6/8 primaries preview: Virginia and New Jersey

The Macker is, unfortunately, back

New Jersey

New Jersey isn’t much of a democracy, at least not in primary elections, because the local party organizations have the power to give preferential ballot placement to its preferred candidates. (we don’t just mean placing candidates at the top of the ballot—non-machine candidates can find themselves relegated to “ballot Siberia,” or thrown together in the same box on the ballot despite running against one another.) But sometimes, serious challenges to machine power still emerge, in spite of the built-in obstacles. There are a few of these in New Jersey.

A couple of notes to help you understand New Jersey: each legislative district elects one senator and two assemblymembers on the same ballot. Senate and Assembly candidates run together as slates. Candidates who win the backing of the local party committee usually receive preferential ballot placement through something called “the organization line”, “the county line”, “the party line”, or sometimes simply “the line.” We will denote which slate has the line in each race.

Legislative District 20

(Union, Hillside, Elizabeth, Roselle — diverse suburbs and industrial cities southwest of NYC)

The line: Joe Cryan (i) for Senate, Annette Quijano (i) and the Rev. Reginald Atkins for Assembly

Off the line: Assemblyman Jamel Holley for Senate, Christian Veliz and former Hillside Councilor Diane Murray-Clements for Assembly

This is an odd race. In New Jersey, two assemblymembers and one state senator are elected from each legislative district, so there are usually three-person slates; in this race, there are two viable slates, the one headed by state Sen. Joe Cryan and the one headed by Assemblyman Jamel Holley. Cryan’s slate, which is filled out by Assemblywoman Annette Quijano and the Reverend Reginald Atkins, is the machine slate; they are also the good guys in this race. This isn’t because the machine is worth supporting; it’s because Holley is an anti-vaxxer. Previously Cryan and Quijano’s slatemate, Holley flounced off and decided to challenge Cryan for reelection this year rather than fighting for his own seat, knowing there was a good chance the machine would pull its support for him if he tried to stick around after his anti-vax turn. (Even machine bosses have limits.) As much as it hurts to root for the machine, stopping the anti-vaxxer is urgently important; Cryan, Quijano, and Atkins are favored to win, but Holley is enough of a known entity to at least give us all a headache.

Legislative District 37

(Hackensack, Fort Lee, Englewood, Teaneck, Palisades Park — diverse suburbs northwest of NYC)

The line: Assemblyman Gordon Johnson for Senate, Tenafly Democratic Chair Shama Haider and former Englewood Cliffs Councilor Ellen Park for Assembly

Off the line: Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle for Senate, Teaneck Councilor Gervonn Romney-Rice and Tenafly Councilor Lauren Kohn Dayton for Assembly

Assemblymembers Gordon Johnson and Valerie Vainieri Huttle were machine-friendly colleagues who got along amicably until state Sen. Loretta Weinberg announced her retirement. They both wanted the seat, and neither was willing to step aside for the other, forcing the machine to choose between two of its own. Johnson, who has less of an external political network (the Vainieris are a local political family) and who has seldom taken public stands, was the easy choice—Vainieri Huttle had been quite comfortable within the machine herself, but the faint glimmer of an independent streak shone through sometimes, earning her the respect of the labor movement and LGBT rights groups. To the machine, that made her a bit riskier than Johnson, so that was that.

When it became clear that Vainieri Huttle would not win the support of the Bergen County Democratic Committee—meaning Johnson would get the favorable ballot placement—normal machine etiquette would require her to drop back down to her Assembly seat. That way, nobody has to lose, even though only one incumbent gets the promotion, and the machine saves itself the PR nightmare of a messy primary battle. But Vainieri Huttle was pissed that Johnson got the line instead of her, so she made it clear that she would run off the line for the Senate seat. Both she and Johnson (well, both she and the machine) found slates of Assembly candidates: for Vainieri Huttle, it was Teaneck Councilor Gervonn Romney-Rice and Tenafly Councilor Lauren Kohn Dayton, while for Johnson, it was Teaneck Democratic Committee Chair Alexandra Soriano-Taveras and Palisades Park Mayor Christopher Chung. Then both of Johnson’s running mates imploded in rapid fashion—Chung because of a state comptroller report alleging widespread misuse of official funds in Palisades Park’s municipal government, and Soriano-Taveras because of statements she made at a rally that many took as a call to boycott Jewish businesses in Teaneck in retaliation for the Teaneck council’s decision to name an all-white leadership team (passing over a bid by Romney-Rice, in fact.) But the Bergen County Democratic machine hastily found replacements for both: Tenafly Democratic Committee Chair Shama Haider and former Englewood Cliffs Councilor Ellen Park. The line is extraordinarily hard to beat, but if it happens, it looks something like this—a well-known and well-liked local politician, with the support of progressive groups and some major unions, taking on a machine slate hampered by scandal.

