Politics..............I can't wait till the fall elections

Wow, considering that Alicia Hughes is usually always late for events, other than being on th dias for City Council, I can't see her really having any chance for ever running for office in the City of Alexandria, ever again. It looks like Alicia's political career in Alexandria, has come to a brief but sad end. All-in-all, it was a complete and total shock to all of us that she won in 2009, and, alas, in 2012 the sand in her proverbial hour glass has almost run out. Maybe she can go back home to Baltimore and run for city council there.

Alicia Hughes..... She never lets us down! Bizarre and strange are not descriptive enough. This could be a ripleys believe it or not. I do hope the family medical issue is resolved in favor of a return to health.

Does she realize she gathered all her signatures at Polk Elementary which is in District B?

I fail to see the connection of registering to run in two races, hoping to win one, with taking care of a father with a cancer diagnosis. As always, with Ms. Hughes, life is one big spin.

Unbelievable. Just when I thought it couldn't get any weirder...

The first time elected, she was an unknown (new to town, so no negative stories), black, female "Independent" candidate. That was appealing. Now, voters know her. Not so appealing. This time she'll run as a Republican, and my guess is that she's not too popular with them. Will they hold their nose and bullet vote for her to spite Democrats? If not, she's a goner. For any Alexandrian who has slightly paid attention during her tenure, there would be no other reason to vote for her for.

Turnout will be huge in November so if Republicans want a prayer of keeping even one seat on council, they'll have to bullet vote for Fannon only. Hughes won't win anyway. However, rumor is that if David Englin resigns his seat, Fannon wants to run for State Delegate, which would leave the Republicans bullet voting for Bob Wood.

Anyone who knows me knows my opinion of Ms. Hughes' tenure on City Council. However, if her father has been diagnosed with cancer, she has my sympathy in that.

I find it extremely offensive that people are continuing to bash and trash Ms. Hughes when her father may be dying of cancer. A question to all the Alexandria Democrats and their supporters writing on this page: Have you no sense of decency, at long last, have no sense of decency? Obviously not.

Prayers for her father. That is a difficult situation many of us have faced. However, I don't understand why we should stop talking about her service and qualifications. She is still a candidate. Her father's illness does not mitigate her deplorable conduct throughout her tenure.

I think we're all just genuinely puzzled. Alicia states in the PDF file she sent that she plans to continue her campaign for city council, while at the same time stating that she might not have enough time to serve in that office given her father's illness. What she seems to also state is that she wishes to run for school board at the same time she campaigns for city council, which would only take up more of her time. What it boils down to is that she wants to run for both, and then assuming she wins, pick which one to serve in. That is an unconscionable thing to do to voters, and it makes no sense if her real concern is about time for other personal commitments. She seems to think that school board will be less of a time commitment than city council, but that isn't true, certainly not by much. The whole episode is just strange. If she really wanted to spend more time with her dad, she wouldn't run for anything. She says the next three months will be critical to her father, but she wants to run not one but TWO political campaigns. The real effect of her real plan is to allow her to run for both so that if she loses the council race, she can fall back on a school board seat. Has she ever considered she might lose BOTH races and waste a lot of time here that she could be spending with her father? What if she won both? Would the next highest vote getter take the school board seat? Is that fair to voters?

matt tallmerq, do you not think other elected officials are dealing with ill family members and other similar challenges? How shall we go about developing a DBT (don't bash and trash) list so we all know who we can discuss and who is off limits? Really, she has my sympathy for her father, but not for missing filing deadlines, her questionable residency, and her embarrassing legal troubles.

Ah, this 'ol Democrat will miss Alicia Hughes when the day comes for her to step off the political stage. Or, more precisely, he should say he'll miss her nearly incomprehensible writing style -- although her latest missive includes this humdinger of a run-on sentence: "Notably, City Council re-election requires more resources, especially when one is a minority party ‎candidate living, working, and campaigning especially given certain irresponsible 'rag ‎journalists,' non-accountable blogs, political hacks more concerned about partisanship than about ‎people, issues affecting daily life and being in a town such as Alexandria; where the emergence ‎of super-PACs have recently demonstrated a penchant for uncharacteristically gutter politics ‎through expensive mailings on non-substantive matters unrelated to issues before City Council ‎that must be addressed while running a clean, issues-focused campaign." ‎

It's the local politician's equivalent of the first stanza of "Howl."

