Recession's Pains Dull Attention to Campaigns

By Sandhya Somashekhar (Contact)

Monday, June 15, 2009

Mary Wood was first in line at Seldens Landing Elementary School in Leesburg on Tuesday afternoon, waiting for the bell to ring and her granddaughter to come bounding down the sidewalk. Jammed into the grass next to her were a hodgepodge of blue campaign signs, but Wood would not be voting in the gubernatorial primary that day.

The 55-year-old has had other things on her mind. Such as her 401(k) that recently tanked. And the home whose value keeps deflating like a tire with a slow leak. And the administrative assistant job she's about to start even though she retired eight months ago, making this one of the last times she would be picking up the little girl after school.

"I've accepted it," Wood said with a sad little smile. "She's going to have to go to day care."

With the general election campaign underway after Tuesday's Democratic primary, the two men hoping to succeed Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) are vying to lead a very different state than the one Kaine inherited four years ago. At that time, the economy was booming, with Virginia emerging from the post-9/11 slump stronger than before.

Today, the picture is much different. A deep nationwide recession has touched every corner of the commonwealth, from the depressed factory towns of the south to the high-tech corridors of Fairfax County. For many voters, the problems seem too big, too intractable for any governor to fix, which might have been a factor in the 6 percent turnout in Tuesday's primary.

But state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds (D) and Robert F. McDonnell (R) have focused their campaigns on strategies to bring back prosperity and infuse the state with a renewed sense of optimism.

The change in fortunes over the past few years has been sharply evident in Washington's outer suburbs, where Kaine's message of curbing growth and fixing transportation resonated, even with conservative voters, and helped cement the Democratic tide that has overtaken Northern Virginia. Now, upscale developments are struggling against plummeting home values and foreclosures, throwing a measure of uncertainty into the mix.

Wood's Lansdowne community, for example, was one of the hottest-selling neighborhoods of its kind just a few years ago, with about 700 homes sold in 2005. It advertised a Mayberryesque lifestyle away from the urbanizing inner suburbs, but with modern conveniences such as high-tech wiring and 45 holes of golf. Although the community remains vibrant, values have shrunk significantly, and last year there were 33 foreclosures. About 150 new townhouses near the main shopping center sit empty, and plans to build more shops and condominiums have been delayed indefinitely.

A few months ago, Mick Calvacca, 51, who lives down the road in Sterling, would have been at work midday on a Tuesday. But the former editor at USA Today was laid off in December after 29 years in journalism. Two hundred job applications sent across the country have yielded nothing. He is thinking of going back to school or moving with his wife to a less-expensive area.

On this particular Tuesday, Calvacca was having an unhurried lunch at the shopping center, the onions picked out of his Greek salad and arranged into a pile of pale pink rings on the side. The self-described independent said he has not paid much attention to the governor's race but will get up to speed by November out of necessity.

"I have never looked towards any government for any support, ever, until now," he said.

For many in this area, the recession will not mean financial ruin. It will not put them out on the streets. It is instead forcing them to pivot, to reroute around the bad luck, bad timing and bad decisions that combined to create a roadblock in their carefully planned lives.

That is certainly true for Jeff Fitzgerald, 43, a multimedia producer who recently left his job in the District over fears of downsizing. He is now creating a new business from a studio in the basement of a rented four-bedroom house in Lansdowne, where he lives with his wife, his 10-year-old daughter and his parents.

The past few years have brought what he describes as "bumps in the road." He was laid off twice within a year from WorldCom, the embattled Ashburn-based telecommunications company that was acquired by Verizon in 2005. Two job opportunities in North Carolina and Florida fell through.

Then last year, he moved out of his townhouse in Sterling over a perceived uptick in crime. But the house is worth about $100,000 less than what the family owes on the mortgage, and they are planning to go forward with a short sale, he said.

Seated in an airy sitting room across the street from Seldens Landing, behind him a mantel decorated with a row of greeting cards and a porcelain cross, he said that life is not such a struggle.

"It just feels sometimes like you're getting along, you're able to maintain, but the little bumps in the road keep knocking you down a little bit more each time," he said. "I get the e-mails from all the candidates, from the Republicans or what have you. I delete just about everything."

Fitzgerald, who calls himself a conservative Christian, said he is cynical about politicians. He said he believes that Providence, not the state, will lead him out of his troubles. It will be up to the candidates to persuade him otherwise.

Tagged: 2009 governor's race, elections, Lansdowne, politics, Seldens Landing Elementary Sch, State news

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