Jaime Areizaga-Soto Calls on His Supporters to Work for Barbara Favola

With yesterday being primary day, the big focus of discussion in among activists is how quickly the party can come together. This is especially important this year as the primaries were held several months later than usual because of redistricting, so we only have a little over two months until the general election. Perhaps no place is that more apparent then in the 31st Senate District where Jaime Areizaga-Soto lost a hotly contest primary to Barbara Favola. The negative campaigning used by both camps and the decision of some party leaders to push anybody who wanted to run besides Barbara out of the race early, after all, caused a lot of bitterness during the campaign,

Now that the primary is over, however, Jaime is stepping up to the plate and calling on all of his supporters to do whatever they can to support Barbara in the general. Here's what he sent out on facebook earlier today:

I want to thank all my great supporters, volunteers and team for a great campaign. We ran an energetic, grassroots, progressive campaign. I'm proud of the work we did. I now join all my fellow Democrats in working for a strong Democratic victory in the 31st Senate District and throughout the Commonwealth in the November election. I call on all my supporters to work for a Barbara Favola victory in November.

With that being said, it'll be interesting to see what happens in this race moving forward. Obviously it helps that Jaime has at least put out a statement calling on his "supporters to work for a Barbara Favola victory," but Barbara will need to really step it up if she wants to get a lot of the grassroots supporters to really do the work necessary for her campaign. That's going to be hard after she clearly pissed off a lot of them by doing things like telling a potential consituent (who also happens to be one of the most popular bloggers in Virginia) that Jaime couldn't win because he's Latino. Since the redistricting process turned the 31st from a solidly blue district to one that could potentially be won by a Republican, she'll really need Jaime's supporters to help get people out to the polls so I hope she does reach out to them soon.