Out of State Donations Give de Ferranti the Edge Over His Opponents

Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting, October 15, 2022.

In recent columns Sun Gazette editor Scott McCaffrey has given the nod to incumbent Matt de Ferranti for County Board even though McCaffrey has been increasingly critical of the direction of County Board.

Scott disses de Ferranti’s opponents, including Yours Truly with whom he does agree on Missing Middle, because the $21,000 I’ve raised to date is not enough to beat de Ferranti, who has reported total receipts in 2022 of over $69,000.

Here is a taste of some of McCaffrey’s jaded commentary:

“Challenger-for-life Audrey Clement finally has an issue on which she can pile up some votes (she’s against Missing Middle, as are an increasing number of Arlingtonians). But as always, she refuses to build a campaign infrastructure or raise the funds to actually get her message out to those voters. For her, 2022 will go down as a wasted opportunity.”

Yet about $50,000 of de Ferranti’s large donor take is from people and organizations from out of the county, most from out of state, including $13,500 from construction trade unions destined to benefit from the Missing Middle building boom. If the donations from those with no vested interest in the county were subtracted from de Ferranti’s haul, his receipts would shrink to $19,000, and the election would be much more competitive.

Not only does McCaffrey ignore the bad odor of buying elections with out of state donations, he insists for all practical purposes that that is the only way for an independent to get an Sun Gazette endorsement. The question is why McCaffrey is holding independent candidates to such a corrupt standard.