Democratic Lt. Governor Tim Kaine won big, defeating Republican Jerry Kilgore. Republican Bill Bolling squeaked out a victory against Democrat Leslie Byrne for Lt. Governor. And, as of this writing, the attorney general’s race is up in the air, too close to call, but it’s trending towards a very narrow victory for Republican Bob McDonnell over Charlottesville Senator Creigh Deeds.
Local House of Delegates races put Democrat David Toscano over Republican Tom McCrystal by a landslide and Republican Del. Rob Bell kept his seat with 56% against challenger Steve Koleszar.
On the Board of Supervisors, Dennis Rooker easily fended off Republican Christian Schoenwald, besting him by a 3:1 margin. David Slutzky pulled off a shockingly strong victory over Republican Gary Grant and independent Tom “Dr. J.” Jakubowski (seriously, that’s how he’s listed on the ballot) in the Rio District with 58% of the vote in what can only be described as a rallying endorsement of growth restrictions in the county.
Finally, the elected school board referendum passed in Charlottesville easily, by nearly a 3:1 margin.
Having gotten all the important races (close ones) wrong I will make a trip first thing to the crystal ball shop. Thought it might be fun to make some predictions, now , not so much. Ouch! Slutsky & Kaine huge wins. The republicans in this area just got a first class beating, which makes one wonder what would happen if Rob Bell had a stronger canidate. Looks like Creigh Deeds in a very close race that might hit the automatic recount.
Kaine almost carried Byrne over the finish line. The Slutsky win was very impressive indeed, even with Kaine and Toscano big wins. This was something I completely missed. Grant went to nearly 2000 house and it seemed to make little difference.
Democrats must be licking their chops looking at the midterm elections. Virgil Goode better get ready cause there is blood in the water.
I am curious about this: right now, with 99.59% reporting, Byrne appears to be down to Bolling even less than Deeds is down to McDonnel – perhaps I’ve just not heard the concession, but it seems to me that both are inside auto-recount range. Byrne is down just 1,024 votes….not much. Deeds appears to be down 3,478…I guess I’ll wait to see what the state posts as the certified votes.
Ok, so my math is bad before the 2nd cup of coffee…clearly the margin for Bolling is much larger…really too, too bad..
Im really shocked by the returns in the Charlottesville area. I figured Kaine would win Charlottesville and then Albemarle and Nelson in a tight one but he won big. He got 80%(!) of Charlottesville, 61% of Albemarle, 55% of Nelson, and must suprisingly he carried Fluvanna county as well. Im still curious about how the Attorney General thing will turn out. Deeds is down but from what I see a precinct in Richmond City havent come in yet. Will this put him over? Will there be a recount? The drama continues.
In Orange, and 14-year-incumbent on the BoS was tossed out in exchange for a candidate who ran on the basis of preventing sprawl and preserving open land. In Nelson, we saw Alan Hale win in a walk for an open seat — he, too, is a well-known conservationist.
There is definitely a sea change underway in Central Virginia. People are sick of sprawl and growth. (It’s noteworthy that major plank in Kaine’s platform was that he would give localities the tools to control growth — something that we certainly don’t have now.) Anybody thinking about running for BoS in two years should start fighting to limit growth and make a name for themselves in doing so.
Anybody thinking about running for BoS in two years should start fighting to limit growth and make a name for themselves in doing so.
Anybody want to throw some names out there for early consideration?
Anybody want to throw some names out there for early consideration?
That’s a great question. I can’t think of a soul, but I’ll definitely be chewing over this for a while.
At the risk of futher humilation I would say that Ken Boyd, who beat Peter Hallock, will face a challenger. Hallock ran as a presvationist but lost by 5%. David Wyant is in a rural seat that he won by 9%, should be safe but after yesterday, who knows.
Scottsville is probably an open seat with Lindsay Dorrier retiring. The only name I have heard for that seat is planning commission member. Petie Craddock.
While most counties (Orange, Nelson, Albemarle) are voting in candidates who want to restrict sprawl/development, Greene did the opposite.
Expect more growth on Rt 29N and VDOT will have to add a lane or two from Ruckersville on south to the Rivanna River crossing.
I’m not a republican but I stopped being a yellow dog democrat a while ago, and in that spirit I offer the following thoughts and opinions.
I think if the Republican party had’ve endorsed Potts from the start I think we’d be looking at a very different outcome for the govenors race. My biggest problem with Kilgore (outside of his poor public speaking skills and grating voice) was that I think he catered too much to religious bigots. So in that respect I’m glad to see that Kaine won (although I think his position on illegal immigration is a cop out).
I would’ve also liked to have seen McCrystal win. In my opinion given the two choices he seemed much more balanced. I’m old enough to remember the Toscano city council, and don’t have very many fond memories of that time.
In all.. Virginia being the type of state it is, and Charlottesville being the type of city it is, I’m not really surprised by any of the outcomes.
And that concludes my 2 cents.
Virgil Goode better get ready cause there is blood in the water.
Some of the blood is his own, after today’s article on MZM in USA Today. (Which doesn’t have much that hasn’t hit the press before, but puts together a more complete timeline and account of Goode’s dealings with MZM than I have seen before.)
I give Virgil credit for, to my knowledge, never abusing his office for purrely personal gain. But the article makes it clear that the quest for your district’s gain can also have its questionable side. There are ways to bring jobs to southside and central VA that don’t require treating national security spending as a subdivision of constituent services.
Must say I’m very surprised Kaine won by as large a margin in Albemarle County as he did. The numbers show Kaine getting 18,452 to Kilgore’s 10,989 in Albemarle on Tuesday. By contrast, Kerry won rather narrowly by comparison over Bush just a year ago, getting 22,069 to Bush’s 21,180.
I realize Sabato et al have been saying Albemarle is “sliding to the left,” but that’s a pretty dramatic difference just one year later.
Could it be that a lot of GOPers were underwhelmed with Kilgore and stayed home?