Friday, Oct. 23 (2 p.m. EDT) — The City of Falls Church’s Commissioner of the Revenue Tom Clinton denounced the “zealous,” “disrespectful,” “outright hostility” exhibited at Wednesday night’s candidate forum hosted by the Falls Church League of Women Voters at the Community Center.

Clinton wrote in an email to colleagues, “I don’t know if it was indicative of the new direction of the Republican Party and that was how they want to represent themselves going forward, or whether it was mostly outside zealous and disrespectful supporters of Chris Merola who came to Falls Church City to cause trouble and not really debate the issues. I saw many long-standing City Republicans there, as well, and they did nothing to try to maintain civility. I’m not convinced that outright hostility in our political process is going to solve any of our challenging problems.” Clinton added, “If this is the kind of people that support Chris Merola (against incumbent Democratic State Del. Jim Scott–ed.), and he condones their behavior by hurling false accusations, himself, and further instigates their behavior, then the community he is trying to represent should be put on high alert and not take this election lightly. Mr. Merola readily admitted that he moved into the 53rd District in March of 2009.”