Heated Senate Battle Escalates

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by Katie Pyzyk July 25, 2011 at 12:51 pm 4,495 67 Comments

Barbara Favola’s campaign has turned up the heat on fellow Democrat Jaime Areizaga-Soto in an already contentious senate race.

Today the Favola campaign launched a website attacking Areizaga-Soto, claiming he had involvement with oil companies. The site also states that one of Areizaga-Soto’s “main clients”, Petrobras, was responsible for 11 oil spills.

Areizaga-Soto’s campaign manager has responded to the allegations on the website by stating, “It is a sign of desperation that the Favola campaign has decided to attack Jaime using an exaggerated six degrees of separation attack. While Jaime serves our country in uniform, Favola is partnering with Ken Cuccinelli’s allies to fund her Senate campaign, breaking the Arlington County Code of Ethics and giving herself a 60% pay-raise while doing it.”

The Areizaga-Soto campaign launched its own website going after Favola. It’s largely devoted to questioning Favola’s acceptance of campaign donations.

G Clifford Prout

Drill baby, drill!
Lou

That website is all Flash. LOL.

And quite xenophobic, too.
Blueloom

OK, children, you both have to go to your rooms for an hour. After that, you’re grounded and your computers are confiscated till Aug. 23
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  ROFL! +10
- kc
  
  Agreed. No winners here.
- Patrick
  
  That is why I’ll be voting for Carren Merrick.
Disheartened Dem

Can I write in the name of a grownup?
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  +100!
John

I met Mr. Areizaga-Soto this weekend. I was very impressed. We would he well served by him as our representative.
Chris

This just needs to be decided by an American Gladiator’s style multi round competition rumble of these two going at each other. Possible events include fat suits with pugil sticks. I’d vote for that winner.
- Babs Thighs
  
  Only if they fight to the death.
Bluemontsince1961

This seems to sum up not only this particular political battle, but many of them both current and past. No wonder I became an Independent a few years ago!
- doodly
  
  So you can be irrelevant?
  - Bluemontsince1961
    
    Mehoo/Dynaroo is that you? No more irrelevant than you are.
  - V Dizzle
    
    Your mom’s irrelevant.
  - doodly
    
    Hey, just saying that if you don’t participate, you make yourself irrelevant. Just an observation. You can go pick someone even if nobody’s perfect, or you can sit on your front porch and complain when you get one of them anyway.
    - Bluemontsince1961
      
      I vote, therefore I participate, but I am not a Democrat or a Republican.
      - KalashniKEV
        
        +1
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        Hey Kev, It was quite interesting in the 2008 campaign, when my phone was overwhelmed with phone calls from both parties (though for every one GOP call, I had at least five Dem calls). Got so annoying I told the callers I was unhappy and disgusted with both parties, though I would do my civic duty and vote. Then there was all the knocking at my door. All were Dems and totally crestfallen when I informed them I was unhappy with both parties and had been so for a long time. Personally, I vote for whichever turns me off the least. Now if someone like Zell Miller or Henry “Scoop” Jackson were running, I could be a positive voter. But I’m dating myself, folks like Miller and Jackson don’t seem to be around these days in either party.
      - KalashniKEV
        
        It might be my bias, but I read a bit on Merrick and I really like her.
        
        I thought JAS would be the most successful candidate running, but I really respect Merrick’s entrepreneurial talent in turning her basement business into a 1,100 person, publicly traded, fast growing company.
        
        I personally have a positive feeling about her now, especially vs. these two bozos.
      - brendan
        
        Zell Miller? categorically insane.
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        Brendan, that is your opinion. Just as my opinion is that anybody that is super rah-rah President Obama may be “categorically insane” to me. Ditto those who were super rah-rah President George W. Bush.
      - Bluemontsince1961
        
        Kev, I’ll have to do more research on Merrick. She and JAS might make it an interesting contest. She and Favola……that might be one nasty cat fight.
brendan

Favola is running one of the worst campaigns i’ve seen in a long while.

Whether it’s her or her campaign team – they are playing right into the only path to victory that Areizaga-Soto has. This race should have been an easy win for Favola, instead it’s turned into an embarrassing campaign all-around.
- brendan
  
  hmm. not suprisingly, Favola’s pollster was also the lead consultant on the worst campaigns in recent memory – 2010 Mass Special where Martha Coakley, who was so sure of her victory that she took a six day vacation only twenty days out, then lost in one of most embarrassing campaigns of all time.
  
  Curious if Lake Research was involved in the push/misinformation polling debacle from a few weeks ago, that wouldn’t sit too well with the online progressive community if they were involved in that kinda crap, much less against a Dem, while still eating their slice of the DCCC & DSCC money pie.
Brandon

I’ve received mailers from these two losers virtually every day for the past three months. I’m not a Democrat and I don’t live in their district.

