To the editor: I am a Democrat through and through, but I confess I wasn’t paying attention to the Arlington commonwealth’s attorney’s Democratic primary race until I received a full-color advertisement in the mail from incumbent Parisa Dehghani-Tafti that made me question her honesty, ethics and judgment.
It also prompted me to research her opponent, Josh Katcher.
In the mailer, Dehghani-Tafti claimed that “over 25% of Josh Katcher’s donations are coming from donors to Trump, Youngkin and other MAGA Extremists.” I was skeptical. How did she come up with that figure, did it mean anything, and was it even true?
Dehghani-Tafti cited the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) as her source, so I went there. I examined the list of Katcher’s 300 donors – person-by-person, donation-by-donation – and found only 20 donors (less than 7% of the total) contributed to Virginia politicians who could fit Dehghani-Tafti’s criteria. (Contrary to her assertion, donations to Trump were not included in the VPAP data.)
I concluded that the only way Dehghani-Tafti could claim that 25 percent of Katcher’s donors support MAGA extremists is if she decided to label all Republicans as MAGA extremists.
Using ludicrous reasoning and dishonest tactics, she appears to be trying to paint Katcher as a pawn of the right wing. I wonder if her supporters approve of this.
I voted for Dehghani-Tafti last time. I won’t be doing so again, now that she has revealed more about her character.
Carol Caviezel Pardon, Arlington
