02/13/14: An old-fashioned race in the 100th

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

VIRGINIA’S General Assembly hit the midpoint of its session this week. After crossover, as it’s known, each chamber will consider only legislation and amendments of the other chamber, with the exception of the budget bills and revenue bills.

The legislature reached crossover with a full complement of state senators and 99 members of the House of Delegates. Missing from the House was a representative for the 100th District, the remaining consequence of November’s elections.

Voters in the 100th will head to the polls Feb. 25 to choose between Democratic nominee Willie Randall and Republican nominee Rob Bloxom. The 100th district is primarily on the Eastern Shore, but more than a third of its voters are in Norfolk.

Unlike the contest for the 6th Senate District, which started the day after the November general election, this race is expected to be a low-key — and low turnout — affair.

With just over two weeks between the nominating contests and the special election, there simply isn’t enough time for a full-blown campaign. Neither candidate has a website, relying instead on Facebook pages to share campaign information. Both candidates, along with their staffs, are taking to the streets to knock on doors.

Voters aren’t the only ones fatigued with Virginia’s never-ending elections. Donors are, too, and I suspect we will see that in the type of advertising the campaigns undertake. Don’t expect to see your TV shows inundated with ads or your mailbox filled with fliers. The combination of the short time frame and the lack of resources makes that unlikely.

I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. In many ways, this contest is a throwback to an earlier time, before sophisticated campaigning became the norm.

Candidates used to have to engage in personal campaigning by reaching out to voters, employing a lot of shoe leather and attending various functions. Running between multiple meetings on the same night was the rule, rather than the exception. Randall and Bloxom will have to do that.

And like those earlier times, voters play a different role. They have to be more engaged and actively seek out information on the candidates. That’s what we used to do before there were websites containing carefully crafted statements of position or soundbites delivered in 30-second bursts.

I’m not among the 50,000-odd voters in the 100th, but I’ve been contacted by people I know who support each of the candidates.

And not just political folks, mind you. Some of the contacts I’ve had have come from people whom most would consider decidedly non-political folks. Yes, they vote. No, they don’t live and breathe politics. They just know one of the candidates and would like to see him succeed.

In an earlier time, that’s the way politics was done. It requires work, but there is a nice reward at the end: The candidates get a chance to hear from the people they would like to represent, and the people get a chance to get to know their representative.

When one of these guys knocks on your door or comes to your neighborhood meeting, take the time to talk with him. If your neighbor missed the knock or was unable to attend, share what you learned.

And then go vote Feb. 25.

Voters in the 100th will have been without representation in the General Assembly for nearly a month by the time the special election is held. Even so, once seated, the newest delegate will have the opportunity to vote on some pretty important legislation before the session ends, currently scheduled for March 8.

I believe our representative democracy works best when voters make an informed choice of who will represent them. If we’ve learned nothing else over the past two months, it’s that every vote counts.