Posted on 11/04/2009 4:57:30 AM PST by freespirited
RICHMOND, Va. - Republicans gained at least four seats Tuesday to strengthen their grip on the House of Delegates, but lost an influential delegate who has been embroiled in a scandal.
Aided by a Republican sweep of the top three statewide offices, the GOP knocked off at least six Democratic House incumbents. The defeat of Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, and a Democratic win in an open seat formerly held by a Republican put the GOP's net gain at four with a couple of close races still to be decided.
Hamilton, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, lost to Democrat Robin Abbott. Hamilton is the subject of investigations by a House ethics panel and a federal grand jury into allegations that he arranged a $40,000-a-year job for himself at Old Dominion University as he steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in appropriations to the Norfolk school.
Democrats also won the seat vacated by former state GOP chairman Jeff Frederick when Luke Torian defeated Rafael Lopez in Prince William County.
But the GOP more than made up for those losses, particularly in northern Virginia. Three Democratic incumbents in Fairfax County lost. James M. LeMunyon beat Chuck Caputo, Richard Anderson ousted Paul F. Nichols and Barbara Comstock defeated Margaret Vanderhye. In Loudoun County, Republican Thomas Greason beat Democratic incumbent David E. Poisson.
Also, Republican James Moorefield beat Del. Daniel C. Bowling in southwestern Virginia, and the GOP's Christopher Stolle ousted Del. Joseph F. Bouchard in Virginia Beach. Stolle is the brother of five-term Republican state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle.
Challenges to Democrats Shannon Valentine of Lynchburg and Robert W. Mathieson of Virginia Beach remained undecided early Wednesday morning.
The GOP had seen its majority steadily shrink since peaking at 64 of 100 House seats after redistricting in 2001. Democrats had gained 11 seats in elections since then.
Democrats hoped the momentum from President Barack Obama's victory in Virginia last year would carry over to this election, perhaps even allowing them to regain control of the House for the first time in a decade, but it didn't pan out amid growing discontent with national Democrats and the sour economy.
The election's high stakes--the winners will have a major say in redrawing legislative and congressional districts after the 2010 census--resulted in more contested races than usual: 69. Eleven were for open seats. Fifty-eight incumbents, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, faced challengers.
The nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project, watchdog of money in state politics, reported that the 2009 House election is on track to be the most expensive ever, eclipsing the $32.9 million spent two years ago. Candidates had spent $29.7 million through Oct. 21. Final numbers will not be available until January.
The 40-member Senate, controlled by Democrats, is up for election in 2011.
President MAN/CHILD isn’t worried! He spent the evening watching basketball....
Just WOW Virginia!
Now send James letters and remind him of why he is there.
this is great! she's not in my district, but there were ads in noVA trashing her for being prolife and "out of step with Northern VA." I am glad she won!!
it feels soooo good after feeing so bad for so long! it feels like there is finally some tangible proof that YES, people GET IT, and they DON”T LIKE IT.
Now the game turns to ensuring that good conservatives are in the 2010 primaries, and that they win the primaries.
My sense of this is that Comstock’s win has the RATS totally freaked.
i imagine so. the ads against her were the only ones, of the zillion i saw here, that were so starkly partisan and anti-conservative.
i imagine so. the ads against her were the only ones, of the zillion i saw here, that were so starkly partisan and anti-conservative.
The SBE shows the GOP net gain at +6, 59 house seats plus 2 independents out of 100.
Hamilton, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, lost to Democrat Robin Abbott. Hamilton is the subject of investigations by a House ethics panel and a federal grand jury into allegations that he arranged a $40,000-a-year job for himself at Old Dominion University as he steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in appropriations to the Norfolk school.
Illinois' former governor, Rod Blagojevich (D) is currently under indictment for having done much the same thing by promising official favors in return for jobs and real estate opportunities being offered to his wife.
DUH!!! This leaves out only one couple, Barack and the lovely and gracious Michelle, with the beautifully sculpted arms, Obama. The Universtiy of Chicago Hospitals corporation promoted her to a $300,000+/yr. sinecure just after he was elected to the U. S. Senate and, wonder of wonders, he then funneled a $1,200,000 earmark to the same organization. Bribery, anyone???
>> RATS totally freaked
The only good ‘Rat is a freaked ‘Rat.
They do dumb things that get them un-elected when they’re freaked.
One point that hardly no one mentions is that Virginia’s present governor is Tim Kaine who is now the head of the Demorcratic National Committee. Not only is this a referendum on his administration but it is also a referendum on his performance as Democratic Committee Chairperson. He couldn’t even win his own state for the Dems. Look out Dems!
To me this also translate into a real scary picture for Obama. I wonder how long it will be before Tim Kaine is replaced.
Indeed!
The republicans are ahead in both of these races, but in one case by only 16 votes.
There are also a couple of democrats who won by less than 200 votes, where there could possibly be a recount.
Recounts in our state don't usually change the outcome of races, but it could be a while before we know exactly how many seats we won.
We lost Frederick's seat, in my opinion, because of how Frederick was treated. By kicking him out, I think it kept him from working to help the republicans win the seat. At least, I didn't see him sending out mailers for the republican in the race.
Personally, I would have liked to have seen Frederick just run for the seat again. He only dropped out because he promised to as RPV chair, and since they removed him from that office there was no reason for him to quit.
Lately Kaine is a GINO. I doubt that helped.
“the winners will have a major say in redrawing legislative and congressional districts after the 2010 census”
The critical sentence! So pleased with the wins in Northern VA. And I understand Hyland’s race is being recanvassed? Not likely to see a change there but at least GOP isn’t dead in Fairfax.
Bobby Mathieson and Joe Bouchard ran the most blatantly dishonest and reprehensible campaigns I've seen in a long time. Bouchard got blown away by Stolle because the local medical establishment and media didn't like his attacks. If Villanueva had an adequate war chest he could have run ads countering the lies that Mathieson was peddling but he didn't have enough. I still think he'll pull it out.
We are all touch screen at our precinct, and yes, that does make the recounts go pretty quickly. And keeps Democrats from devining the “intent” of voters.
We came somewhat close to getting a state senator to switch parties, but it leaked out and that put a stop to it.
Now we have to get a fresh Republican elected in Ken Cuccinelli’s old seat in Northern Virginia, where he won with only a couple hundred vote margin in 2007. If we hold onto that seat, we are still one seat down in the Senate, which means we might be able to turn a senator.
We’ll control the house and Governor’s office, so we will be in control of redistricting, but without the Senate won’t be able to pull anything too drastic — which frankly is fine with me, if there was a way to do redistricting in a completely non-partisan fashion, I’d be fine with it.
We aren’t drawn all that weird now, and our congressional districts were drawn to protect the incumbents of both parties, not to gain advantage.
‘07 was a GOP bloodbath, statewide. As I recall Cuccinelli was the ONLY Republican to survive in NOVA. And they would have us believe VA’S off-year elections don’t portend the following year’s elections!
We’re not likely to see it that bad again for a while. Cuccinelli’s is a sure R seat, but with the right candidate it’s probably fairly safe.
Well, we can hope. It will be a special election, and we’ve been doing pretty good in NoVa special elections.
And to correct my earlier post, I think Ken won by 91 votes out of some 40,000+ cast.
Election Success Leads to Special Elections
See what’s next:
http://www.senators4va.com/?page=news&id=76
Thanks for the info. I’d forgotten that elections in VA never end! Last year I lived in Bradddock district .. after the presidential elections we had County Chairman then District. Alas, I miss out on this one ‘cause I’m not in Cuccinelli’s district.
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