Seven candidates on ballot in Democratic primary June 10

Candidate Mark Levine greets a voter at a Fairfax County Democratic Committee gathering in Annandale.

There will be Democratic primary in the 8th Congressional District Tuesday, June 10, to elect a candidate to fill the seat being vacated by Rep. Jim Moran, who is retiring.

Seven candidates are running in the primary. The winner will go up against the Republican candidate Micah Edmond, selected at a nominating convention in April, Libertarian candidate Jeffrey Carson, and independent candidate Gwendolyn Beck in November. Edmond is a Marine veteran, former congressional staffer, and holds a senior position at the Aerospace Industries Association. 

The 8th Congressional District stretches from McLean to Woodbridge and includes Arlington, Alexandria, and the eastern edge of Fairfax County. Part of Mason District is in the 8th District, including these precincts, with the voting location in parentheses:

• Baileys (Bailey’s Community Center)
• Brook Hill (Poe Middle School)
• Edsall (St. John’s United Methodist Church)
• Glen Forest (Glen Forest Elementary School)
• Holmes (Bailey’s Elementary School)
• Lincolnia (Green Spring Gardens)
• Parklawn (Parklawn Elementary School)
• Plaza (Skyline Plaza Residential Towers)
• Poe (Thomas Jefferson High School)
• Saint Albans (St. Albans Church)
• Walnut Hill (Alan Leis Center)
• Westlawn (Westlawn Elementary School)
• Weyanoke (Holmes Middle School)
• Willston (Willston Center)

Click here to see if you’re in the 8th District and here to see what forms of ID are required. The polls are open 6 a.m.-7 p.m.

The candidates on the Democratic primary ballot are:

Don Beyer—Owner of nine car dealerships in Northern Virginia, former lieutenant governor of Virginia (1990-98), and recently served in President Obama’s administration as ambassador to Switzerland. He was the Virginia chair of the Clinton-Gore and Kerry-Edwards presidential campaigns. Beyer is the most well-known and has the deepest pockets among the candidates and is thus given the edge to win the primary.

Lavern Chatman—President and CEO of the Northern Virginia Urban League and founder with her late husband of the Chatman Fund at the Northern Virginia Community Foundation to support needy children.

On the plus side, Chatman snagged Oprah Winfey to appear at a campaign event. On the negative side, however, she and co-defendant Roy Littlejohn were found by the D.C. Court of Appeals in 2003 to be “engaged in a civil conspiracy to defraud.” The case involved their failure to pay the employees of a nursing home $1.4 million in wages.

Adam Ebbin—Elected to the Virginia Senate in 2011, representing the 30th District after serving eight years in the House of Delegates.

As the co-chair of the General Assembly’s Progressive Caucus, Ebbin has a strong record on clean energy, mass transit, ending discrimination in state employment, and justice for exploited workers and victims of human trafficking. He was the first openly gay member of the Virginia General Assembly. He has the endorsement of NOVA NORML.

Bill Euille—Mayor of Alexandria since 2003, where his accomplishments include the first mixed-income housing development and the first living wage law in Northern Virginia. His priorities as mayor include preschool access for every child and affordable housing.

Before he was mayor, Euille was on the Alexandria School Board and City Council and ran a contracting company. He was named “Small Business Person of the Year” by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Patrick Hope—Represents the 47th District in the Virginia House of Delegates where he founded and co-chairs the Virginia Progressive Caucus.

His legislative goals in the General Assembly include full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, creating jobs, strengthening the infrastructure and education system and “fighting back against the radical Republicans that want to adopt the failed social and economic policies of the past.” Before being elected to the House of Delegates, Hope chaired the Arlington Community Services Board.

Derek Hyra—The least known of the candidates is an expert on housing and community development but doesn’t have much experience in other areas.

Hyra has served as chair of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, member of the Alexandria Planning Commission, and in the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was appointed by President Obama to the U.S. Small Business Administration Council on Underserved Communities.

Mark Levine—the “aggressive progressive” was chief legislative counsel to former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and has been an activist in support of civil rights, marriage equality, and regulating institutional child abuse. He is a nationally syndicated radio host known for exposing injustice and corporate malfeasance.

Three former candidates withdrew after the ballots were printed—Charnielle Herring, Satish Korpe, and Bruce Shuttleworth—so their names are still on the ballot.