Some have suggested that the recent discovery that both South Carolina Republican Governor Mark Sanford and Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign were having extra-marital affairs would be schadenfreude (joy at the suffering of others), and I have to disagree.  Likewise, the exposure of New York Democratic Governor Elliot Spitzer's visits with prostitutes is no cause for schadenfreude either.

There is no joy in the broken hearts and damaged relationships.  No joy in the dishonesty, the deceit, the contempt, the lack of respect for their partners and voters.  No joy in the hypocrisy that both of these Republicans pilloried then Democratic President Bill Clinton when he was caught having an affair in the 1990s, and now both have participated in the very same activity that they themselves claimed was reprehensible and grounds for impeachment.

Virginia has state office elections in odd years, which allows voters to focus on those elections and not get distracted by national elections, but it also means turnout is always really low because voters are tired from the previous year's national election and unwilling to invest the time and effort.

Virginia's state-wide elections this year are very important for they will determine who is in office when the redistricting happens after next years decade end census; and districting has a huge impact on who ends up in office both nationally and for state offices for the next decade.

The state of Virginia has it's statewide general election on November 3rd, 2009; it's an opportunity to select our next Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Delegates to every house seat in the state, and roughly 1/3rd the state senators.  Most localities also hold their county and city elections at the same time.  Aside from the US National elections, this is the most important election in Virginia's four year election cycle.

The primary elections for the Democratic and Republican parties will be on June 9th, 2009; and this could well be the most important primary in state elections in many years.  We have a three way race to chose a Democratic candidate for Governor, and a four way race to chose a Democratic candidate for Lt Governor.

Read more for details...

Sorry this is such short notice, but for those of you who live in the 46th House of Delegates District (Skyline area of Fairfax County, and Western City of Alexandria), you have a special election tomorrow, January 13th, to replace Delegate Brian Moran who is running for Governor.

Your ballot will be:

• Charniele Herring (D)


• Joe Murray (R)

Blue Commonwealth has a map of the district in case you are not sure.  The district trends Democratic by a very wide margin, but in a special election for just one local seat the turnout is likely to be abysmally low and the Republicans have a pretty good shot at an upset win here.  Please vote if you are in the district.

There is a second special election for all of Fairfax County to elect a new Chairman of the Board of Supervisors.  This one is scheduled for February 3rd, and turnout should be a little better.  According to the Fairfax county board of elections, the ballot will look like:

• Sharon Bulova


• Patrick Herrity


• Carey Campbell


• Christopher DeCarlo

On the way out do run a few errands, my partner and I noticed this odd bumper sticker on a fairly new Nissan Maxima driven by a young woman along U.S. route 50 in Chantilly, VA.

One of the more frequent excuses I hear from citizens who choose not to vote is that their vote will not matter.  Well, if yesterday's election proved something, it is that that excuse is completely invalid.  As it approaches a full day after polls closed we still have:

• - no clear winner of the races for four (yes, 4) United States Senate seats
  
• - no clear winner of races for at least four (yes, 4) United States Congress seats
  
• - we don't know if California's proposition 8 has passed yet
  
• - unable to call the electoral votes for two states (North Carolina and Missouri) and the 2nd CD in Nebraska
  

Arrived just before 6 am and parking lot is over full (to the point it is a minor safety hazard) and there is a long line. Line was entirely indoors by 7:15am, but the steady trickle of voters is still impressive in this very rural precinct.  Beth Roemmelt and I are greeting voters as they come in to vote.

I keep getting libelous emails from anonymous (cowardly) lie-spreaders trying to stir up fear and uncertainty about Senator Obama.  They seem to have a few common themes, but here is one that really annoys me because they are destroying an ally...   I am talking about the "Obama is a baby-killer" myth.  Barack Obama has made his position very clear; he opposes abortion as much as anyone in the country, but just not on legal grounds.  He choses to oppose abortion on moral, ethical, social, and religious grounds.

This is tantamount to a free will argument.  The religious argument goes, why would God give mankind the power to chose unless that choice is an important one.  By that argument Christians must choose to have Jesus in their life.  Likewise, citizens should have the power to choose life for the right reasons, but they need to be free to make that choice for moral, ethical, social, and religious reasons.