Mickey Mouse for Senate!
- TGEoA
  
  I’m going to Babs house and return the flyers in person. FYI, the mailing address on the flyer is her address.
KalashniKEV

So serving in the military is bad when you’re Patrick Murray, but good when you’re JAS?
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  One wonders sometimes, Kev.
KalashniKEV

I like how she posted his resume… what’s on her resume? GS-whatever at HHS?

JAS has the more impressive resume.
- Hope
  
  Interesting comment. I see where hs was an attorney for a firm and he working for an oil company, but last time I checked, my boss told me what jobs to do. I am not sure where my thoughts are one this one, but I know which clients he was given will not wiegh in with my vote. I do not like that Favola voted on a towing increase after she received campaign funds from the towing company. She should not have voted and because she violated Arl Co ethics that vote should be canceled. She also should resign from the board while she is collecting campaign funds from developers in Arlington.
  - Tabby
    
    I agree. The towing thing pisses me off.
    
    Criticizing the cases he’s worked on is really reaching.
Bluemontsince1961

“Mickey Mouse for Senate!” Good one! I may not be in their particular Senate district in Arlington, I have not received mailers from either one and that is just fine with me. I put mailers from both political parties in file 13….the endless recorded phone calls from both political parties for some campaigns are in an annoyance class all to themselves. I’d love a national political Do Not Call List, I’d sign up in a second! But that’s about as likely to happen as Publisher’s Clearing House showing up at my front door with a $10,000,000 check.
Rosslynite

I thought only Republicans tried to smear candidates who are attorneys by attacking their clients. Maybe we should start exploring the record of those with whom Favola works. It says on her website that she is a part-time employee at Marymount University. I believe that is a Catholic university. Is not the Catholic Church the same organization that hid the sexual abuse of minors by its priests for decades? Ergo, it appears that Favola works for an organization that tolerates pedophiles. That seems worse to me than 11 oil spills.
- Bluemontsince1961
  
  Favola = CINO
- ZoningVictim
  
  Haha, too funny. Her handlers are probably working on a response to your statement. It’ll probably say something about how we have no idea how you made the personal income you used to purchase the computer you used to post that statement, which obviously makes you untrustworthy, or some other nonsensical garbage that basically amounts to “hey, look over there.”
The Dope of South Arlington

Has anyone checked Senor Areizaga-Soto’s immigration documents?
- PikeResident
  
  What a completely stupid and ignorant comment. He was born in Puerto Rico, therefore a U.S. citizen. And besides that, to think that someone who is running for office is not a U.S. citizen is ludicrous. Or were you trying to be funny?
  
  Has anyone checked your IQ before you post on here?
  - A Non E-Mouse
    
    We need someone with too much time on their hands to compile a list of Memes to which we can refer people.
  - doodly
    
    There was a “Pope of South Arlington” who posted idiotic stuff like this once. This is a parody of that guy.
- Truthteller
  
  Dope, you are a racist troll. Jaime’s Puerto Rican so a born & bred American native. Go away and take your idiocy to FreeRepublic.org or the Tea Party
CW

Which one is Pot and which is Kettle again? I keep getting them mixed up.
- doodly
  
  Dope, not Pope. He’s the pot AND the kettle. It’s satire.
  - CW
    
    Whatchu talkin about…I was just referring to JAS and Favola and their lovely campaigns.
    - doodly
      
      Oh, then your comment is in the wrong place.
      - CW
        
        No it’s not…it’s all the way to the left. All I was saying was that JAS and Favola are like the pot and kettle calling each other black.
      - Webster
        
        You didn’t follow the conversation going on in doodly’s head. For that you are wrong!
      - Aaron
        
        I’m just hoping that the guy who runs City Wok will end up winning out over the other pesonalities.
Joe

If Dick Saslaw really did tell Patrick Hope to stay out of the race because the Democratic Party “couldn’t afford a primary”…

then nice job, Dick. You’ve got a primary, and an ugly one at that. Meanwhile the McLean Republican licks her chops at waltzing into this seat.
- KalashniKEV
  
  “Meanwhile the McLean Republican licks her chops at waltzing into this seat.”
  
  Caren Merrick, right?
  - Bluemontsince1961
    
    I believe so.
DD

Barbara Payola is getting desperate.
ClarendonGUY

They both suck!
Cate

I still don’t know what either of them is for or against, they just bitch and whine and moan back and forth – exactly the kind of behavior I don’t want representing me in Richmond. Congrats to them, neither is getting my vote.
Steve

Whatever. If Soto got rich working for big oil companies, he can forget about my vote. Moreover, it was JAS who flooded my mailbox with negative campaign flyers for DAYS, so he definitely got the negativity and the nastiness started in this one.

