Virginia’s highest-ranking Republican lawmaker doesn’t plan on handing the gavel to the opposition anytime soon.
The House of Delegates is the last bastion of Republican majority in Virginia, and Speaker Bill Howell, R-Stafford, sees little chance of it falling.
The state GOP in recent elections has turned over the state Senate, both its U.S. Senate seats, its majority-Republican congressional delegation and even its Electoral College votes, which in November chose a Democratic president for the first time in four decades.
Six seats need to change hands in the 100-member lower chamber to switch party control, with all seats up for election in November. Virginia Democrats are especially targeting Republican districts that broke for Barack Obama, including three in the Washington suburbs, where they hope to harness leftover enthusiasm and existing campaign infrastructure to unseat GOP holdouts.
The way Howell sees it, the momentum is on the side of Republicans. In three recent special elections in blue Northern Virginia, two Republican candidates lost by unexpectedly razor-thin margins, while Fairfax County supervisor candidate John Cook won. In heavily Democratic Alexandria, a Republican and Republican-endorsed independent won spots on the city council earlier this month.
“I think there is a renewed resurgence, energy within the Republican Party,” Howell said in a meeting with The Examiner editors and reporters. “We did some really good campaigning, some good techniques, and I think we’re going to carry that into the fall.”
Gov. Tim Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, isn’t betting on his party taking over the House this year, telling The Washington Post in February there was a “maybe 40 percent” chance of the reversal.
Eight delegates announced retirement plans this year, according to information from the House clerk’s office, leaving vulnerable spots for both parties.
A Democratic House majority is “certainly something that’s within the realm of possibility,” said Democratic Party of Virginia spokesman Jared Leopold.
“We’re just happy that Bill Howell is so out of touch that he doesn’t think Democrats have a chance to continue their gains,” he said.
