After a dozen years out of power in the Senate, Virginia Democrats looked to gain the four or more Republican seats they need to regain a majority.
The Senate election is critical because it’s the last one before the General Assembly redraws Virginia’s legislative and congressional districts in 2011. Through redistricting, the dominant party minimizes the districts in which the minority party is competitive for another decade.
That’s one reason legislative campaigns this year have more than doubled the money raised and spent the last time all 140 House and Senate seats were up for election in 2003.
The chief battleground encompasses adjacent Senate districts in three northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., where Democrats targeted Republican Sens. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, Kenn Cuccinelli and Jay O’Brien.
Top party figures and elected leaders from both sides completed frantic final 72 hour get-out-the vote blitzes that ended Monday.
With no statewide race on this fall’s ballot, turnout usually averages about one-third of the state’s registered voters or less.
A net gain of four seats gives the Democrats a 21-19 advantage and control of the 40-member Senate. A Democratic gain of three leaves each party with 20 seats, forcing a return to the power-sharing arrangement under which the Senate operated in from 1996 through 1998, the last time there was a 20-20 split.
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Having won the last two governor’s races and with Democrat Jim Webb’s upset last fall of Republican U.S. Sen. George Allen, Democrats went after GOP seats with a gusto not seen in decades.
Democrats carried several advantages into the Senate elections, including three popular statewide figures who could attract coverage and campaign contributions: Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, former Gov. Mark R. Warner and Webb, the freshman U.S. senator.
Another factor in their favor was that most of the competitive races were for the seats of GOP incumbents or senior Republican senators who are retiring.
In some key districts, however, Republicans countered with the emotional issue of illegal immigration, particularly in populous northern Virginia suburbs such as Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax counties. Prince William gained national attention for local ordinances cracking down on burgeoning populations of undocumented immigrants.
House and Senate candidates together have raised at least $60 million as of Monday, with the final totals expected to approach $70 million for part-time legislative posts that pay $18,000 annually.
By contrast, candidates for the same seats in 2003 raised only $30.8 million, and all candidates for governor in what was far the most expensive statewide in ever Virginia took in and spent $47.3 million.
