No Close Races: Dems Sweep Arlington

<<Click the photo to view our slideshow of Election Day 2011.

Editor's note: We had the incorrect percentage of Barbara Favola's win in the first version of this story.  We apologize for the error. It has been corrected, 12:15p.m., Nov. 9.

Statewide Races

Arlington County stayed solidly Democratic Tuesday as voters chose board member Barbara Favola over Republican Caren Merrick for state Senate in a landslide.

While control of the Senate hangs on a single Sponsylvania district, Favola won with a solid 58 to 41 percent against her businesswoman opponent in the only Arlington race that had Arlington Democrats on edge.

"I'm really happy tonight,” said Favola at the county Democrat celebration at Bailey’s Pub in Ballston. “Everybody in the 31st is excited because they'll get solid, responsible leadership."

Merrick ran a solid campaign that was funded in part by her personal wealth. By Oct. 26, her campaign had $108,530 in cash, well above Favola’s $62,612, according to the non-partisan Virginia Public Access Project.

Also causing Democrats worry was the reconfigured 31st district, which starts in south Arlington and now stretches north into a narrow strip of Fairfax and Loudoun counties. Favola maintained a strong lead in every one of those precincts.

Favola said some voters in Fairfax and Loudoun counties were worried she wouldn't remember them, but she spent days in those counties knocking on doors.  She said Tuesday night that she encountered in those precincts both Democrats and those who didn't know if they were Democrats, but "now they know they are, and they're with us."

Democrats swept the other two state Senate races in Arlington. Del. Adam Ebbin beat Timothy McGee with 74 percent in the 30th district, which includes much of south Arlington and Crystal City; and in parts of north Arlington and Falls Church incumbant Janet Howell won over Patrick Forrest with 71 percent in the 32nd district.

Howell, who led the effort to draw new Senate boundaries after the 2010 census, said Tuesday night that she told voters back in May that "'I'm so happy to be representing Arlington again.'  I had no idea how happy I was."

In Delegate races in Arlington, three Democrats ran unopposed, and the fourth, Robert Brink, topped Green Party and Independent Green candidates with 72 percent of the vote. Alphonso Lopez (49th) and incumbents Patrick Hope (47th), and David Englin (45th) were unopposed.

County Board

Mary Hynes and Walter Tejada each held on to their county board seats with 42 percent and 40 percent of the vote, respectively. They were challenged by Green Party candidate Audrey Clement, who campaigned against proposed streetcars along Columbia Pike and for more affordable housing.