The race to replace Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia’s Senate took shape this week with the nomination of Steve Hunt, a Republican who mirrors Cuccinelli’s conservative views.
The victory at Tuesday night’s Republican firehouse primary leaves just over a month of campaigning before the Jan. 12 special election, in which Hunt, a former Fairfax County school board member, will face Democratic Del. Dave Marsden.
The nature of the small-turnout election leaves the candidates appealing to two distinct constituencies. Hunt will look to mobilize the same voters who put Cuccinelli in the state Senate, leaving him with little reason to tact to the political middle. Marsden will cast his opponent as an extremist preoccupied with issues such as abortion, in spite of the state’s economic woes.
“While they’re important — prioritizing social issues at this point in time in our country and our commonwealth is really puzzling,” Marsden said.
The battle will become, at least in part, a proxy war between Northern Virginia Democrats hoping to staunch a round of losses from the November elections, and Republicans looking to cement their resurgent status in a region once through lost to GOP candidates.
Gov. Elect-Bob McDonnell said Wednesday he planned to campaign with Hunt, whom he called an “individual of principle and integrity, who shares our commitment to creating the jobs we need, keeping taxes low, getting traffic moving again, and improving our public education system.”
Republicans McDonnell, Cuccinelli and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling swept the statewide races on Nov. 3 while the GOP widened its margin in the House. Democrats maintain a 21-19 majority in the Senate.
Marsden is a former acting director of the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice and was superintendent of Fairfax County’s juvenile detention center for 17 years.
While Marsden, as a state delegate, represents part of the overlapping Senate district, his home is just outside the border of the 37th, which almost certainly will be at issue during the race.
Hunt, who could not be reached Wednesday, is a former Naval officer who works as a senior systems analyst at federal contractor SAIC.
