For some reason in the last 15 years Democrats have moved away from women legislative candidates, especially in Northern Virginia. Coming into this year, the NoVA women in the Senate were all from the 1991 (Janet Howell’s first Senate race and Toddy Puller’s successful House race) and 1995 (Mary Margaret Whipple and Patsy Ticer) cycles. NoVA Senators elected this decade were all men (Chap Petersen, George Barker, Mark Herring and Dave Marsden). Whipple and Ticer of course both retired this year, and while Whipple is being replaced with Barbara Favola, Ticer is being replaced by Adam Ebbin. The once majority-female NoVA Democratic Senate delegation is now 8 men and 3 women.
But compare that to the Democrats in the House of Delegates and the Senate’s record of electing women looks pretty good.
This is not good at all, obviously. It’s even more frustrating because, as NLS points out, many Republican male incumbents (Tag Greason, Dave Albo, Jim LeMunyon, Bob Marshall, etc.) could be especially vulnerable to strong female challengers.
Meanwhile, Republicans of all people (I say “of all people” because Republicans are NOT friendly to a woman’s right to choose, to economic issues affecting families, you name it) have been recruiting women candidates (even if they’re crazy right wingers, that’s not really the point here) — Patricia Phillips, Gerarda Culipher, Caren Merrick, Sen. Jill Vogel, Delegate-elect Margaret Ransone, Del. Brenda Pogge, Del. Barbara Comstock, Del. Kathy Byron, Loudoun County Supervisor-elects Suzanne Volpe and Janet Clarke, etc.
Bottom line: we need to turn this around, ASAP. Can we do that with the current Virginia Democratic “leadership,” people like Brian Moran, who utterly failed in 2011 to fulfill his (perhaps foolish) pledge to recruit candidates in every district? I’m not brimming over with confidence on that score. How about you?
P.S. While we’re at it, how about some strong female candidates to take on anti-women’s-interest Republicans like Eric Can’tor, Morgan Griffith, Robert Hurt, and Scott Rigell?
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