Democrat Dave Marsden has won the special election in the 37 state senate district to replace newly elected Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. He narrowly edged out Steve Hunt, the favorite son of some Republicans in this area.
Marsden’s opponent Steve Hunt attempted to convince voters that he was was not an ideologue, but apparently he wasn’t too convincing. Anti-bvbl published a postregarding Hunt’s involvement with a crisis pregnancy center that handed out erroneouos information to women in December. 37th district, which runs from Springfield to Centreville and includes Burke, Fair Oaks, and Chantilly. The voters in this area are not right wing extremists and apparently rejected this type of candidate. Usually ideologues come out in droves for special elections but it didn’t work this time.
It is good to know that a main-stream candidates now represents the 37th–finally! Currently the Virginia Senate is narrowly under Democratic control. Congratulations to Dave Marsden.
Ah, Steve Hunt = Republican ideologue, Dave Marsden = Democrat mainstream candidate.
Also, and this is my favorite “The voters in this area are not right wing extremists and apparently rejected this type of candidate.”
– you forgot to mention that the rejected Steve Hunt by a grand total of 317 votes out of 23,569.
Spoken like a true “moderate”… 🙂
According to the post “It was the Democrat’s 405-vote advantage among absentee voters, to observers, was the difference maker.”.
Any chance some of these absentee votes could come into question? To me this could be a repeat of the Al Franken debacle…
Apparently this was such a close race it fell just short of a mandatory recount. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they ended up having to have a recount. So, I wouldn’t be handing out cigars just yet Moon… I’m just sayin.
By the way, I happen to like Marsden from what I have heard so far but I don’t really know that much about him… the Republican turned Democrat.
Usually right wing extremists really know how to get out the vote. I would have bet anything that Hunt would have won this. The fact he didn’t speaks volumes. Additionally, it is easier for an extremist to win a primary or special election.
Did you like to the other article we did about a month ago? That is why I am calling him an extremist. The guy has an agenda. Come back with your taunts after you have read the article.
All I know about Marsden is that he is a Democrat. All I know about Hunt is that he worked in one of those crisis pregnancy centers that gave out lies to women. That’s enough for me. Moderates can be against people who try to distribute false information can’t they?
I remember see it and just went thru it again, looks like according to you Steve Hunt is a right wing extremist ideolouge because he is pro-life Christan who ran a faith based non-profit group (years ago) that provided free parenting classes and childbirth counseling to women, what a horrible man. I see, Christan and pro-life… must be an extremist! How could I have missed that…
Yeah, they were giving out pamphlets that had bad information in it at one time and that was corrected. Steve Hunt hasn’t run that charity since 2006. Is that your big issue or that he is a pro-life Christan?
I am fairly familiar with those kinds of ‘clinics.’ They aren’t clinics. Most have a hidden agenda. Go to the Manassas one…check it out.
I see you are going to play the Christian victim card. It won’t work here. I don’t care if he is working out back of a synogague…don’t hand out false information to women ever, in order to advance one’s own agenda.
2006 wasn’t years ago.
Not sure if your aware of it but last I looked we are in 2010 Moon, 2006 was 4 years ago… hence years ago. Do you have some sort of time machine over there in Howler world that we don’t know about? 🙂
I’m not playing the Christian victim card, I’m not that religious at all. I haven’t been to church outside of a wedding or funeral in about 20 years, since I was a kid. Why so defensive?
From you “It seems Mr. Hunt is not only an ideologue, he is also an extremist.” – your one and only sole reason for saying this according to your own article is because he ran a Christian charity YEARS ago that gave out bad information that was then corrected. Yes or no? I don’t see any other reason according to your own article.
So if your logic an egoistic pro-choice Democrat is a far left wing extremist ideologue as well, right?
egoistic… should be agnostic
Also, you make it sound as if Dave Marsden won by a landslide because “The voters in this area are not right wing extremists and apparently rejected this type of candidate”.
I would hardly call winning by only 317 votes (just missing the criteria for a mandatory recount according to the Post) people rejecting “this type of candidate”. By the way, the votes have yet to be certified which should be later this morning.
Again, since Marsden had a 405 vote advantage in absentee votes what do you think the chances are that some of these absentee votes will be challenged forcing a recount?
I’m just saying, don’t count your chickens before they hatch…
I am not the one throwing the Christian Victim Card.
I could probably dig up about 100 other reasons for saying Hunt is an extremist. However, I don’t need to. The fact that he ran an operation that modeled a crisis pregnancy center is enough for me. Throw in handing out pamphlets that say condoms don’t stop aids and that abortion causes breast cancer and that just about seals the deal for me.
While serving on the Fairfax County School Board he violated policy by sending out a letter condemning homosexuality and its component in Family Life Education. He sent his letter to ever high school principal. This behavior indicates he isn’t a team player.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61607-2005Feb3.html
You call him a pro-life Christian. I call him an extremist, and without apology.