Johnson and his slate are favored, and Vainieri Huttle is very far from a movement leftist, but this is the race to watch. Vainieri Huttle is obviously taking on the machine out of self-interest—she had no problem working within the machine in the past—but if she wins, she will be the rare New Jersey Democratic politician who owes the machine nothing. Rarer still are Democratic politicians who not only owe the machine nothing, but also owe the left something.

Camden Mayor

The line: Vic Carstarphen (i)

Off the line: Camden School Advisory Board Member Elton Custis, Councilor Felisha Reyes-Morton, former Camden School Advisory Board Member Luis Quiñones

Mayor Frank Moran abruptly resigned earlier this year with just months left in his term, apparently setting up an open-seat election for the mayoralty of New Jersey’s most infamously struggling city—a city ruled with an iron fist by the machine of legendary Democratic boss George Norcross, an insurance magnate and the brother of U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross. Then-Councilor Vic Carstarphen was chosen to replace Moran practically overnight, which angered Councilor Felisha Reyes-Morton so much she decided to run herself; Reyes-Morton and former Camden School Advisory Board member Luis Quiñones are both reportedly close with Moran, who was quite ensconced within the machine until his resignation, which apparently happened because Moran was reluctant to turn the city’s finance department over to the county government. Both Reyes-Morton and Quiñones are running against Carstarphen—now the interim mayor—out of resentment towards his abrupt installation as mayor and the apparent defenestration of a Latino mayor by white machine bosses who wanted the finance department of the almost entirely Black and Latino city turned over to the government of the largely white county. Both are also angry about the city’s plans to close three public schools due to budget constraints, but that particular issue is more up the alley of Elton Custis, the progressive candidate and a current member of the Camden School Advisory Board. Unlike Reyes-Morton and Quiñones, Custis fielded a slate of council candidates and put together an impressive set of endorsements including the New Jersey WFP affiliate (a perennial Norcross foe) and the city’s teachers’ union local. Carstarphen is favored, but Custis has the machine scared enough that they even called in a favor from Gov. Phil Murphy—formerly an enemy of the Norcross machine so despised that Moran publicly said Murphy wasn’t welcome in Camden. Murphy endorsed Carstarphen with just days to go, which sucks and shows that the governor is trying to make peace with the Norcross machine after years of battling it; however, it can’t be a bad sign for Custis that the machine felt the need to ask for Murphy’s help fending him off.

Virginia

We talked about the candidates for the statewide races back in January, so we'd recommend that if you want to acquaint yourselves with who's running. We're going to focus on the state of play here.

Governor

Former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy vs. Del. Lee Carter vs. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax vs. state Sen. Jennifer McClellan vs. former Gov. Terry McAuliffe

The short version is that Terry McAuliffe used to be governor, wanted to be governor again, and because most Democrats were okay with how he did, he walked into this campaign with a bunch of money, ran some ads, and is going to be the next governor. There may have been a time when it was possible for a divided progressive movement to get behind a competitor, but that never happened, and the slow motion wrecking ball of Terry McAuliffe continued apace. A bad showing for him is going to be falling below 50%, and a good showing for any of his competitors would be breaking 20%. 

Jennifer Carroll Foy would be wallowing in total irrelevance with the rest of the field by now if it weren't for Michael Bills and Sonjia Smith, a billionaire power couple who decided a few years ago it was their calling to flush out the conservative political order of the state, focusing especially on environmental issues and the role of Dominion Energy, the state's legally enforced power utility monopoly, which has bought off the state's Republican party and many of its Democrats as well. In this race, they're mostly notable for keeping Carroll Foy's campaign afloat, but we shall be hearing more from them and their organization, Clean Virginia, later.

