Today is primary election day in Virginia (polls are open from 6 am to 7 pm; vote at your regular polling location). There are hot races all over the state, so make sure your voice is heard! With that…what are you seeing and hearing out there? What’s turnout like in your neck of the woods? Who did you vote for and why? Feel free to add your observations in the comments section.

UPDATE 6:43 pm: The Bull Elephant (TBE) reports: “It’s looking like commuters are engaging when they are getting home, or the election day knock-and-drag efforts of the Howell campaign have paid off (or both), but turnout looks to end pretty high in the 28th district…That is likely welcome news in the Howell camp.” Also TBE thinks that Sen. “Emmett Hanger’s folks think he has it in the bag” and that “Amanda Chase is reportedly far outstripping incumbent Sen. Steve Martin in terms of working the polls and election day operations, making this upset seem increasingly likely.”

UPDATE 4:19 pm: The Richmond Times-Dispatch has some info: “In Henrico, about 3.5 percent of registered voters had cast ballots in races that included the 12th Senate District Republican primary, the 74th House District Democratic primary, and countywide Republican primary elections for commonwealth’s attorney and clerk of the circuit court;” “In the Chesterfield precincts of the 10th District, fewer than 2,500 people had voted in the Democratic primary, or about 3.4 percent of registered voters;” etc.

UPDATE 2:20 pm: In Mason District (Fairfax County) about 2 hours ago, Holmes #1 precinct was at 20 voters and Holmes #2 wa at 98 voters. 1 hour ago, Walnut Hill preinct was at 97 voters. I hear these are mostly older folks, likely Penny Gross supporters. I’m also hearing there’s strong turnout at Dan Storck’s home precinct in Mt. Vernon district.

UPDATE 1:19 pm: At 12:45 pm, 164 people had voted in Fairlington precinct in Arlington (for comparison purposes, 249 voted in the 2013 Democratic LG primary in that precinct). Also, at 12:15 pm, 70 people had voted in Jefferson precinct in Arlington (for comparison purposes, 161 voted in the 2013 Dem LG primary in that precinct).

UPDATE 11:09 am: Just heard that Salisbury precinct in Chesterfield County has had 53 voters. That’s a very wealthy, very Republican, big precinct in Senate District 10. I also hear that Manassas Park has had only about 32 people come vote.

UPDATE 11:06 am: Just saw this on the Bull Elephant blog. “10:55 AM – Ridiculously low turnout in Prince William. Belmont precinct (House District 2) reports 10 voters as of a few minutes ago.” Also, “8:10 AM – Relatively low turnout so far in Stafford.”

UPDATE 9:50 am: I just voted ten minutes ago, was #39 at Virginia Square in Arlington. Pathetic. Also, there was not a soul there from any campaign to greet voters. I think that’s the first time in all my years of voting in Arlington that I’ve seen that…

The following list isn’t comprehensive, but here are a few of my picks for tomorrow’s Democratic primaries. Whatever you do, make sure you excercise your precious right as an American citizen to vote! Also, keep in mind that your vote matters a LOT more, relatively speaking, in primaries, and that in most of these cases, the winner of the primary will also win the general election, so tomorrow is actually a much more important election day than in November in many cases.

House District 44 (Mt. Vernon): Paul Krizek. A great guy who will be a superb, progressive delegate replacing Scott Surovell, who is running for State Senate. See Blue Virginia 44th HoD Democratic Candidate Interviews: Paul Krizek for more.

House District 45 (parts of Alexandria and south Arlington): Craig Fifer. See My Pick in the 45th House of Delegates District: Craig Fifer for my thinking on this one.

House District 63 (Parts of Petersburg City, Dinwiddie County, Chesterfield County, Prince George County, Hopewell City): Lashrecse Aird, who I’ve heard great things about from people I respect, and also from people who know Aird and the 63rd district.

House District 74 (Parts of Henrico County, Charles City County, Richmond City): Not excited about any of these candidates, but most definitely NOT  Rev. Leonidas B. “Lee” Young, who is “the personal pastor and close friend of Morrissey, who supports Young’s bid to succeed him.”

House District 79 (Parts of Portsmouth City, Norfolk City): Steve Heretick. A no brainer over the godawful, Tea Party-supported “Democrat” Johnny Joannou.

Senate District 10 (Parts of Chesterfield County, Richmond City and Powhatan County): Emily Francis. See My Pick in the 10th State Senate District: Emily Francis for more on why you should vote for her tomorrow.

Senate District 16 (Parts of Richmond City, Chesterfield County, Petersburg City, Hopewell City, Prince George County, Dinwiddie County): Rosalyn Dance. An easy choice over this guy.

Senate District 29 (Parts of Prince William County, Manassas City, Manassas Park City): Atif Qarni. Click here for some video of Atif and others supporting him.

Arlington County Board: Peter Fallon. See my endorsement of Peter Fallon here (for my second choice, I’m leaning towards Andrew Schneider, but also like Katie Cristol and Christian Dorsey).

Alexandria Mayor: Got me – none of the above?

Mason District (Fairfax County) Supervisor: I haven’t heard a compelling case for booting incumbent Penny Gross out of office.

Mt. Vernon District (Fairfax County) Supervisor: Undecided, but if it really is coming down to either Dan “Anti-Vaxxer Dude” Storck or Tim “Dominion Dude” Sargeant, I’d probably hold my nose very tight and vote for Storck. Ugh.

