It looks like the race to succeed Del. Al Eisenberg (D-47th) is starting to firm up. According to the Arlington Connection, three people who had been considering running - Ted Bilich, Alfonso Lopez, and Mike McCarthy - are now "wavering" or outright saying they're not running. If Alfonso Lopez -- Gov. Kaine's top legislative liaison on Capitol Hill -- doesn't run, that would be the most surprising (at least to me) of the three mentioned by the Connection. For starters, I had assumed - as had many Arlington political activists and insiders - that Lopez was simply waiting for the end of the Virginia legislative session to announce his candidacy. Also, at the last meeting of the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC), Lopez told me point blank that he was running and that he had moved into the 47th district months earlier. Anyway, we'll see what happens, but right now, it looks like the candidates to succeed Al Eisenberg are:
*Miles Grant
*Patrick Hope
*Adam Parkhomenko
*Andres Tobar
*Alan Howze
I've been talking to people about this race and will have a full analysis in the next few days. I've also got questionnaires out to all the candidates and have heard back affirmatively from four of the five (guess which one I haven't heard anything from).