Lieutenant Governor

Del. Sam Rasoul vs. Del. Hala Ayala vs. Del. Mark Levine vs. Norfolk City Councilor Andria McClellan vs. Sean Perryman

This race began as a wide open mess, and honestly, time hasn't helped clear it up much. Del. Elizabeth Guzmán dropped out, and businessman Xavier Warren failed to raise much money, tightening the field to "only" 5 candidates, but it's still wild. Del. Sam Rasoul, a progressive from Roanoke, has raised nearly $2 million and snagged the Washington Post endorsement; it seems like he should be the frontrunner, but he's from a less populated part of the state, and many politicians from the DC area, as well as more moderate elements of the party, are instead backing Del. Hala Ayala, who led Rasoul slightly in the only recent poll of the race. In the last days of this race, she's taken a considerable amount of money from Dominion, breaking a pledge she made and prompting Clean Virginia to make a last-minute negative expenditure against her. Third in that poll was Del. Mark Levine, also a moderate from the DC suburbs. Levine would have no chance in this race if it weren't for his personal wealth. He and his parents have put a combined $1.1 million in this race, though if you've seen his ads, it's hard to call it money well spent, and he’s very likely to lose in spite of all that money. There are two more remaining serious contenders: Sean Perryman, a local NAACP president in Northern Virginia who's sought to define himself as the most progressive candidate and the only political outsider, but has struggled with money; and Norfolk City Councilor Andria McClellan, who's going to get a lot of the Hampton Roads vote? Probably?

Attorney General

Mark Herring (i) vs. Del. Jay Jones

Jay Jones raised a lot of money, some of it from the world of Clean VA, much of it not. He scored a handful of endorsements, most notably incumbent Governor Ralph Northam, with whom he cut an awkward ad. He ran a great campaign, and despite all that pretty much everyone thinks he's going to lose. Mark Herring is a safe, broadly acceptable incumbent (having successfully memory-holed his blackface scandal somehow) who Jones could never really land a blow against. Polling has suggested this isn't the runaway the governor's race is, but a Jones win would be a considerable upset.

HD-02

Southern edge of the Washington metro area

Candi King (i) vs. Pamela Montgomery

This one has some history to it. Back in 2013, progressive Michael Futrell won an upset victory over incumbent Republican Mark Dudenhefer, but left for an unsuccessful Senate run in 2015, leading to Democratic party leaders selecting moderate retired cop Joshua King, who was nominated without a primary before losing to Dudenhefer in the general election. He ran again in 2017, but this time needed to go through a primary, which he lost by just a handful of votes to Our Revolution-supported public defender Jennifer Carroll Foy, who won the 2017 and 2019 general elections easily. She’s now a candidate for governor, and a few months ago resigned her seat in the House of Delegates to focus on that bid, leading to a December 2020 special election with shades of 2017: on the moderate side was not Joshua King, but his wife, Candi King, and on the progressive side was not Foy, but her chief of staff Pamela Montgomery. King won that nomination contest 380 to 219, with turnout well under a quarter of a regularly timed election, and badly underperformed in the special general election, barely winning what is by now a reliably Democratic district. This is a rematch of the so-called firehouse primary (a contest run by the party, not the state government, with limited polling places and a tiny electorate) that nominated King.

Now that she’s the incumbent, King has enjoyed new advantages in the form of labor and establishment backing, most significantly from the House Democratic Caucus. Pamela Montgomery, meanwhile, has found new help from Bills and Smith, who, likely spurred by King welcoming Dominion's financial support, have pumped over $600,000 worth of donations and independent expenditures to Montgomery's campaign. This, in turn, caused the House Democratic Caucus to go nuclear on Bills and Smith, sending out mailers attacking them as "Republican-supporting" (technically true, they did donate to a GOP candidate because that candidate had sworn off Dominion money) and "dark money billionaires" (technically untrue but the gist is much closer to reality than before), and going so far as to say that Pamela Montgomery "isn't a Democrat", in over $60,000 worth of attacks, combined with another $20,000 from House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn’s personal PAC, and more moderate local officials have come out swinging against Bills and Smith. 

What’s at stake here is the role of Bills, Smith, and Clean VA in the party. For years, they’d been fighting to elect Democrats in general elections under the assumption that the party would reward them by moving forward on their environmentalist, anti-Dominion policy priorities. But after two years of Democratic government in Richmond, they obviously feel like they did not get their money’s worth, and have now begun targeting primaries more heavily, including two challenges to incumbents in the House and Jennifer Carroll Foy’s gubernatorial bid against Terry McAuliffe, who is now being treated as a quasi-incumbent. This is a turf war, and while hedge fund money and progressive candidates are an odd pairing, Pamela Montgomery would be out of her mind to turn it down; the House Democratic Caucus, along with the Black Caucus and a handful of state senators who are also financing King’s reelection bid, may be messaging against Bills and Smith as wealthy outside donors trying to buy legislators, but most powerful Democrats in Virginia take tons of corporate, Republican-supporting cash. Virginia Democrats aren’t actually mad about the influence of wealthy donors; they just don't want to be next. Protecting useless incumbents is worth it if the standard they were targeted over in the first place is one you or your allies don't meet yourself.

