State Senate Race Full of 'Smear Tactics' and 'Flat-Out Lies'

Barbara Favola will not resign from the Arlington County Board over campaign contributions.

Jaime Areizaga-Soto will not release his client list from when he was practicing law in the private sector.

Those responses, provided by the candidates’ respective campaign managers, illustrate the kind of race that’s devolved in the state’s 31st Senate District.

They cap a week that saw each camp launch a “truth” site about their opponent: The Truth About Jaime Areizaga-Soto and The Truth About Barbara Favola.

Areizaga-Soto paints Favola as someone whose vote is for sale, whose ambition eclipses an informal policy among county board members.

Favola labels her opponent as someone who has helped lay oil pipelines to destroy the environment, someone who has profited from ventures that resulted in oil spills.

The tone of the race has surprised some political observers, angered others and left party leaders eager to reunify everyone on Aug. 24, the day after the primary contest.

The Favola camp, after spending several weeks reacting to attacks, went on the offensive this week and launched the first “truth” site.

“Jaime Areizaga-Soto worked for international developers and oil companies, including one of the world’s biggest polluters,” the site proclaims.

A blurred page from Areizaga-Soto’s resume follows, highlighting his work for the Hogan & Hartson law firm from 1996 to 1999, and the Clifford Chance firm from 1999 to 2007.

Areizaga-Soto confirmed that the page looked like it was taken from his three-page resume, likely an older version. The first and last pages are not on the website.

“These are smear tactics. She doesn’t even have the facts right,” Areizaga-Soto said in a phone interview.

Areizaga-Soto, now an attorney in the U.S. Army National Guard’s JAG Corps, said his work at Hogan & Hartson was as a “junior associate,” a position that demanded a lot of paperwork but “minimal” work on any major project.

When asked about Clifford Chance, he talked about how gas-fired electricity generation is “the cleanest way to burn fuel” and said his time there included “no pipeline work.”

“I had no decision-making role in those cases,” he said. “In her $2,500 (Advanced Towing) donation, she had a decision-making role.”

That donation was given to Favola a few days before a 3-2 vote in April to increase the maximum allowed towing fees by $10 in most cases (and an increase of $250 for heavy loads).

Areizaga-Soto has called on Favola to resign over the matter. His campaign has yet to provide Patch with a full, updated resume.

Favola’s campaign manager, Adam Scott, said that the vote on towing fees followed the recommendation of an advisory committee made up of area residents.

Areizaga-Soto’s “truth” site about Favola repeats past attacks for accepting contributions from developers Preston Caruthers, who also has given to Republican candidates – including Gov. Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli – and John Shooshan, who has done business before the county in the past.

The Arlington County Code of Ethics requires employees to “Ensure that no favors, gifts, gratuities or benefits are received for actions taken.” Favola and others have also talked about an “informal” policy among board members not to accept contributions from developers.

“It’s all sorts of nonsense,” Favola said in an interview earlier this month. “The money from John Shooshan, his project was approved in July 2008, and the money came in in 2011, so there’s hardly a link. He’s a property owner in the county, a green developer. So, I didn’t sell my vote.”

Favola said she and Shooshan worked together for several years on an initiative to combat homelessness. She said she’s not aware of any business Shooshan has before the Arlington County board before November, but if he does, “I would likely recuse myself.”

Favola called Caruthers “a longtime property owner, builder and philanthropist” who has given to members of both major political parties. She also pointed out that he gave $100,000 to the Arlington Planetarium.

“I don’t query… I have to work with a lot of people, and I have to cross the aisles. And I don’t query everybody who has given me money,” Favola told Patch.

“And I can assure you, there are people – more than just this guy – who have given to both Democrats and Republicans, and they’re on my donor list. Oftentimes, many smart people do. But to imply that I have the same agenda as McDonnell and Cuccinelli is a flat-out lie.”

Areizaga-Soto’s campaign has also been critical of a vote by Favola to increase county board member pay.

There have been several such votes over the years. The salary of county board members has gone from about $26,000 in 2000 to a maximum of about $57,000 through 2015, and slightly more for the chairman. Favola’s salary is $49,000. Board members are considered part-time employees, though most of them work more than 40 hours per week, a county spokeswoman said.

“It’s all public record,” said Scott, Favola’s campaign manager. “That’s the biggest contrast between these two candidates. Everything Barbara’s done, the contributions she’s received, is public record. It’s time for Jaime to come forward with the clients he represented and the projects that he worked on.”

Meghan Simpson, Areizaga-Soto’s campaign manager, shot back in an email: “When Barbara releases a detailed list of what she has been doing over the last 20 years, with whom and for whom, including the circumstances in which she left her federal position at Health and Human Services, Jaime will release the clients he has worked with in which he is not bound by confidentiality.”

This post has been modified for clarification.