Nov. 3 marks the voting day for general and special elections in Virginia.

The largest race is the senatorial race between democrat Mark Warner, republican Ed Gillespie and libertarian Robert Sarvis. Warner is the current senator and incumbent. Gillespie, although having held less major office positions than Warner, has been influential in Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist. Sarvis ran last year for governor, and is one of Jefferson’s alumni.

As with any campaign, there are many negative advertisements going around about each of the candidates and positive ones about themselves. Although Warner is generally well liked in Virginia, the attacks against him are varied and extreme about any small issue that can be found.

Some of the attacks against Warner include using taxpayer’s money for flights and having pro-gun views despite being a democrat. Although these ads are reasonable, the way political ads are portrayed is always extreme and contradicting. Anti-Warner campaigners complain that Warner is not really democratic due to his pro-gun beliefs, but that he is Obama’s puppet and agrees with all of his democratic views, a clearly conflicting and illogical argument.

Another race that I’ve heard much about through commercials and advertisements on the radio and television is the tenth District House of Representatives race. Although there are five candidates in the running, republican Barbara Comstock, democrat John Foust, libertarian William Redpath, independent Dianne Blais and independent Brad Eickholt, the only ads I have heard or seen are those against Comstock and Foust.

Even before following the campaign, I had already heard so much criticism against both of the candidates. Comstock, who was our state representative, holds very republican views. Many attacks against Comstock compares her views to tea party views and that she doesn’t believe in women’s rights. Ads against Foust erupted when he was caught saying that Comstock had never had a real job, despite her being a working mother.

Foust did not have the right to say that Comstock never had a real job, due to her heavy political background, consisting of being an international law firm attorney, Department of Justice spokesperson and aide to congressman Frank Wolf. Even so, his words were twisted in campaigns to make it seem like he was being sexist towards saying being a mother was not a real job. Clearly, that was not Foust’s intent, even if he overlooked some key jobs in Comstock’s life.

In general, political advertisements are necessary for the publicity of candidates before political elections such as the ones happening on Nov. 3. Even so, many campaigners make their ads too extreme and tend to twist the words of candidates to put them in a more negative light than necessary.