Already nasty

In the slow, sweltering days of August when vacationing Virginians hardly notice, some of the fiercest fights of this legislative election year are under way. Contentious Democratic and Republican primaries have already gotten nasty and personal ahead of the Aug. 23 primary.

State legislative primaries in Virginia draw the lowest turnouts of any election cycle. This year's turnouts could be even lower because delays necessitated by legislative redistricting pushed the primaries from their normal spot in early June into the height of vacation season.

Yet the primaries are important because they set the ballot for this fall's pivotal Senate races. Democrats control 22 of the 40 Senate seats, so a net gain of just two seats by the GOP gives them effective control of the Senate for the first time since 2007 because Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling presides over the Senate and holds the tie-breaking vote.

A Senate majority would also put Republicans in charge of both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor's office, putting the party complete command of policymaking in Virginia for the first time since 2001 and allowing Gov. Bob McDonnell to enact the socially and fiscally conservative agenda he proposed as a candidate two years ago.

In the House of Delegates, primaries will be key because so few races in the general election will be contested. According to the Virginia Public Access Project (as noted on bluevirginia.us), only 32 out of 100 races for the House are contested; of those 23 will pit a Republican against a Democrat on Nov. 8. In the Senate, 26 of 40 seats will be contested.

One particularly heated senate primary race is the Democratic nomination fight between Jaime Areizaga-Soto and Arlington County Board of Supervisors member Barbara Favola. They're vying for the vacant seat of Democratic state Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple.

Never mind that there's little difference between the positions they've articulated on issues such as public school funding and transportation in the chronically gridlocked Washington, D.C., suburb. In heavily Democratic Arlington, corporate lawyer Areizaga-Soto accused Favola, who has deep connections in the local Democratic establishment, of taking campaign contributions from companies with issues pending before the county board, a claim Favola fervently denies.

And for Favola's part, she conducted polling in which those who were surveyed by telephone were falsely told Areizaga-Soto is a Republican. The poll was discontinued and the misinformation described as a mistake.

The 71-year-old Whipple, who is retiring after four Senate terms, is backing Favola over her former aide, Areizaga-Soto, whom she accuses of exaggerating his role for her. Areizaga-Soto touts his role as a "policy adviser" to Whipple, who chairs the Senate Rules Committee and the Senate Democratic Caucus. She released a memo earlier this month, noting that he was actually an unpaid intern who was given the lofty title only to facilitate his access to offices on Capitol Square.

In the Republican fold, ousted state GOP chairman Jeff Frederick and contractor Tito Munoz are battling to determine who will take on Democratic state Sen. Linda "Toddy" Puller.

Munoz is a Colombian immigrant whose 15 minutes of acclaim came when he briefly shared the stage with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin during a 2008 campaign rally in Prince William County. Having built his own construction company, he became known as "Tito The Builder," a comfortable counterpart to "Joe The Plumber" in Sen. John McCain's floundering campaign.

Frederick is the Virginia-born son of a Colombian immigrant mother, and he hailed himself as the first Latino member of the Virginia House of Delegates where he represented Prince William from 2004 through 2009.

Prince William and northern Virginia are home to significant immigrant communities so Munoz, in his first bid for elective office, challenged Frederick to a debate in Spanish. Frederick declined, accurately noting that the General Assembly conducts its business in English.

The winner of the Republican nomination meets Democrat Linda T. "Toddy" Puller, who is seeking her fourth term in a district made slightly more Democratic by this year's reapportionment. She gained a greater share of often conservative but sometimes politically volatile Prince William County.

In other political news, with Texas Gov. Rick Perry now in the Republican presidential field, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell takes over for Perry as head of the Republican Governors Association.

The RGA made the announcement this morning, two days after Perry formally announced his candidacy. McDonnell had been the RGA's vice chairman. McDonnell's new post not only puts more demand on his political time for travel across the country supporting GOP gubernatorial candidates, it also elevates the popular governor's profile as an often-mentioned vice presidential running mate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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