HD-31

Southern Prince William County and rural Fauquier County 

Elizabeth Guzmán (i) vs. Rod Hall vs. Idris O’Connor vs. Kara Pitek

Elizabeth Guzmán, who made it to the State House in 2017 with the backing of Our Revolution and co-chaired Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign in Virginia, is one of the most reliably progressive members of the body, and was, for a few months, also seemingly leaving the body to run for Lt. Governor. She now claims her remarks were misconstrued and she always intended to run for reelection, but regardless, she attracted three challengers in that time, and eventually dropped the LG bid anyway. Only one of these challengers, Rod Hall, really stands a chance. He's supported by Congressman Bobby Scott (which he points out as often as possible) and most of the state's Black legislators, many of whom endorsed after Guzmán announced her reelection bid. He's also getting support from Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney's One Richmond PAC, and, by proxy, Dominion Energy. Kara Pitek is an unremarkable liberal who's raised at least a bit of money, and Idris O'Connor was the progressive alternative to Hall and Pitek who never got that much traction; he just didn't drop out when Guzmán came back. Guzmán hasn't had an easy time this cycle, but the presence of three challengers means her odds of a third term are looking very good. Hall hasn't even gone negative, which could mean a lot of things; one thing it could mean is that he’s accepted he’s unlikely to win this year, and would rather not limit his chances of winning another office down the road.

HD-34

Langley, west along the Potomac to Potomac Falls

Kathleen Murphy (i) vs. Jennifer Adeli

This district may currently be blue beyond any doubt, but it was drawn back in 2011 to reelect then-delegate Barbara Comstock, which it did. Kathleen Murphy only wrested this seat from the GOP by a few hundred votes in 2015, and unfortunately she's still living in that era. Her needless centrism is now contested with Jennifer Adeli, who is running as self-described progressive, focusing on income inequality and taking on Dominion (who Murphy has accepted money from). Murphy is mostly fearmongering about Adeli somehow losing this seat if she's the nominee; this will not happen, because Republicans have practically gone extinct in this part of Northern Virginia faster than in almost anywhere in the country.  This could have been a more interesting race if Adeli, who, to be fair, has picked up some endorsements and is doing a good job with what she has, had managed to raise a competitive amount of money.

HD-36

Reston

Ken Plum (i) vs. Mary Barthelson

This race is HD-34, just moreso. Plum has been around longer and is more of a moderate than Murphy, and Barthelson is more progressive than Adeli, but unfortunately has basically no money. If that race failed to really develop, then this one never got off the ground. It's a shame, because Plum should be quite vulnerable in the abstract, but it won't be happening this year.

HD-38

Inner Fairfax County

Kaye Kory (i) vs. Holly Hazard

This is an odd one. In the past we've had no love for Kaye Kory—not that she's terrible, but she's nothing special either, so in 2019, when she was challenged by a labor-backed progressive, he was the clear choice. Kory won that race, and seemed to understand the need to shore up her left flank, which she's done mostly with low-stakes endorsements (for instance, Sean Perryman for LG and Ibraheem Samirah for reelection in HD-86.) That isn't a lot, but it is at least something. Meanwhile, the challenger she faces, animal rights lawyer and nonprofit leader Holly Hazard, has run a mostly non-ideological campaign, which generally doesn't presage great things for candidates once they reach office. Indeed, FEC records show she supported both Elizabeth Warren and Deval Patrick for president, so who knows what she wants out of government, really. Kory is the wide favorite in this race, even though Hazard was able to scrape together 6 figures for her campaign, and the tension is lessened by how it seems like Hazard would be a mostly a lateral move from Kory. (Hazard has signed some progressive campaign pledges, while Kory hasn’t, so she would probably be at least a slight upgrade.)

