Timing The Special Election
By Greg L | 10 November 2009 | Fairfax County, Virginia Senate | 9 Comments
Lots of questions swirl around the blogosphere regarding when a special election in the 37th District will be held. Governor/DNC Chair Kaine was expected to delay calling the election until Democrats could actually find a qualified candidate who lived in the district, but today bwana notes that the timing might actually be in Ken Cuccinelli’s hands. If Cuccinelli holds off resigning his Senate seat until the General Assembly session convenes, it would effectively knock Dave Marsden out of running. Now that’s some maneuver!
So if Cuccinelli holds off on his resignation until January 13th or so, then Kaine cannot help in his last days in office to set a date that falls either during or after the General Assembly session-but during that time Dave Marsden cannot himself raise money, accept contributions, etc.
Perhaps he can run hard until then to get contributions to his delegate fund, but I have to think raising money during the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year season would be tough in general…and even more difficult to do for a putative campaign where the election the candidate would run in has not even been announced.
Then, during the session Marsden (or any sitting member) would need to be in Richmond-which, unless Star Trek transporter technology has come on line recent, will make it really difficult for them to campaign and still do the legislative job they were elected to do. Marsden would be on the hook not only for carpetbagging into another district, but potentially for ignoring his elected duties in order to win a special election.
Oh, and not to pummel the obvious but neither Steve Hunt, Will Nance, nor Marianne Horinko are members of the General Assembly.
Even if the special election is delayed until January, parties could still settle on a nominee using a convention or “firehouse primary” whenever they wanted to. Let’s say the Republicans have their act together well before the Democrats, settle on a nominee in mid to late November, and then give that nominee until early January to campaign. Looks pretty solid to me. Democrats, who don’t seem to have anyone better to offer than Dave Marsden would either have to nominate him early and then be prohibited from raising funds during the election because he’s a sitting legislator or force him to resign his house seat, or find someone else who could run, like Janet “The Hoot” Oleszek.
Fascinating.
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9 Comments
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What would be more interesting is if Attorney General-elect Cuccinelli were to time his resignation to coincide with his swearing in as Attorney General. If this happens, it happens AFTER Governor-elect McDonnell is sworn in meaning it would be Governor McDonell, not Tim Kaine, who sets the race timeline.
The bigger question for me is will Edd Houck be moved into the Administration allowing a conservative to take that seat as well and give the GOP the Senate majority again (with Bolling’s vote). If so, will the GOP this time use redistricting to their advantage instead of playing “nice”, as the other side has so often not done.
Marsden is such an ass. I think any reasonable Republican candidate would kick his butt, no matter when the election is held.
But there is a problem, Christopher…the recent tradition/pattern has been a powesharing agreement at 20/20.
In fact, you might recall how the 20/20 after the 1995 election was what pushed Virgil Goode into the GOP-he was then a Dem state senator and said he would vote to organize as a GOP if there was not some sort of power sharing agreement for the balance of the session…
“The Hoot”. Heh!
The statutes are here
http://bit.ly/zTcK
If Cuccinelli resigns the day of his inauguration as AG it looks like the Senate President Pro Temp calls the election since the Assembly will be in session. It could happen within 30 days.
All-blew that one:
http://wp.me/p2rtb-m6
Did not read far enough down the statute…
Subordinate clauses are pesky little buggers, aren’t they?
I think the problem was not subordinate clauses but insubordinate reading skills!
You can’t hold a primary for an office until an election has been called. Been there and done that several times in the past. All you can do before Ken resigns and the election is called is to decide how the party nominee will be chosen.