Voters will head to the polls tomorrow to cast their ballots in what may be an unusually high-turnout off-year election.
Polling centers will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. With the weather predicted to be warm and sunny, and with the chances of another significant earthquake happening on election day very slim, there’s little to keep voters from the polls. A list of polling locations can be found on the Arlington County website.
Here is the unedited response from Kathy Gillette-Mallard (I):
There are some serious issues confronting the citizens of the 48th District and all Virginians but there are solutions which the incumbent has not addressed. You should vote for me because, as your delegate:
Here is the unedited response from incumbent Del. Bob Brink (D):
For the past 14 years it’s been my honor to represent the 48th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. I ask for your vote for my re-election on Tuesday, November 8.
Here is the unedited response from Janet Murphy (IG):
I am Janet Murphy, the Independent Green Party Candidate for the Virginia General Assembly House of Delegates. My district, the 48th, includes parts of Mclean out to the Beltway, North Arlington, Crystal City, Rosslyn. So its fun for me to get around most of this district on my bicycle, which I do. Naturally, I applaud and support expanded Arlington Bike Share. It has been an exciting pleasure from the beginning to be involved as a candidate and I recommend it.
While the 31st District state Senate campaign started out on a surprisingly positive note, mailers paid for by the Democratic Party of Virginia and authorized by Favola have now gone negative. The mailers contain sentences like: “Caren Merrick will stand with extremists against a woman’s right to choose” and “Tea Party Republican Caren Merrick doesn’t share our values.”
At least two such mailers have been sent to 31st District residents in as many weeks. Two earlier Democratic mailers focused more on Favola’s positives — including support for education and Arlington’s low unemployment rate — although both also made reference to her commitment “to protect a woman’s right to choose.”
The unofficial kickoff to the general election campaign season lacked the audacious, back-and-forth recriminations of the 31st District Democratic primary. It did, however, set the stage for a clear battle of ideas in a race that could have significant repercussions in Richmond.
Smiling and effervescent, Merrick’s big debut to Arlington voters started out with her politely applauding Favola’s opening statement, then taking the podium, acknowledging her husband and sons, and describing herself as “the daughter of a Marine.” She recounted how she and her husband “started a software company in our basement” (it was sold to a German company in 2007 for $546 million) and touted her non-profit work with low-income families and “urban youth.”
The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is pressing for the ban after Arlington’s Del. Patrick Hope succeeded in getting the state Department of Corrections to codify its pre-existing prohibition on the shackling of female inmates during and immediately after labor. The newly-implemented policy only applies to state prisons, however, not to local and regional correctional facilities.
“As people of faith, the members of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture recognize that restricting women prisoners during childbirth strips away the dignity from the sacred moment of a new life entering the world, desecrates the sanctity of both birth and life, and endangers the health and well-being of both mother and child,” the group said in a statement. “The cruel and inhumane practice of shackling in Virginia is a problem beyond the jurisdiction of the [Department of Corrections]. Virginia should join the 13 states that have enacted legislation to prohibit this barbaric practice. ”
Hope introduced a bill earlier this year to ban the practice. The bill was defeated but supporters were able to pressure the department to change its internal policies without the need for legislation.
Here’s the press release from Hope’s office announcing the planned change in policy.
Whipple sent a letter to 31st District Democrats this week belittling candidate Jaime Areizaga-Soto’s work as her “policy advisor” in 2010. Whipple, who has endorsed County Board member Barbara Favola in the contentious two-way primary battle, wrote that Jaime — a Stanford law school grad — “served as an intern” and “received only a small stipend.”
“I agreed to give him the title ‘Policy Advisor'” to make up for the low pay, Whipple wrote. “Jaime’s embellishments and exaggerations of his role during his time in Richmond have bothered me for some time, and I feel compelled to set the record straight.”
Yesterday, within hours of one another, “ComeCleanJaime” and “Pay2PlayBabs” began Tweeting out dirt about the candidates.
“My vote is up for sale to the highest bidder,” proclaims the Pay2PlayBabs account. “Special deals for Republicans and Developers!”
Following Areizaga-Soto’s criticism of Favola’s campaign contributors, and the recent release of new fundraising disclosures, Favola’s campaign went on the offensive today and attacked the source of the $160,000 in personal funds Areizaga-Soto loaned to his own campaign.
The Favola campaign issued the following press release this afternoon:
Quarterly finance reports are out for Arlington’s state Senate races.
In the heated 31st District contest between County Board member Barbara Favola and Army National Guard JAG officer Jaime Areizaga-Soto, Favola won the fundraising battle and conserved her cash.
