Disgrace

Last night, I had a chance to attend the Great Falls debate between Barbara Favola and Jaime Ariezaga-Soto.  The event was well organized by the Dranesville District Democratic Committee and their Chairman Ron Bleeker.  Moderating the debate was former Delegate Steve Shannon who also did quite a nice job.

With all of the negative mail, negative phone calls and trash talking press releases going out between the campaigns, it was expected that the debate would be highly charged.  Both candidates defended themselves where their opponents had overstepped- Jaime when Barbara called him an "intern" for Senator Whipple and Barbara defended herself well against Jaime's over the top mail.

There'd be a lot more to report from the actual debate but what happened after the debate really stole the show.

When the candidates wrapped up their closing statements, Ron stood up to thank everyone for attending and to remind the crowd to vote on August 23rd, but also be prepared to unite behind the winner on August 24th.  Jaime then offered his hand to Barbara for a handshake.  Shaking her head no, Barbara slapped at his hand and stormed out of the library, not even bothering to say goodbye to her supporters who were in attendance.  The crowd audibly gasped when Barbara slapped at his hand.

I spoke with a number of people with different angles to the "slap" and the general consensus was that she didn't make contact with Jaime's hand.  Some people thought it was close, others didn't.  But Barbara's actions turned the room against her.  A number of "neutral" members of the Dranesville Committee told me after the debate they were now supporting Jaime, and two of Barbara's supporters told me they were going to flip to Jaime. 

Big picture here- Caren Merrick is waiting for the winner of this primary, and Democrats can't afford to have a candidate on the ballot that is unable to control their own behavior.  Everyone who wants to hold this seat in November needs to work to nominate Jaime- Barbara is unhinged and out of control. 

Comments

[Not Mame Reiley]

Must be nice to be from somewhere that every elected is a Democrat and never gets attacked or has to run a contested race. Sounds like she still is on her training wheels.

Why didn't you mention that the Senate leadership pumped $42K into her race to save her last quarter instead of investing their money into contested races?

http://www.vpap.org/candidates/profile/money_in_donors/25984

I'm sure that there's a few other Senate candidates that could've used that $42K (e.g. Mitchell,Dodson, Puller, Barker, Marsden, Miller, Northam, Edwards)

[Not Lourie Hall]

The horror, the horror ... (voice fading, body slumps)

[Kristin]

"I spoke with a number of people with different angles to the "slap"" BEST LINE EVER

[Will Radle]

As she is seeking to represent Fairfax County voters, I encourage Barbara to read George Washington's farewell address.

If she cannot show comity to a fellow Democrat, how will she treat Independents and Republicans in her district?

[SatirclAlx]

Does anyone have video of this? I would love to see it. I don't know either candidate personally but Barbara's behavior is alarming to me.

[Harry]

You gotta wonder if we'd be having this same conversation if Barbara was a man.

[Bob Brink's Gigantic Ego]

In case you're all wondering, I'm still standing by my endorsement of Barbara Favola, as my gigantic ego won't let me back down.

Sincerely,

Bob Brink's Gigantic Ego

[Dan]

"You gotta wonder if we'd be having this same conversation if Barbara was a man."

Harry, what the heck are you talking about? There is absolutely nothing about this that has anything to do with gender.

Campaigns for a nomination get rough on a fairly regular basis. Anyone who has ever been involved in one has to have a reasonably thick skin or they should stay on the sidelines.

Most importantly, when the nomination fight is over, all parties should be prepared to come together for the general election as Ron Bleeker quite properly suggested. It isn't always easy to overcome hurt feelings and bruised egos, but it is what must be done.

It is pretty hard to think of a defense for Ms. Favola's action. And she really hurt herself by acting that way. Even if she was thinking that she would like to see her opponent rot in hell, the only intelligent thing to do was to graciously accept the hand that was extended.

If she should win the nomination, how in the world is she now going to credibly ask for the support of her opponent's strong supporters after such a nasty and childish display? Andthe burden of reaching out to the opposition after a nomination fight falls on the victor.

It's hard to imagine that she didn't cost herself support among truly undecideds who were present. There is so much that is wrong with the way she acted. Not least is that it was entirely counterproductive and just plain dumb. But I fail to see how you could try to turn this into a gender issue.

The phony victim thing is getting so tiresome these days. Let's leave that to the Palins of the world.

