Audrey Clement is ready to roll for her latest bid for Arlington elected office.
Clement, an independent (and one-time Green Party contender), has been running for local posts – mostly County Board but on two occasions School Board – continuously since 2011. Her 2024 run will be her 15th; Clement’s best showing was winning 31 percent of the vote against incumbent County Board member Jay Fisette in 2013.
(That better-than-expected showing by Clement should have served as a canary-in-the-coal-mine moment for Arlington Democrats, foreshadowing as it did the calamitous 2014 for the party when Republican-leaning independent John Vihstadt won a springtime special election and the ensuing November general election for County Board.)
Though one might aptly call her a perennial candidate, Clement – a Westover resident and economist – refers to herself as a protest candidate. And while she didn’t come close in the 2023 County Board race (where there were two open seats on the ballot), she did pick up her first-ever media endorsement, with the GazetteLeader saying her election “would, if nothing else, shake things up and, to borrow a phrase, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. And few are more comfortable (perhaps ‘self-satisfied’ is the right phrase) than the current County Board.”
In recent years, Clement has focused much of her campaign strategy on opposition to Arlington’s residential upzoning, saying it will harm the community in multiple ways.
Five Democrats currently are in the running as part of a June party primary that will select a nominee in the race to succeed County Board Chairman Libby Garvey, who is not seeking re-election. The winner of that contest becomes the odds-on favorite to romp in the general election.
All five Democrats have filed the requisite paperwork for the primary, Arlington elections director Gretchen Reinemeyer told the GazetteLeader.
Republicans and Greens also are looking for candidates. The filing deadline for the general election is late June.
