State. Sen. Barbara Favola appeared to be having no difficulty in beating back an intra-party challenge.
Favola, first elected to the Senate in 2011 after serving a dozen years on the Arlington County Board, was being challenged for the new 40th Senate District in the Democratic primary by James DeVita, an attorney who seemed to tack slightly to the left of the incumbent on many issues.
But the race seemed never much in doubt; Favola throughout her political career has tended to roll over opposition, and DeVita never was unable to build much grass-roots support.
The new 40th Senate District includes most of Arlington; the remainder of the county is part of the 39th Senate District. There, incumbent Sen. Adam Ebbin did not face a primary challenge.
Favola’s new, compact district is a far cry from her previous Senate district, which sprawled from Arlington all the way into the northeast corner of Loudoun County, incorporating Great Falls and parts of McLean along the way. Her new district has no precincts outside Arlington.
