Tonight is yet another election night in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Like eclipses, elections occur with regularity every year.
This is the primary for the Democrats and while there is no primary for governor (It should be Chap Petersen but I can’t get everything I want…) there are two candidates for each – Lieutenant Governor: (former Chief Technology Officer for President Obama and Secretary of Technology for Governor Kaine, Aneesh Chopra and State Senator Ralph Northam, both of whom are serious liberals) and Attorney General: (State Senator Mark Herring and former Assistant US Attorney Justin Fairfax, both of whom are also serious liberals, too.)
My prediction: Chopra and Herring will win. If I were forced at the point of an assault weapon to vote, I’d vote for Northam (because he went to VMI he can’t be all bad!) and Fairfax (He’s the underdog!)
More when I get back from a church meeting – which I expect will be short…
Let me start with a short analysis of several races tonight for House of Delegates. It reminds me of June 9, 1989, when I was on the ballot for the GOP primary for delegate. We know what happened there…
GOP races:
The 16th is the open seat where Virginia Right endorsed Les Adams. Adams, a Chatham lawyer, is facing former Pittsylvania County Economic Development Director Kenneth L. “Ken” Bowman.
In the 28th District, Speaker Howell is facing Craig E. Ennis. I do not expect a surprise here. But it makes a great headline, doesn’t it! 
In the 33rd District, we have Delegate Joe T. May challenged by Dave LaRock. This race does have some potential for a surprise as LaRock has several important conservative endorsements.
In the 54th District, Delegate Bobby Orrock is challenged by Dustin Curtis.
In the 85th District, there are three candidates: T. Jeremy Waters, Gary C. Byler, and Scott W. Taylor.
For the Democrats, there is at least one interesting race in the Petersburg area (63th District) where the incumbent Rosalyn R. Dance is facing a strong challenge from Evandra D. Thompson who has some huge endorsements: Senator Marsh, Delegate Morrissey and several former local elected officials.
I may have gotten out of the church meeting after all….
With just under 31% in we have an amazingly close race for Lieutenant Governor: 11,025 for Chopra and 11,007 for Northam. Herring has a 56% to 44% lead in the race for Attorney General. In the Dance/Thompson race, Dance has a strong lead of 60/40 but with only 4 precincts reporting.
Nothing on the GOP side yet!
It’s 9:22 and Speaker Howell is easily turning back Ennis but Curtis is giving Del. Orrock a race; Del. Dance has survived her primary opponent Evandra Thompson’s bid for an upset.
The big surprise is that Senator Northam has turned back former Obama and Kaine official Aneesh Chopra by about 10,000 votes. It is also significant that Senator Herring had a tough race with Justin Fairfax.
Absolutely no GOP delegate results other than what I saw tonight on a Richmond TV station but on the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Delegates Sherwood and May were defeated by their conservative challengers! That is a big story!
Great News: Les Adams won his primary with just over 80% of the vote! 2421 to 585 for his opponent Ken Bowman. 3006 votes was just shy of the vote total in my 1989 (We had 3122 total votes) primary and we had a governor’s primary in the GOP that year! That is an awesome GOTV campaign and kudos go to Adams’ campaign manager, Richard Crouse! I’ll call Les tomorrow and congratulate him. He will have an opponent in the November election: Elizabeth Jones, who just announced her candidacy. I welcome what should be a clear choice between the two candidates.
Well, it’s about time to adjourn but not before we have one final race to report the open seat in the 85th: Taylor won with 45.01% over Byler and Waters.
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
