(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) Commonwealth’s Attorney incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti has defeated challenger Josh Katcher in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Dehghani-Tafti has 56% of the vote to 44% for Katcher, her former deputy, in the heated race for the top prosecutor of Arlington and Falls Church. That’s as of 8:40 p.m., with all but a few hundred provisional and late-arriving mailed ballots counted in Arlington. Polls closed at 7 p.m.
Katcher, standing outside of his watch party at Lost Dog Cafe in Westover, called Dehghani-Tafti shortly before 8:50 p.m. to concede the race.
The contentious — and expensive — contest has been seen as something of a referendum on the incumbent’s brand of vocal justice reform advocacy. Katcher, while billing himself as also in favor of justice reform, put a spotlight on Dehghani-Tafti’s leadership, which he linked to departures of deputy prosecutors amid a reported rise in crime.
“Right now we’re going to celebrate what we were able to accomplish with this campaign and thank the volunteers,” Katcher told ARLnow before heading back into his event.
“Over the course of the last six months, we’ve had an important debate in our community over the future of criminal justice reform,” he said in a subsequent written statement. “Our team left it all on the field, as we sought to have a debate about what real reform and real justice could mean for our community… I stand ready to continue my commitment to this community, to its safety and to the goal of ensuring that we are balancing the need for both justice and compassion.”
Dehghani-Tafti also thanked her supporters. Gesturing to the crowd gathered at her event at Fire Works Pizza in Courthouse (held with County Board candidate JD Spain) she said those present reflect a tiny fraction of the people who donated, volunteered, “held my hand,” and knocked on doors.
“A campaign based on love, dignity and respect prevailed,” she said. “I’m grateful for the trust everybody has placed in me.”
In the other two closely watched local races, for County Board and Sheriff, leads were slim.
The three-way county sheriff race has Jose Quiroz with a widening lead compared to earlier in the night, with 40% to 34% for former deputy sheriff Wanda Younger and 27% for Arlington police corporal James Herring.
Quiroz was appointed Acting Sheriff after the departure of long-time Sheriff Beth Arthur earlier this year. The position is primarily responsible for running the county jail in Courthouse, with the Sheriff’s Office also handling court security, civil process serving, and some law and traffic enforcement responsibilities.
The Arlington County Board primary, meanwhile, is being conducted for the first time using ranked choice voting, which means final tabulation will not take place until Friday at the earliest. Results of “first choice” votes are being posted, however, showing Susan Cunningham with 25%, Natalie Roy with 24%, Maureen Coffey with 22%, and JD Spain with 20%.
The other candidates in the six-way race are Tony Weaver and Jonathan Dromgoole, each with a single-digit percentage total.
Among other local issues, the recently-passed Missing Middle housing zoning change took center stage in the County Board race, with Roy and Cunningham expressing opposition and Spain and Coffey expressing support. The ordinance will allow smaller-scale multifamily homes in neighborhoods previously zoned only for single-family detached houses.
The two other races on the ballot today were largely seen by insiders as minimally competitive. For House of Delegates (2nd District), Adele McClure has 90% of the vote, after her opponent withdrew from the race. Incumbent State Senator Barbara Favola (40th District) has 84% of the Arlington vote, after facing a primary challenge from James DeVita.
While this year’s primary has attracted considerable attention with the high-profile Commonwealth’s Attorney race and two open County Board seats, turnout was relatively light. With some in-transit mailed ballots not yet counted, turnout stands at 16.2% of registered voters.
During the last similar primary cycle, in 2019, total voter turnout was just under 17% as Dehghani-Tafti defeated incumbent Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos.
Results for tonight are complete for tonight.
~300 outstanding provisional ballots to look at.
~150 mail ballot from drop boxes. Mail ballots will be accepted through Friday if postmarked today.
Stay tuned for update tomorrow.— Arlington Elections (@ArlingtonVotes) June 21, 2023
Democrats will face some opposition in the November general election. Among those who have qualified for the ballot are Miranda Turner, endorsed by Arlington Democrats after a School Board caucus, against independent School Board candidates James Vell Rives. Running for County Board again, against the eventual Democratic nominees, is independent candidate Audrey Clement.
Candidates whose ballot qualification is listed as in process include Republican David Henshaw for Favola’s 40th District State Senate seat, independent Major Mike Webb for Del. Alfonso Lopez’s 3rd District House of Delegates seat, and Republican Juan Carlos Fierro — an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump — for Arlington County Board.
Jo DeVoe contributed to this report