Of course -- and as most commenters on this have made clear -- my best wishes for her father's health.

Regards, etc.,

E. Warfield

Ms. Hughes has been a total embarrassment to the City. She seemed like a "fresh face" and being a minority female helped her win. Although she ran as an independent, everyone knew she was a Republican. Her many personal failures do reflect on her character and she is unfit for public office. Does anyone know if she currently has a job? This scheme to think about running for School Board and/or City Council simultaneously is nuts. I of course am sympathetic if her father really is ill. But everyone deals with such issues in life. She should just give it up and move back to Maryland.....or closer to her family.

If Councilwoman Hughes had simply taken a breath before spewing such hatred towards her City's residents she may have come to the conclusion I'm about to share:

- There are at least 15 Lobby Firms located in Alexandria
- There are about 45 News Sources in Alexandria
- There are about 250 Blogs operating out of Alexandria
- There are at least 4 Political Parties Represented in Alexandria (Dem, Rep, Ind, Libertarian)
- There are 4,645 Twitter Users following Alexandria's Twitter Feed
- There are 4 Registered PACS, almost all attempting to do good work
- There are 5 [other] City Council Members
- There are 9 School Board Members
- There are about 10 Civic Associations

And the list goes on...

So you see, when Councilwoman Hughes speaks negatively about the "irresponsible ‘rag journalists,’ non-accountable blogs {and} political hacks", she's talking about nearly every Alexandria citizen.

So while she's complaining about the treatment she so often receives in the press and in public...perhaps she should rethink making comments like the one above.

The fact that Alicia Hughes even won in her feable attempt in 2009, has to be one of the most incredible shocks in the history of Alexandria politics, at least in modern memory. Alicia Hughes ran as an Independent, but was under the guidance of the Alexandria Republican City Committee, who we all know only has 14 members, and they're not a great brain trust of how to bring our great city under their tent. Frank Fannon won in 2009, mainly for a lot of reasons, he's a fifth-generation Alexandrian, and him being born and raised in the Alexandria, with his family's deep roots and connections obviously helped him. Frank also is an extremely likable guy, who, from what I have found out, actually likes people across the political, social, religious spectrum. Frank's actually very much a moderate, who is quite often confused as being a Democrat because he tends to vote with many of his fellow councilmembers, who are Democrats, as well. Plus, Frank is a very successful millionaire who understands how to run a business and make a ton of money. And to make money, you have to have the knowledge and benefit of knowing what to do with it. Counter Frank, with Alicia Hughes, who, on so many levels, sadly, is an absolute failure at every stage of her life, or so it appears. Alicia Hughes will hopefully just fade away after her term is over as councilwoman, because she no doubt will ever run again, at least not in the City of Alexandria. Alicia needs to be with her father and go home.

I have great sympathy for Ms. Hughes' family situation. Facing a family illness can be very hard. However, public service is for the public, not for the convenience of the person holding the office. I am not in sympathy with Ms. Hughes wish to exercise options in both the School Board and the City Council races.

Of course, her last paragraph makes me wonder why Ms. Hughes wishes to live in Alexandria anymore, let alone run for office......who knew we were so exciting.

Where is her quote coming from? It sounds like something an irresponsible rag journalist or non accountable blogger would fabricate to make her look bad. (Sarcasm.) Did she release a statement?

