by Dick Hall-Sizemore
It was an interesting night last night as the results of the primary elections around the state were posted. (Results based on information on the Virginia Dept. of Elections website.)
Progressive Commonwealth’s attorneys
Northern Virginia Democrats overwhelmingly re-nominated all three of the progressive Commonwealth’s attorneys elected four years ago, despite their drawing much criticism (including from this blog) and even The Washington Post endorsing the opponents of two of them. The winners — Steve Descano (Fairfax County, 55% of the vote), Parisa Dehghani-Tafti (Arlington and Falls Church, 56%), and Buta Biberaj (Loudoun County, 56$)—will face little or minimal opposition in the fall elections. Keep in mind that Biberaj’s opponent, Elizabeth Lancaster, was the attorney for the parent arrested after protesting the school board’s treatment of his daughter’s sexual assault.
State Senate
Two of the centrist Democrat incumbents who were thought most vulnerable, Dave Marsden (Fairfax) and Creigh Deeds (Charlottesville) were victors in their election contests. The third, George Barker (Fairfax) was defeated.
Barker’s defeat, coupled with Louise Lucas’s win over Lionel Spruill in Portsmouth/Chesapeake, means that, should the Democrats retain control of the Senate, Lucas will likely be chair of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee.
Chap Petersen, whom many considered to be the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, lost decisively to a newcomer, Saddam Azlan Salim. Probably few saw this one coming.
Two of the more colorful incumbents in the Senate went down to defeat. Lashrecse Aird trounced Joe Morrisey in the district centered on Petersburg. In nearby Chesterfield, in a three-way race, Amanda Chase narrowly lost to former senator Glen Sturtevant.
Ranked choice
Arlington County was authorized to conduct a pilot ranked-choice election for its local governing board. There were six candidates for two seats. Voters could rank up to three candidates. Four candidates received between 20% 25% of the first- choice votes. The winners will not be known until additional tabulations have been made, probably not until the end of the week. There was a lot of criticism that citizens had not received sufficient information and explanation about the process.
Must-win seat for Governor Youngkin
In a hotly contested Republican primary for the Senate seat in the Fredericksburg area, which many observers felt was a must-win for the governor in his bid for Republicans to take control of the Senate, Tara Durant, endorsed by Youngkin, handily beat (57%) her opponent, Matt Strickland.
Every vote counts
Primary elections are traditionally low-turnout affairs and this one was no exception. (When I went to my polling place about 10:30, there were no other voters in sight. The poll workers were delighted to have someone come in.) In such elections, narrow margins are not unusual. In Prince William County, incumbent Sen. Jeremy McPike is leading by 26 votes out of a total of 12,230 votes cast. (His opponent has not conceded and there will probably be a recount.) In the Democrat primary for a Fairfax/Prince William House of Delegates seat, Makya Little was winning by 38 votes among three candidates earlier, but the Dept. of Elections website updated as I was confirming my notes and she is now losing by 57 votes.
The most crowded field
Eight candidates were vying for the Republican nomination in the First District Senate seat, in the upper end of the Shenandoah Valley, around Winchester. With a few precincts still out, Timothy French has 33% of the votes and a comfortable lead over his nearest opponent, David LaRock, currently a member of the House of Delegates. One voter commented that it was tough choosing among so many candidates. “Everybody was kind of trying to out-Trump Trump,” he said.
