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Republican Rob Wittman last night won the special election for the congressional 1st District in a landslide, with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Wittman, a two-term state delegate from Westmoreland County, defeated Williamsburg Democrat Philip Forgit and independent Lucky Narain to fill the seat left empty by the October death of Rep. Jo Ann Davis. Davis died after a two-year battle with breast cancer.
Wittman swept nearly every locality in the district, garnering 61 percent of the vote to Forgit's 37 percent and Narain's 2 percent. Wittman will fill out the remaining year of Davis' term, and will have to run for the seat again next November.
The race was over quickly last night. Early returns leaned toward Wittman from the first, and the Associated Press called it for Wittman 45 minutes after the polls closed.
Only about 16 percent of district voters turned out to vote.
Wittman said in a telephone interview that voters feel "frustration at what's going on in Washington and want someone to go there and get things done."
He thinks they felt he would vote for the district rather than getting involved with partisan politics.
"I think people felt like we could go to Washington and get things done, they looked at the experience I had and track record I had and felt good about that," Wittman added. "I think folks felt good about our ideas about things like illegal immigration and strong national defense and making sure we get spending under control."
Democrats had hoped to pull off an upset in the Republican-leaning district, believing Forgit--a decorated Iraq veteran and former teacher--to be a strong candidate who could take advantage of the rare open seat.
But Wittman quickly racked up campaign help from national Republicans, who paid thousands of dollars for surveys, phone banks, radio ads and campaign mailers.
Forgit had campaign appearances by big-name Democrats himself--such as Gov. Tim Kaine and former governor Mark Warner--but did not see the kind of spending from national Democrats that Wittman had from Republicans. National Democrats instead focused their money on a special congressional election in Ohio.
"This wasn't a loss for Virginia Democrats; we weren't able to match the resources that the National Republicans invested in this race," Forgit said in a statement last night.
The candidates had just about one month to run for the seat--Forgit and Wittman were nominated on Nov. 10, Wittman against 10 other contenders, and Narain joined soon after. As a result it was more a race to see who could introduce themselves to voters, and get those people to turn out, than it was a battle over issues.
Wittman's win will require another special election, to fill his House of Delegates seat. Wittman has represented the 99th District--which comprises the Northern Neck and parts of Caroline County--since 2005.
He was re-elected just last month, but will now have to step down before Congress goes back into session in early January.
That creates a quandary; state law prohibits the holding of any election within the 60 days preceding a primary. Both Republicans and Democrats are holding presidential primaries on Feb. 12. Waiting that long to have an election for Wittman's seat, however, means the 99th district would not have a delegate for the majority of the General Assembly session, which runs from January to the end of February. The localities in the 99th district have written a letter to the governor asking for special legislation to allow an earlier election.
Two candidates have already indicated interest in running for the seat--Democrat Albert Pollard Jr., who had the seat himself before retiring in 2005, and former King George County supervisor Bob Barlow.
Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362