasionally fields requests for information from those who have an interest in exploring recalls of local officials. She explains to them the bar is set rather high to get the matter to the voting booth.
Lindberg said she can recall – no pun intended – three instances of people who wanted information on removing elected officials. One had a gripe against Jay Fisette, another was upset with Mary Hynes and a third had unspecified grievances. None resulted in a petition drive.
Just to get a petition before a judge, backers need to secure the signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of those who participated in the last election for the office in question. Since Arlington races are run countywide rather than in districts, the threshold to meet that requirement would be more substantial than in most jurisdictions across the nation.
It appears that no recall effort has ever succeeded in removing an elected official from office in Virginia, Leesburg Today reported. A judge in 1997 quashed the most recent Loudoun County effort.
http://www.insidenova.com/news/arlington/remove-a-va-elected-official-just-isn-t-likely-to/article_5d6d3088-fc90-11e3-bfc2-001a4bcf887a.html
Want to liven up the debate over the Columbia Pike streetcar? Why not launch a recall drive against Arlington County board members on one side of the issue or the other?
While Virginia law does provide voters the ability to recall elected officials, it’s a near impossibility to get the measure on the ballot – as just was proved in Loudoun County.
Out there, a Circuit Court judge dismissed a petition by political opponents of Loudoun County Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling), effectively ending two years of extended controversy related to the supervisor’s use of office staff and funds.
The case directly involved two Arlington legal figures: Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos oversaw a special grand jury that investigated the matter, and former 17th Circuit Court Judge Paul Sheridan presided over arguments related to the recall.
In a motion asking Sheridan to dismiss the recall petition, Stamos said the petitioners “have tried to achieve through this misbegotten removal process what they could not achieve at the ballot box – namely, the political defeat of Mr. Delgaudio.”
Stamos told the judge that the court couldn’t rely on “conjecture, speculation, suspicions and assumptions” to take the extraordinary step of ordering the measure to the ballot, according to a report by Leesburg Today, a sister paper of the Sun Gazette.
Those backing the recall move, led by Loudoun attorney John Flannery, have criticized Stamos’ involvement in the matter. But the ruling by Sheridan went her way and is likely to end the matter, at least until November 2015, when Delgaudio’s seat again comes before voters.
Delgaudio, who has been no stranger to controversy during his years in office, says he expects to run again next year.
Could this kind of brouhaha play out in Arlington?
Arlington General Registrar Linda Lindberg said her office occasionally fields requests for information from those who have an interest in exploring recalls of local officials. She explains to them the bar is set rather high to get the matter to the voting booth.
Lindberg said she can recall – no pun intended – three instances of people who wanted information on removing elected officials. One had a gripe against Jay Fisette, another was upset with Mary Hynes and a third had unspecified grievances. None resulted in a petition drive.
Just to get a petition before a judge, backers need to secure the signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of those who participated in the last election for the office in question. Since Arlington races are run countywide rather than in districts, the threshold to meet that requirement would be more substantial than in most jurisdictions across the nation.
It appears that no recall effort has ever succeeded in removing an elected official from office in Virginia, Leesburg Today reported. A judge in 1997 quashed the most recent Loudoun County effort.