Potomac Supervisor: Don’t know enough to pick between Andrea Bailey and Derrick Wood for this one.

The following videos are of the three Arlington County Board candidates (Peter Fallon, Andrew Schneider, Christian Dorsey) who spoke at today’s campaign kickoff/ice cream social for Del. Patrick Hope. One other candidate Katie Cristol attended but left before the speeches to resume door knocking. The other two candidates James Lander and Bruce Wiljanen were not there. Just over 48 hours to go until the polls close on Tuesday evening…make sure you vote!

P.S. I’ve endorsed one candidate in this race – Peter Fallon (see here for the endorsement) – and am leaning towards Andrew Schneider for my second vote (although I like both Katie Cristol and Christian Dorsey, so this is a tough one).

Del. Johnny Joannou is the worst member of the Virginia General Assembly who actually uses the label “Democrat” by his name. Among other things, as this website points out, Joannou received a 90% score on the Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation House of Delegates scorecard for 2014; he voted AGAINST Medicaid expansion (!); he voted to kill a bill to add sexual orientation to Virginia’s hate crime list; and he received an “F” grade from the Sierra Club for 2015. And the latest? The Portsmouth Tea Party is urging its far-right-wing whactivists to “threw (sic) a monkey wrench into the democrats (sic) efforts to oust Johnny Joannou.” Now, can everyone in the 79th district (Norfolk, Portsmouth) PLEASE vote for real Democrat Steve Heretick on Tuesday? Thanks.

Back in 2011, in the midst of a heated Democratic primary between Barbara Favola and the person I supported, Jaime Areizaga-Soto, I wrote about two ethically questionable moves by Favola: 1. Barbara Favola Gets $2.5k Donation, Votes 5 Days Later to Give Towing Industry $250k More per Year and Major Developer John Shooshan Is Now Chair of Barbara Favola’s Fundraising Committee?!? At the time, in the midst of a heated primary, I probably went too far in attacking Favola over these ethical issues, for one main reason: sad to day, but what Favola did was no worse, in a state with unlimited corporate giving and basically no ethics laws to speak of, than many others. So why single her out, per se? Also, arguably, what Favola did was minor compared to the breathtakingly unethical behavior we see (or don’t see, thanks to lack of media coverage and “sunshine” generally) on a continual basis here in Virginia. So yeah, I was probably too harsh on Favola, as she didn’t do anything that most Virginia politicians do. If, in other words, Favola was unfit for public office as a result of taking donations from real estate and other interests with business before the Arlington County Board, then juts about every member of the General Assmebly and other local County Boards is similarly unfit for public office.

All of which brings us to today’s excellent Washington Post piece by Patricia Sullivan, one of the few Washington Post Virginia political reporters (along with Jenna Portnoy) who I truly respect. The article focuses on donations to Alexandria Mayoral candidate Bill Euille and Kerry Donley, with a few key lines leaping out at me:

*The worst line, which really should be disqualifying for Bill Euille: “Euille, who has worked most of his life in construction and contracting, said he’s not bothered by taking money from developers who may do business with the city. Among his donors are Douglas Jemal of Douglas Development Corp., which has 10 properties in Old Town; Alexandria North Terminal, which is developing a waterfront property; and various executives from JBG, part of a group of firms redeveloping the Beauregard area.” Sorry, but that’s wildly unethical, possibly even disqualifying, and even if Euille wants to make the argument that “everyone does it,” at the minimum he should acknowledge that it’s wildly wrong from an ethical, good government perspective, even if it happens to be technically “legal” in good ol’ “legalized corruption” Virginia. Still, for anyone thinking of voting Bill Euille on Tuesday, I’d present this as Exhibit A regarding why you should seriously, seriously think about not doing that.

*As for Kerry Donley, he’s not a lot better: “Donley, who is a banker, received contributions from a dozen people in the real estate business, 11 from developers and two from the construction or contracting world. His biggest donors were $5,000 each from Land of Opportunity and Perpetual Realty East, another Hoffman family affiliate.”

By the way, if you check out VPAP, what you’ll find is that Bill Euille has received $63,555 over the years from “Real Estate/Construction” – his top donor category by far, while Kerry Donley has has received $13,900 from “Real Estate/Constrution” – his top donor category as well. As for Allison Silberberg, her top contributions have come from “Public Employees” and “Political” (herself and Don Beyer, basically). Now, this is not to say I’d be voting for Silberberg if I lived in Alexandria, or that I’m endorsing her, simply to point out that she appears to have a LOT fewer conflicts of interest and ethical quandaries than her opponents Euille and Donley. Of course, Euille and Donely might very well be better in other ways than Silberberg, and that’s for the voters of Alexandria to decide. However, when it comes to taking money from wealthy, powerful interests with business before the Alexandria government, Bill Euille clocks in in the top slot, followed by Kerry Donley, with Allison Silberberg left in the dust.

And again, the most disturbing part of the Post article for me was Euille’s blithe comment that he’s “not bothered by taking money from developers who may do business with the city.” Sorry, but even if you feel like you HAVE to take that money, you still should be bothered by it, as it at the minimum create the apparance of possible impropriety, and at the maximum is a lot worse than that. Personally, I’m not sure I could ever vote for someone who doesn’t understand that basic point.