Merrick has a ton of money & a lot of backing from the state GOP. We can’t afford to rip each other apart while she sits back and prepares for the general election. Just seems like JAS didn’t care about any of that – he just wanted to tear his opponent down and get the nomination, even if it costs us the general election and hands Kookinelli another pal in the legislature down in Richmond..
- TGEoA
  
  What’s this “we” stuff? I hope you and yours lose horribly.
- Truthteller
  
  And you don’t think Favola voting to raise towing fees after getting campaign contributions fromt he towing companies is problematic? Why take this out on Jaime? Favola’s the flawed candidate here and Saslaw chased other contenders such as Patrick Hoppe out of the race.
Sundance the twelth

Ok, so it is real clear.
1) Jaime has run the filthiest and most dishonest campaign in Arlington County history AND he is a maximum international pollutor. Strike Jaime from the list. Unqualified.
2) Barbara showed bad political instincts when she took a contribution from a towing company. Bad, but not fatal. Her record is consistent on that issue with or without contributions. She is on thin ice.
3) Who else is in the race?
- Dismayed
  
  I agree with the above. I’m disappointed in both of them, at this point. Neither has displayed the type of dignified behavior I expect in a person I’d want representing me. But vote for a Republican? No way.
John Andre

How does this Senate District include Loudoun County???

I doubt it can do so without including a chunk of Fairfax County as well!!! Maybe that’s how a McLean Republican can run in our comfy little Arlington district!

As for myself, I blame the GOP for this whole National Debt limit squabble. It’s all a political move…part of their effort to unseat Obama next year…by manufacturing a grave “world economic crisis”. As for health care I’m all for “Obamacare” and against the alternative “Republicare”…a “Logan’s Run” effort to kill off us “useless” baby-boomer seniors and seniors-to-be by cutting off our retirement income while raising prices to levels we can’t afford. It’s true that “Obamacare” is imperfect…the ideal health care system would be the Canadian plan, or full-scale socialized medicine. But Obamacare is better than any alternative the GOP has to offer.
- Disheartened Dem
  
  It’s not a “comfy little Arlington district” any more. Saslaw and co. redrew it to reach up the river through McLean and Great Falls to Loudoun, supposedly to share the wealth of the Arlington Democratic vote. We’ll see how well that works out.
Admited Jaime Supporter

This whole race got “nasty” for two reasons only: the Dem leadership tried to “clear” the field for a favored candidate. Then they tried to smear a highly qualified minority candidate and former Caucus Adviser who didn’t do as he was “told” by calling him an “intern.” Then, after having a tantrum, at a recent forum where she stomped out and refused to shake JAS’s hand afterward, Favola and her handlers decided that JAS would go from “intern” to high level international environmental menace in a matter of a week…o-k-a-y.

The “hardball” politics in this race used by JAS have been truthful and only started when Favola’s champions decided that they would “kneecap” her competition right from the start. JAS is an honorable man who will be a great Senator and who will not be beholden to anyone but the voters. He is running a great campaign and is doing his best to work around the fact that money that should be going to endangered Dem candidates is going to Favola instead.

If you want someone who owes everything to rich, right-leaning donors and their party leaders, vote for Favola or Merrick. If you want someone who will only owe his constituents, vote Jaime. It’s as simple as that.

And, I admit who I support — I am not a “Concern Troll,” who pretends to be disinterested…
LyonParkVoter

If Jaime runs he essentially takes away two key issues that Merrick is running on and that she clearly is ready to use against Favola: 1) She has private sector experience and can point to numerous examples of Favola’s mismanagement of the County’s finances; and 2) she’s not a career politician like Favola that has been in power for over a dozen years. That won’t work with Jaime who has private sector experience and is not a career politician! Clearly a major plus for having JAS run against Merrick. We need new blood which is why I’m voting for Jaime. Favola’s latest is ridiculous and desperate!
LyonParkVoter

Oh, and Jaime will kill Merrick on his public sector experience, particularly his knowledge and experience as Whipple’s Policy Advisor in Richmond. Merrick has none.
Reality Check

Unless Arlington has oil and/or a rainforest that we don’t know about, I don’t think whether Jaime in his role as an associate at an international law firm represented an oil company that may be responsible for pollution in Brazil is remotely relevant. As an associate at a law firm, you don’t get to choose your clients, make business decisions for your clients, or know exactly what your clients are doing day to day, as typically your involvement is limited to discrete projects led by and assigned to you by partners. It is ludicrious to suggest that his work for any client equates to a desire or intent to destroy our environment.

On the other hand, evidence that an elected official has taken in donations from developers and businesses that have matters appearing before the Board on which they serve is very relevant and disconcerting. While it may be true that Barbara would have voted the same way without the donations, it shows at the very least a huge lack of judgment to take funds that could give even a hint of impropriety. This relates to her activities as an elected official while she operates a campaign to seek a higher elected office. That’s a big problem.

That being said, I don’t need to receive ten flyers a week in the mail reminding me of the problem.
- BrownFlipFlops
  
  Well said.
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