Scott McCaffrey
Scott McCaffrey is a senior reporter for ARLnow, covering local politics, government and civic life across Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church for Local News Now. His work centers on the decisions and debates of elected bodies and commissions, showing how policies on schools, housing, immigration and governance play out at the community level. With more than four decades of reporting and editing experience, including newsroom roles in Florida, South Carolina and West Virginia and a long tenure leading a regional newspaper chain, he brings strong institutional memory to current coverage. His recent reporting ranges from County Board primaries and School Board races to real estate trends and the health of the local news ecosystem. That combination of deep local context and methodical coverage of public bodies distinguishes his work from more general assignment reporting on the same beat.
County Board and Local Governance
McCaffrey devotes substantial coverage to the Arlington County Board, treating its elections, meetings and policy deliberations as a central lens on local politics. In the County Board primary, he profiles candidates and lays out their contrasting positions on affordability, economic strategy and the county’s direction, highlighting both the incumbent chair’s argument for steady leadership and challengers’ critiques.
He reports closely on board forums where candidates debate immigration enforcement, residential parking changes and housing policy, capturing both the policy details and resident reactions.
Beyond campaigns, he follows governance reforms and civic oversight, including timelines for potential changes to county structures and the role of groups such as the Arlington County Civic Federation. His stories often track how advisory bodies and commissions, from preservation panels to tenant‑landlord boards, feed recommendations on fees, historic districts, mold remediation and fair‑housing enforcement into County Board agendas and state legislative requests.
This emphasis on process, committees and policy mechanics marks his coverage as more structurally focused than personality‑driven political reporting.
School Board and Education Politics
Education politics is another core strand in McCaffrey’s work, particularly around Arlington Public Schools and the School Board. He covers School Board candidate debates on safety and support for teachers, focusing on how contenders frame issues such as school security, classroom resources and staff morale.
His reporting on party endorsements in School Board races, including the Arlington GOP backing a returning challenger, shows how local party organizations engage in nominally nonpartisan contests and frame education issues for voters. He also follows the electoral strategies of Democrats, reporting on calls from party leaders for early, in‑person voting and situating those appeals within ongoing local contests. On the governance side, McCaffrey tracks APS enrollment trends, documenting year‑over‑year declines and what they mean for the school system and wider community.
Taken together, these stories present School Board politics as part of the broader local political ecosystem rather than a siloed education beat.
Housing, Real Estate and Social Policy
McCaffrey links local politics to everyday material conditions through sustained coverage of housing, real estate and social‑policy programs.
In his real‑estate reporting, he explains shifts in the Arlington market, such as expectations for a softer market later in the year and earlier periods of rising home sales and prices, tying them to broader economic trends and resident concerns. His story on grants for families whose primary wage earner has been detained by immigration enforcement details how County Board funding flows through nonprofit partners to support housing, food and utilities, underscoring the intersection of immigration policy and local social services.
He examines recommendations from the Tenant‑Landlord Commission for statewide mold‑remediation funding, free testing and stronger fair‑housing enforcement, showing how local advisory bodies attempt to shape General Assembly agendas on tenant protections and affordable housing. Across these pieces, his reporting connects policy decisions and funding mechanisms to specific impacts on renters, homeowners and vulnerable residents.
Local News Ecosystem and Civic History
Beyond government and elections, McCaffrey covers the institutions that mediate civic life, including both local media outlets and historic community landmarks.
His piece on layoffs at the Washington Post situates the cuts within decades of thinning coverage in Northern Virginia, tracing how changes at regional papers and chains have affected the availability of local news. That perspective reflects his own background, with four decades in reporting and editing and a long tenure leading a regional newspaper chain, which informs his attention to the health of the news business. He also writes about civic history, such as the dedication of a new facility for a historic fire station, using present‑day events to acknowledge past community struggles and long‑term investments.
This strand of work shows him treating politics not only as campaigns and votes but as part of a longer story about the institutions that shape public life.
4 more politics journalists.
A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, showing how political decisions, taxes and public spending affect residents and businesses. At the Chicago Tribune, she covers city and county politics, municipal finance, tax policy, budgets and the structures shaping mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line. Her work examines council power, ethics rules, police leadership, tax incentives, public agencies and pandemic aid. She has reported on data center tax breaks, property tax errors, federal relief spending and the fiscal effects of major development proposals. Quig combines insider government reporting with public accountability journalism. She uses public records, data and budget documents, follows committees and staff negotiations, and explains complex decisions in plain language with precise numbers and a direct link to everyday consequences.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.