HD-45

Eastern Alexandria

Mark Levine (i) vs. Alexandria Vice Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker

While technically true, it feels generous to say that Mark Levine is running for Lt. Governor and reelection to the House simultaneously. Levine is very clearly running for LG, but has effectively shuttered his reelection campaign. He has not registered any campaign expenses since paying for ballot access in March. It’s not clear if he’s tired of the House and doesn’t care if he’s reelected, or if he actually thinks he’s too popular to lose—historically a bad bet to make. His opponent is Alexandria City Councilor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, which seems like a missed opportunity for progressives. Bennett-Parker is one of the more moderate members of the Council, and during a local fight that eventually spilled into national headlines over whether to allow a halal butcher’s market in Alexandria, she was one of only two members to stand with the well-off NIMBY opposition and vote against the permit in the end. More promisingly, she stood by her chief of staff Cassidy Ketchem after Ketchem got arrested at a BLM protest last summer. The candidates agree they are similar on policy, and this race has mostly come down to how people feel about Levine, known for a confrontational style. He has House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn backing him, but there’s been nothing close to the statewide effort for mobilization of electeds that Kaye Kory inspired this year. Levine’s decision to not bother with any race other than LG makes Bennett-Parker a favorite here, but the district could shrug either into office.

HD-49

Southeastern Arlington

Alfonso Lopez (i) vs. Karishma Mehta

Alfonso Lopez, the House Majority Whip, isn’t a moderate, but while he may vote the right way, he often does little more, and until recently he was profiting from ICE detention facilities. He’s just one of many subpar members of the General Assembly; it’s his opponent who really makes this race worth watching. Karishma Mehta, a preschool teacher and community organizer, is the one candidate in the state the left is really going all in for. She has support from Sunrise, DSA, Our Revolution, and Progressive Democrats of America, giving her a small volunteer army in addition to the $120,000 she’s raised for this race—a lot for a challenger who doesn’t self-fund or have access to any of the state’s mega-donors. Despite that, observers are expecting a Lopez win, and by a comfortable margin; his general demeanor during this race, avoiding going negative and focusing on experience suggests a confident politician. We buy that he’s favored, but we’re not sold on it being a knockout margin. 

HD-50

Manassas and Linton Hall

Lee Carter (i) vs. Michelle Maldonado vs. Helen Zurita

This race bears some obvious similarities to HD-31 and HD-45 above. Lee Carter is running for both governor and reelection, which has inspired a pair of challengers to jump in against him. Unlike Levine, Carter has the sense to run an active campaign for Delegate, even if it is just a skeleton crew. His main opponent is small business owner Michelle Maldonado, who is clearly running to Carter’s right. (That’s not difficult, though, because Carter is an avowed socialist.) Helen Zurita, a local business owner known for her efforts to prevent a local trailer park from eviction, is also running. While Carter is far from a strong incumbent, he’s going to be aided by a split field of opponents, neither of whom raised much money ($56,000 for Maldonado and $7,000 for Zurita) and who have been able to do little advertising or in-person campaigning, while Carter benefits from the name recognition of running competitive primary and general election campaigns in both 2017 and 2019.

HD-68

Parts of Richmond and western suburbs

Dawn Adams (i) vs. Kyle Elliott

Dawn Adams was first elected in the suburban Dem wave in 2017, and would very much like to have the quiet, safe career many of her suburban colleagues have quickly settled into. However, she weathered a scandal in 2019, and she’s been sticking out as unnecessarily moderate for a long time, including the absolutely appalling decision to back off of supporting a bill to expand abortion rights after a right-wing backlash. Her opponent, Kyle Elliott, has backing from a lot of the Richmond establishment, which isn’t normally a good sign, but he can at least be expected to toe the party line. This is one of the most closely contested races in the state, with both sides spending well over $200,000, and a result that’s totally up in the air.

HD-71

Downtown Richmond

Jeff Bourne (i) vs. Richard Walker

Boring establishment type Jeff Bourne is being challenged from the left by Richard Walker, who runs a nonprofit to help the formerly incarcerated. Unfortunately, Walker never really got his campaign off the ground, and Bourne is set to win by a considerable amount.

HD-74

Northern Richmond suburbs

Lamont Bagby (i) vs. John Dantzler 

It’s unclear if he’s actually dropped out, but John Dantzler, who has no money, a website that’s no longer online, and no campaign to speak of, will not be putting up much of a challenge to Lamont Bagby.

