Democrats Court GOP Moderates in Loudoun

By Sandhya Somashekhar (Contact)

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Democratic activists are fanning across Loudoun County for a final push before Tuesday’s election, sensing an unprecedented opportunity to make gains in traditionally Republican enclaves on the Washington area’s edges.

With an unusual level of support from state party leaders and emboldened by recent victories at the polls, Democrats are knocking on doors and calling thousands of likely voters, urging them to support their candidates in local and state elections. The state party has set up a temporary office in the county for the first time, and yesterday, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) made a rare visit to Loudoun as part of a statewide blitz.

Democrats also hope to take advantage of a fractured local GOP that has further splintered as the election has neared, forging alliances with disgruntled Republicans actively campaigning against candidates from their own party.

“In all of our races, we’re finding a large number of moderate Republicans who are just fed up with the party and have said, ‘We’ll give you guys a chance,’ ” said Thom Beres, chairman of the Loudoun Democratic Committee. “That doesn’t mean they’re always going to be Democratic, but right now they are very open to us.”

Nevertheless, Republicans remain confident. Board of Supervisors member Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles) said he thinks his party will prevail next week in part because of the fundamental values of the community. “We’re conservatives at heart,” he said. “I would hope that the base Republicans will see through the rhetoric and realize there’s no advantage to electing Democrats.”

The Democrats’ strategy of wooing Republican voters is being tested beyond Loudoun, in places such as Manassas and Winchester that were once considered the exclusive territory of the GOP. At each stop on their preelection tour, Kaine and other Democratic leaders are promoting their candidates as the moderate alternative to a GOP that they say has shifted too far right.

That message has resonated in Loudoun in recent state elections as voters have sided with Democrats whom they view as more willing to slow the pace of growth and confront other quality-of-life issues than Republicans, whom many consider too focused on social causes.

In 2005, voters backed Kaine and David E. Poisson (D), who defeated longtime Del. Richard H. Black (R) in the eastern part of the county. Months later, Democrat Mark R. Herring easily won a special election for the Senate seat formerly held by Republican William C. Mims.

On the county level, Democrats hope to take advantage of the perception that Republicans are in the pocket of the development industry, regularly blamed for causing much of the traffic congestion and school crowding that upsets so many residents.

Democrats are being helped in local races by moderate Republicans, who say the county’s rapid suburbanization over the past decade has caused tax bills to skyrocket as residents have been forced to pay for new schools and other amenities.

Paul Siker, a self-described longtime Republican, is the executive director of the Loudoun Coalition, a political action committee that is campaigning against five of the six Republicans on the Board of Supervisors.

“It doesn’t give me any joy whatsoever that I’m actually campaigning against the entity I have historically believed in, but something has to be done,” Siker said. “Frankly, at this juncture, a candidate’s party affiliation or lack thereof is less consequential than the way they comport themselves in office.”

The local GOP has lashed out at members who are speaking out against the county’s Republican nominees.

“It’s a matter of integrity,” said Eve Marie Barner, an official with the local committee. “If you are a Republican, you play for your team.”

Barner said the often-repeated notion that the party is run by developers is a myth propagated by political opponents. Highlighting endorsements from members of the opposite party is a “common playbook tactic” to give the false impression of widespread support, she said.

She and other party officials think the local Republican nominees will win this year as they did in 2003, strengthened not only by a traditional small-government message and the area’s long-held traditional social views but also by the party’s recent focus on illegal immigration.

Loudoun’s Republicans were among the first this year to vow to drive illegal immigrants out of their community, a stance likely to pay off at the ballot box. In a recent Washington Post poll, three-quarters of likely Virginia voters said the issue will be a factor in the election.

Republicans also said a statewide amendment banning same-sex marriage was approved by 53 percent of Loudoun voters last year, evidence that the county remains conservative.

But Siker’s frustration with the local party is shared by others. James E. Rich, chairman of the 10th District Republican Committee, has criticized the local party as too exclusionary. “The Democrats are really doing a good job right now of reaching out to independents and even some Republicans,” he said. “We have to put up intelligent, thoughtful candidates who are honest, and we’ll do well.”

And A. “Jey” Jeyanathan, who lost a party convention to Snow in June, has urged Republicans not to vote for Snow in his race against Democrat Stevens Miller.

Miller, meanwhile, is reaching out to Republicans. In a letter posted this week on www.tooconservative.com, a local Republican blog, Miller disclosed that he considered running as a Republican and has “mostly voted Republican since I cast my first vote for Gerald Ford, in 1976.”

Poisson, who is seeking reelection this year and is one of the longest-standing members of the Loudoun Democratic Committee, said he has watched his party evolve from a “loyal opposition” group in the 1990s that never expected to win to a major player with substantial support from Richmond.

He said he does not think Loudoun has miraculously become a blue county. Rather, he said, he thinks the Democratic Party has hit upon a successful strategy — persuading independents and Republicans to vote Democratic but not asking them to join the party.

“We finally realized it wasn’t as necessary to our success that they convert,” he said. “Perhaps if we’re fortunate, they will choose to join us. If not, that’s okay, because at least it will give us a chance to govern and give them a chance to see us in action.”

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