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2002 Election Results
and Sales Tax Referenda
Northern Virginia (55% NO - 45% YES)
Hampton Roads (62% NO - 38% YES)
This campaign truly
became a strong grassroots operation. Many hours were spent calling from
phone banks or putting up yard signs or working the polls. Those of us
who worked the polls got a good indication that turnout was good and people
were voting NO. Voters felt pretty strongly about the issue to come out
in the driving rain. Even so, we were all stunned that we won by a 10
point margin in Northern Virginia (55% NO - 45% YES) and a 24 point margin
in Hampton Roads (62% NO - 38% YES). For locality and precinct breakdown,
go to the state board of elections website: http://sbe.vipnet.org/index.htm.
Thank You! to each of you who voted and a special thanks to those who
volunteered and worked in the NoSprawlTax campaign. This is a victory
for the grassroots. Voters rejected the status quo, the old approach of
simply widening highways, while continuing to scatter development and
consuming open space without regard to the traffic impact. Voters rejected
writing a blank check to subsidize more sprawl. This vote signals an end
to the domination of Virginia politics by the land development industry.
Despite a 20-1 margin in expenditures, the No Sprawl Tax Coalition tapped
into a deep concern for the sprawl development that has defined this region
for the past thirty years. This vote shows that most people understand
that building new roads will not ease traffic congestion. They understand
that transportation decisions must be made in conjunction with transit-oriented
development, affordable housing closer to work, open space protection,
and economic development in places where development already exists. The
defeat of this referendum shows that people recognized that the transit
component was overrated and underfunded and would be undermined by new
sprawl-inducing bypasses. Voters understood that a big reason for the
heavy developer support for the tax were road projects they sought to
have built beyond Dulles Airport, where developers own at least 65,000
acres for speculative development.
Virginia House District 24
Ben Cline (57%)
Mimi Elrod (43%)
Our endorsed candidate, Mimi Elrod, was regretfully not successful in
the special election for the 24th House district. Despite a strong, well-funded
campaign, it appears that Mimi was not able to deliver her core voters
in the critical areas. This is even more surprising since there were numerous
media reports during the last couple of weeks regarding her opponent Ben
Cline's character and honesty about his voting records and place of residence.
Cline took 57% of the vote and Elrod got 43%.
VALCV-PAC placed several newspaper endorsement ads in the Lexington/Rockbridge
newspaper supporting Mimi so hopefully our organization and our issues
have received good publicity in the process.
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