HD-79

Parts of Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake

Steve Heretick (i) vs. Nadarius Clark vs. Dante' Walston

Welcome to the purest Dominion vs. Clean VA election in the state. Steve Heretick is an old white guy who represents a district that has what is likely a newly majority-Black primary electorate after redistricting, and he’s facing Nadarius Clark, a young, Black community organizer. Heretick, a self-described moderate who unseated an incumbent in a primary in 2015, immediately earned notice for breaking from the party on important votes, and has since pissed off a lot of important members of the House, most notably when he publicly came out in favor of the Repulican redistricting plan for his district. He’s also been shockingly and singularly pro-Dominion, which is probably why Bills and Smith have gone all-in on Clark, to the tune of over $500,000, almost all of the money Clark’s raised. Dominion, recognizing a threat to their Democratic emissary, has dumped an unusually large $120,000 into Heretick’s campaign, an amount that’s been supplemented with thousands from other power companies. Heretick is really, really banking on a centrist maverick image (and incumbency) having potency in a Democratic primary. If you go to the Issues page on his website right now, the first two items are his support of the Republican redistricting bill and his desire to give police more money. He also couldn’t be bothered to run TV and radio ads until after Clark went up on the air with a six-figure TV buy; this is pretty subjective, but to us it seems like a frantic panic buy rather than much of an actual campaign strategy. Clark is running not just on his progressive policies, but also on his youth and his ability to better represent the district as a Black man; he has been quite open about having socialist views and is backed by Tidewater DSA, making this arguably the widest ideological contrast in the state.

Dante' Walston is a minor candidate who may play spoiler. Bizarrely, he has the support of the longshoreman's union.

HD-86

Oak Hill, Herndon, and Sterling

Ibraheem Samirah (i) vs. Irene Shin

Delegate Ibraheem Samirah is nominally in a similar position to Candi King in HD-02. He came to office in a special election with a very low turnout firehouse primary. Now he’s facing a well-funded primary challenger, Irene Shin, with an ideological angle in his first regular primary. The largest difference between the two races is that Samirah’s first election was over two years ago, not 6 months. He’s had an entire term to get the electorate acquainted with him, and he’s used it. The ideological angle is also reversed here. Samirah is one of the most progressive politicians in the state, while Shin is backed by a variety of moderates, including almost $120,000 (about half of what she’s raised) from Democratic Principles PAC, a mysterious PAC with money that is totally untraceable because whoever gave it to them did so after the most recent campaign finance deadline. The PAC’s only donor before this rce was Unite Virginia, which seeks to elect “pragmatic” candidates from “both parties”. Shin has outspent Samirah, and while challengers from the right very rarely succeed, never say never.

HD-89

Downtown Norfolk

Jay Jones (i) vs. Hannah Kinder

Jay Jones is running for AG and reelection. Like we said for that race, Jones isn’t particularly great; it just so happens that the issues he’s reliable on are also the issues an AG has control over. So there’s obviously room for improvement. Hannah Kinder, a young lefty, would be one, but she’s a white candidate in a majority-Black district who has raised only about $13,000, so she's going to lose pretty badly.

Charlottesville City Commonwealth’s Attorney

Joe Platania (i) vs. Ray Szwabowski

Joe Platania is a first-term incumbent who at least understands that he needs to have some reformist stances to have a career in the college town of Charlottesville, but he’s not much of a break from prosecutorial consensus (despite selling himself as one.) He’ll brag about not seeking felony drug possession convictions all that often, but of course the correct frequency to do that is never. Ray Szwabowski is running as a Krasner-esque progressive prosecutor, and has the support of a couple leftist city councilors.

Norfolk City Commonwealth’s Attorney

Ramin Fatehi vs. Amina Matheny-Willard vs. Megan Zwisohn

Norfolk is the latest front in George Soros’s fight to elect progressive prosecutors. At first glance, it’s odd that he’s supporting Ramin Fatehi, a drug prosecutor who also has the support of much of the Norfolk establishment, including Congressman Bobby Scott and the outgoing Commonwealth’s Attorney. It makes sense when you consider his foremost opponent is career prosecutor Megan Zwisohn (Fatehi, at least, was once a public defender), who has been attacking Fatehi for opposing mandatory minimum sentences. Amina Matheny-Willard is the most progressive candidate, but has raised basically no money.

Richmond City Commonwealth’s Attorney

Colette McEachin (i) vs. Tom Barbour

Colette McEachin, wife of Congressman DonMcEachin, was nominated without a primary for a special election for Commonwealth’s Attorney in 2019. While she does oppose the death penalty and cash bail in limited circumstances, her tenure has been fairly typical for a prosecutor. Progressive Tom Barbour is her only opponent. He’s been outraised badly and is facing an opponent supported by the entirety of Richmond’s establishment, but this is still a race to watch; if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s not to underestimate voters’ willingness to fire incumbent prosecutors in favor of reformers.