Democrats train sights on gun issues in Northern Virginia races

While economic issues are dominating the debate from the presidential campaign down to most local contests, some Northern Virginia Democrats are hoping to make their races this year a referendum on another topic — guns.

In the state Senate contest for the 31st District , Arlington County Board member Barbara A. Favola (D) and some sympathetic activists are making the case that businesswoman Caren Merrick (R) is far to the right of suburban voters on gun-control issues.

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Lawyer Pamela Danner (D) has made the same charge against Del. Barbara Comstock (R) in their 34th District House race. And a handful of other contests in Northern Virginia feature similarly stark splits, with Democrats who get an F grade from the National Rifle Association facing Republicans who scored A’s.

Virginia as a whole tends to support gun rights and elects politicians who do as well. But voters in the close-in Washington suburbs are often more liberal than their downstate neighbors on a host of social issues, including guns.

The question in this year’s races isn’t just where Northern Virginia residents stand on gun issues; it’s whether they care enough about the subject that it will affect their votes Nov. 8.

Favola, in particular, hopes that they do.

Running to succeed retiring state Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D) in a redrawn district that stretches from Arlington to eastern Loudoun County, Favola has leaned heavily on social issues to attack Merrick. She has been helped by gun-control advocates.

At a debate at the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Station on Oct. 19, Merrick was asked by Omar Samaha — an activist whose sister, Reema Samaha, was killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre — about her position on regulation of private gun sales. Video of the exchange was posted on the liberal blog Blue Virginia.

Merrick said she believes “in gun safety and responsible gun ownership” and said her NRA ratings were similar to those of Sens. James Webb (D) and Mark R. Warner (D) “and almost every delegate here in Northern Virginia.” (That is true of Merrick’s fellow Republicans but not most of the region’s Democrats in the General Assembly.)

Merrick was also asked whether she would release the questionnaire she filled out for the NRA.

“I believe that my survey will be released before the election,” Merrick said. “But I have to say, in all candor, when I am knocking on thousands of doors in this district, the questions tonight have not been representative of what I have been asked.”

Chris LaCivita, a consultant who is working for the Merrick campaign, said Democrats are simply trying to rally their base.

“All the Democrats are doing is attempting to talk about two issues — guns and abortion — for the purpose of turning out the most ardent Democrats to vote,” LaCivita said, calling that “a big strategic gamble” given the importance of economic issues this year.

As for the NRA questionnaire, LaCivita said Merrick would release a copy of it “when Barbara Favola releases her questionnaire from the AFL-CIO.”