E-Day. This Tuesday.

Ready, are we?

Vote.

The Democrats stand a good chance of a pickup in a few of Northern Virginia’s districts:

13th District
Incumbent: Bob Marshall (R)
Democrat: Bruce Roemmelt

32nd District
Incumbent: Dick Black (R)
Democrat: David Poisson (D)

Dick Black and Bob Marshall have to be twins of some sort. I will tackle them together.

This is the starkest contrast in the entire state.

Bruce Roemmelt is PhD, firefighter, veteran, teacher, and all-around cool guy.
Bob Marshall is a wingnut extremist wackjob who can’t get bills passed to save his homophobic rear end.

There is no one that makes me want to splutter indignantly about the embarrassment of being a Virginian than Delegate Bob Marshall.

Do you want to know how wacky Marshall is? Actual quote:

You can’t walk down the aisle of a grocery store without seeing condoms and jelly for diaphragms. -Delegate Bob Marshall

Just, Lord, no, don’t re-elect this man. I will save myself the trouble of hacking out a brand new rant against Virginia’s most paleolithic delegateby giving you a simple comparison.

Marshall and Black [see the categories I have linked to for my writings on the two] really couldn’t care less about their districts and advance their own social issues jihad, trying to regulate everything from “menstrual extractions” to gays to sex. Ew, yuck, bad.

Even Republicans are abandoning social extremists. Witness:

“David Poisson has the experience, professionalism and passion to be a leading voice for progress in the General Assembly. I envision his impact to be immediate, commanding and enduring.”

Hon. Anne G. Rhodes, former Republican member, Virginia House of Delegates

41st District
Incumbent: Jim Dillard (R)-Retiring
Republican: Michael Golden
Democrat: Dave Marsden

The 41st provides, in the first open seat here in 30 years, a very good chance for a pickup.

The gargantuan plastic monoliths decreeing “GOLDEN” scattered across medians before the primary, but a key component is missing. Anyone wonder why it looks like the tops were cut off? They were. Golden has snipped off the “TAX RELIEF NOW” portion that adorned his primary campaign–it seems that he is conceding to the 41st District voters that, yes, the anti-taxers have lost.

Emblematic, perhaps, of his generally rabid-conservative campaign, he and Chris Craddock remain the last lights of the supposed Grover Norquist Invasion that was to topple the pro-budget reform types. With Craddock tripping over his own tongue, it’s up to Golden. I doubt he will finish the task.

The 41st District will, in the end, represent Virginia’s rejection of the free-lunch budgetary theory that has taken over the conservative wing of the Republican Party. You can’t get something for nothing, and Golden’s hard-line stance on matters of taxation will either bleed our budget to death or leave our schools to crumble. Your choice.

42nd District
Incumbent: Dave Albo (R)
Democrat: Greg Werkheiser

In a break with its past, the Washington Post endorsed Albo’s opponent, Greg Werkheiser, saying of Albo that he has “abandoned important elements of his own constituency as well as the sensible middle ground.” Albo has finally had his record back to bite him in the form of the “charismatic” (as the Post says, I’ve heard him simply descibed as “hot”. Greg’s married, by the way.) young lawyer.

PROTECT, a national child advocacy group, slammed Albo for sponsoring a bill to weaken the penalties for sexual assault of a child, then went ballistic on PROTECT when they called him on it. Incidentally, when I asked Albo about this at the West Springfield homecoming game, he said that they were “making this up”, saying he would never do such a thing. Ahem, liar.

This alone should be scaring the bejesus out of all of you in Southern Fairfax, but the pedophile crowd hasn’t been playing up their support of Albo. The alcohol industry, however, has. Albo is almost completely funded by alcohol interests, and was outnumbered 96-1 in voting to affirm the egregious eminent domain decision in Kelo v. New London.

Perhaps the best case for Werkheiser is not simply Dave Albo’s incompetence, but this essay written by Woodson High School student Amanda Cassiday:

Political Hero is not only a public leader but also a public servant, one who puts his or her efforts toward the betterment of the state rather than his or her self. In my eyes, Greg is the embodiment of a Political Hero and his dedication to Virginia has instilled in me a desire to become a devoted and active citizen. A five hundred-word essay is simply not enough to capture all of his achievements as well as the impact he has made on those around him.

Cassiday wrote about Werkheiser in an essay contest asking about a political hero.

Fitting indeed. Greg will go far in state politics.