Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – Virginia Democrats had their best night in elections in decades Tuesday, picking up 15 seats and possibly four others in races that are being re-counted. The Democrats only need to win two of those four seats to gain control of the House of Delegates.
“I don’t know anyone who thought the Democrats would take the general assembly back,” said political analyst Quentin Kidd with Christopher Newport University.
He and pollster for the Virginia House Democrats Josh Ulibarri with Lake Research Partners thought Democrats would pick up between 4 and 10 seats.
The best case scenario for the Democrats is if they win all four of the elections being re-counted, which would give them a 53 seat majority in the House of Delegates. Even if the worst case scenario where they lose all four of the elections being re-counted, Democrats would have 50 seats, the same number as Republicans. In that case the new Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would cast the tie-breaking vote to determine the new house speaker.
Over the last two years Gov.Terry McAuliffe has vetoed a record-number of bills. In some cases those vetoes were sustained by a single vote.
“So even if we don’t get the majority, every vote counts because these Republicans in the House and Senate may pass really regressive measures that [Gov. Ralph] Northam has to veto, and then the House has to sustain,” Ulibarri said.
Kidd said no matter what happens with the four races being re-counted, things will change dramatically in Richmond.
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