For Alexandrians, the saying rings very true, 'Ya get what ya get,' meaning that whoever the collective lemmings in our city keep voting into office, whether it be a disaster like Alicia Hughes, or retreads like Justin Wilson (who as of yet has not won a general election) and Tim Lovain (who works in the streetcar industry and would benefit tremendously from streetcars being placed in Alexandria), to Del Pepper, who, God love her, who has been a councilwoman since the first year of Ronald Reagan's second term, there really isn't a fresh crop of Democrats to take the helm and help guide Alexandria for the next three years and beyond. Thankfully, this whole sad episode of Alicia Hughes life will hopefully have her turning her full attention to her family, with her father, where in her heart is probably where she wants to be anyways. She has to know that she will never be reelected as a councilwoman, even before she tried to pull her latest stunt of being on the school board, too. But, alas, Alicia was able to fool the electorate in 2009, once, but we won't be fooled again. We all know there are 14 members of the Alexandria Republican City Committee, they're like the 'little train that couldn't', seemingly never ever getting out of the station, no matter what year it is. But Alicia Hughes is the ARCC's version of the ADC's Boyd Walker, yet with Alicia, she unfortunately got elected to office. Much like Sean Holihan and Danny Barefoot need to leave town, Alicia does too.

If she's too busy taking care of her father to get to the office before the very last minute (literally - the very last minute), then she's too busy to perform the duties of the office. Why would she want to take on all that additional responsibility, when her family should be the priority?

We have a new story on this issue. Hughes said last night she is not going to protest Parkins' decision: http://patch.com/A-vgCG

Bob, she actually arrived AFTER the last minute, the last minute being the minute of 6:59. The office closed at 7:00, so seconds after 7:00 was too late. Perhaps she is used to getting some slack, but those elections people don't play. Also, it wasn't taking care of her father that caused her to be late. She had been out at polling stations collecting signatures so she could file. Most people don't wait until minutes before the deadline, but that's how she rolls.

Tim does not work in the streetcar industry and would not benefit at all from streetcars being placed in Alexandria.

Okay, it's all semantics, Beth. Your husband is a lobbyist which represents interests in the streetcar industry, but, yes, he doesn't work directly in the industry, but one could and would argue that if Tim is involved as a lobbyist for an organization with a vested interest itself in the streetcar industry, that he too would benefit from streetcars being placed in Alexandria. It's okay, it's what he does, there just needs to be more disclosure about everything, that's all. I think that Tim's a good guy, don't get me wrong, but it's better for him to come clean now, to have full disclosure, than for him to possibly have it dumped on him closer to November, that's my point.

Which client are you referring to? All of the clients where I lead are public sector entities. My enthusiasm for streetcars is because I think they are a great transportation choice in many corridors, both for mobility and economic development. I really don't see your claim of personal benefit. There's nothing to "come clean" about. I am not "involved as a lobbyist for an organization with a vested interest itself in the streetcar industry".

We are some distance from the original topic, but I want to address Jim's accusation. I fear that haphazard accusations of conflicts of interest and self-dealing are becoming a habit in our city. Employment (or even investment) in an industry does not a conflict make. If you wish to level a charge, please be specific about how your target's interest would motivate them to make a decision in opposition to the citizens' best interest. Be specific about how they stand to personally gain (above what all of us may gain) from a given decision before them. These vague charges that there are dots out there that may connect if you just squint hard enough are unfair and unproductive. You may not agree with the voter's selection of leaders, but please be fair.

Beth, Tim, please forgive me. I stand corrected by your statements, which I believe to be fact. What's troubling, I suppose, as Karen noted, that there are quite a few Democrats that I have spoken with, who actually mentioned the whole buzz about how Tim is tied into the streetcar industry and that he would somehow benefit from a streetcar system being implimented in Alexandria. Please don't shoot the messenger here, and all I can do is tell you that many of my friends throughout Alexandria have all told me different variations of the rumor, which is out on the street, even today. I would also agree that it is a sad fact of rumor and inuendo that prevades our society, which seems to have invaded every corner of the City of Alexandria when it comes to our politicians, which is now commonplace throughout most of our country. Alexandria, thankfully, on the surface, is very much a vibrant city, with people on the go, tourists milling here and there, and also, unfortunately, most of its citizens really honestly don't care who is elected to run City Hall. It's true, while there may be possibly more votes for candidates this November, chances are that after voting for president, and a few others, voters will not finish their ballots. It will happen. Trust me. It happened in Richmond in 2008, another presidential year, which brought people to the polls, yet in Richmond, most people didn't vote for their city council. Alexandria may buck that trend. We'll have to see.