I could also go look at who supports the guy.
However, he lost the election. I will let him go back to spreading false information to women at the most vulnerable time in their life.
And Hello, if you are truly agnostic, his policies should offend you more than they do me. I don’t want someone’s religion being part of public policy. I am weird like that.
Virginians will vote for a Democratic candidate who is perceived to be reasonable on social issues and whose solution to every issue is, “…more taxes will solve everything…”
Dave Marsden knows what Jim Webb, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine knows, that by actively reaching out to the large amount of Virginia’s “cross-over” voters, Democrats can win in Virginia.
If Dave Marsden and the rest of the Democratic majority in our State Senate stand firm against Bob McDonnell’s plans to sell off the operating rights to our roads (meaning the return of Tolls) and the Port of Virginia, then more Democrats will find favor with Virginians in future elections.
Well done, Dave Marsden, now go to Richmond and protect all of the average Joe’s out here.
I never said what religion I was Moon… I also love how as a ‘moderate’ you cheer Marsden’s razor thin margin of victory even though you said “All I know about Marsden is that he is a Democrat”….
how…. ‘moderate’ of you. To cheer the victory of someone solely because “he is a Democrat” without knowing anything else about him. How exactly that makes you a ‘moderate’ only you know for sure I suppose.
You still haven’t answered my question so Ill ask it for a third time…. what do you think the chances are for a recount? In my original post I was just noting that this could turn out to be the same kind of situation in Minnesota between Al Franken and Norm Coleman.
Just for the record… I don’t live in Marsden’s district but I could see myself voting for him, after all, he was a Republican. 😉
Actually I didn’t praise Marsden for being a Democrat. I praised him because he wasn’t Steve Hunt. Though I was clear about that. Also, Tyler Ballance has spoken highly of him all along. Why shouldn’t I believe him. I think he is a fairly moderate Democrat even.
How would I know if there is a recount? And I don’t care who you vote for. Just know that I will probably be out there cancelling you out.
I also don’t care what religion you are or if you have any religion. I didn’t accuse you of being any religion. I thought you said you were agnostic. My apologies. Now I am not sure what you said. You might want to rephrase that last sentence up there.
Hmmmm, this might be a rough year for you.
His post sounded like a paid for advertisement for the Virginia Democrats for the next statewide election!
Bottom line is in the 37th will NOT be represented by a Cooch Clone, and that’s good news. imho.
Wasn’t Dave Marsden a Republican a few years back? At least that is what I had thought Moon, which was the reason for my last statement.
I have no clue. Perhaps Mr. Ballance knows. Again today, I agree with Lafayette. No Cooch Clone.
And Virginians will dig their heels in over the sale of the liquor stores. Not so sure how they will feel about tolls. If the tolls get too high, people will just find another way.
If the new governor reopens the rest areas along I-95, I-66, etc. – that alone will make a lot of people really happy. Of course, he’ll have to find the dollars for that by cutting something else out of the budget – but there’s got to be plenty of other less essential things that could be cut than the rest areas. That was a really boneheaded move by Kaine.
The closed rest areas just look trashy. Virginia relies on tourism and it should. It has colonial history, Revolutionary history, antebellum history, many Civil War battles were fought here, there are beaches, mountains, natural wonders, and amusement parks. What kind of welcome do our visitors get? A closed restroom.
Also, as one who travels with pets, the situation is awful. I don’t travel now. that hurts Virginia’s economy since I am surely not the only one who doesn’t want to take their dog into McDonald’s to relieve itself.
It will cost a lot to repair those rest areas since I am sure vandals have gotten in there.
Indeed, I somewhat often pass by the former Manassas rest areas. They look awful just boarded up like that. And I have one time since rest areas got closed traveled to Norfolk down I-95 and I-64. Again, the rest areas look awful and sure make a wonderful impression on people from out-of-state traveling our interstates. That doesn’t even go into the safety issues involved with the truckers not having a good place to pull over when tired. And, as one who travels north to NJ on I-95 with a dog, and uses the rest stops for that purpose, I can relate to how pet owners feel.
The longer the rest areas remain closed – the longer and more costly it will be to reopen to them as the bulidings will deteriorate, vandals will get to them, etc. etc. I’m sort of waiting to see graffiti start showing up on the boarded it areas. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time…. No matter what, it does nothing to help the state’s image to tourists seeing our interstates for the very first time and seeing all these boarded up eyesores along the roads. There must have been another source of money that Kaine could have found that would yield that sort of savings – I can’t believe that was the only place that money could be found. That says there was no more fat in the budget to trim. Somehow, I doubt it!
Guess Hello got tired of trying to sucker punch me from behind and moved on….
The phrase “beating a dead horse” comes to mind.
Nothing personal. 😉