Yesterday was a good day for the Old Dominion. Virginia Democrats seized control of the State Senate and made big gains in the House. Virginia now has its second Democratic governor in a row and one Democratic Senator. Next Fall, Virginia is almost certain to have two Democratic Senators, as Democrat Mark Warner is predicted to coast to victory over former (disasterous)Republican governor Jim Gilmore for the seat to be vacated by Republican John Warner. (The current set of Virginia's members of Congress includes 1 Independent, 7 Republicans, and 3 Democrats. That may take longer to change.)
Once considered a safely Republican state, Virginia has become quite blue in heavily-populated Northern Virginia (Arlington, Alexandria, and (now) Fairfax) and, interestingly, in Hampton Roads, which has a large military population. Virginia has 13 electoral votes -- enough to require the Republicans to spend time and money trying to defend it this coming Fall. That's good news in a year given that the Republicans have less money than the Democrats and would have preferred to have been able to count on a safe Virginia. Local Republican leaders appear to all be blaming the loss on the national party and the White House, and that may be true, as a number of the defeated Republican incumbents were, in fact, fairly moderate. Heck of a job, W.
It's going to be a fun twelve months to live in Virginia.
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