[SatirclAlx]

I haven't followed this closely and I don't know Favola, so... what is her big beef anyway? Is it just that someone had the audacity to primary her or is there some particular reason she hates Jaime?

[Lyon Park Voter]

Although I didn't hear the "gasps", I did hear the loud boos that rained out from the crowd when they saw what she did. That has to be a first -- a Democratic candidate in a Democratic forum being bood?! Her actions only solidified those supporting Jaime, should have turned undecided voters to Jaime, and may have also turned Favola supporters to Jaime. It also further confirmed Barbara's reputation for being full of herself, patronizing and arrogant. She clearly doesn't have what it takes to represent the 31st in Richmond.

[notNot]

Voting for the candidate who can beat the Republican Tea Party candidate from McLean. Not convinced Jaime can do that. If he wins the primary, I'm worried Karen will definitely win in the fall.

[OMG]

SatirclAlx: you got it. Both Saslaw and Favola are pretty miffed that Jaime got in the race, when others were discouraged from doing so. Jaime is a fine young man, so I don't think it's personal. Favola has never faced serious challengers in any of her elections. This is a first for her.

[Dan]

OMG, sounds like she needed a primary fight to thicken what seems to be her amazingly thin skin. If she is the nominee does she expect the Republicans to be all sweetness and light to her? Geez!

It's grand not to be challenged for a nomination, but the idea that one is "entitled" to a free ride is a bit much. If she's the stronger of the two potential candidates I sure hope she gets to work doing some damage control over her stupidity and gets her act together and behaves with more maturity going forward.

[Actually...]

OMG: Actually, Favola did face a serious challenger in 1997. She lost the nomination against now-colleage Jay Fisette.

http://www.sungazette.net/articles/2011/02/27/arlington/news/nw83n.txt

[notNot]

What either one of them will need is a whole lot of money, more than anything else. Merrick is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Steve Vaughan]

notNot- to that point, recent campaign finance reports show Jaime with a really high burn rate. I'd think that's something Dems have to worry about if he's the nominee. Not saying he should
be or shouldn't be, just saying that's something to watch out for.

[notNot]

Vaughan- that's one of the things that made me nervous. Wondering if big donors would bother to fill in the gap for him.

[brehm]

She slapped his hand? Its like out of the movie Superbad. I hope Jaime said 'What are you doing? Its not a piece of meat!'.

[Not anyone in particular]

Jaime is burning his cash partly by mailing the same negative flyers to the same people twice. He needs to move on and establish a more positive image and record for himself while he still has $$ for postage.

[notNot]

His burn rate is 82% and the new 31st district is nearly half Fairfax plus Loudon voters. Merrick's got her millions and very wealthy donors.

[Not Ben's Double Chin]

Stick a fork in it, this race is over. Merrick by a mile.

Mark it, dude.

[Noticed]

This would have been more fun if Favola had thrown water in Ariezaga-Soto's face.

So when people refuse to shake your hand, Ben, how do you handle it?

[truthteller]

Not not, the burn rate is only because Jaime needed to introduce himself to the electorate and staff up. Much of that work is done so I wouldn't expect the same in the next financial report

And Not Ben's Double Chin, I do not deny that Dems are going to have to work WAY harder than usual to hold this district given Merrick's $$$$. But Arlington has the lion's share of the votes in the district and Jaime is extremely strong there with a strong GOTV effort to back him from the effective county committee. I'd be much more worried about BFav in that context...

Plus Merrick's record hasn't seen the light of day. And I'm sure she has some campaign contributions and policy positions which are not a good fit for a 55% Deeds and 60% Obama district

[notNot]

Truthteller--I'll bet there's not much moral clarity on Merrick's side, I doubt her supporters care whether her contributions/policies are just. The breakdown is 116,599 for Arlington and about 84,306 Loudon/Fairfax combined. Let's hope the Progressives are as fired up as Merrick's Teapartyers--who are way hot for this particular jewel district. If Jaime can get the backing of Arlington's big money maybe, but he's been pretty forthright about spurning that. And it looks like they're probably going to let this one go.

[I Know]

I participated from the Sorenson Institute's Candidate Training Program this past January, and two of my classmates were Caren Merrick and Jaime Areizaga-Soto. Let me assure you - Caren is no slouch. She is incredibly polished and I remember telling her back then that she "sounded like a Senator." She does, and Jaime will have his hands full.

[notNot]

Merrick will devour him.