This is the last in a series of articles on Tuesday’s General Assembly primaries in Northern Virginia. For more, visit washingtonpost.com/vapolitics.
On either side of Gallberry Terrace, building crews are everywhere — hammering nails into the frame of houses and sawing pieces of plywood in yards still bare of grass.
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The sounds of construction can be heard throughout Loudoun County’s Stone Ridge, a Truman Show-esque planned community with its own parks, schools and shops.
The half-built row of seven townhouses are dressed in massive green tarps. Virtually every one of them boasts a red Too late, Sold! sign.
A decade ago, the last time the census released numbers before this year, this land was comprised of empty fields. Today, it’s home to more than 5,000 people.
“We thought with all the stuff happening with the economy, they’d stop building,’’ said Justin Whitmer, who bought a Gallberry Terrace home with his wife four months ago. “That didn’t happen.”
Stone Ridge — and the other developments that have popped up seemingly overnight — contributed to the half-million new residents that crowded into Northern Virginia in the last decade, forcing lawmakers to shift the state’s political boundaries.
The growth has led the region to gain one seat in the Senate and three in the House of Delegates — all in the thriving outer suburbs of Loudoun and Prince William counties. Rural parts of the state, once home to farms and factories, have seen their political representation decline as lost jobs led to an exodus.
This new Virginia was born when people moved farther away from the District as jobs became more plentiful, families looked for more space and homeowners searched for the more affordable.
“The creation of the new 13th district is something that was long recognized as coming because of the growth we’re seeing,’’ said Prince William Supervisor John T. Stirrup, who is running for state Senate. “We could see the shift.”
Republican candidates
A trio of Republicans in the 13th Senate District have spent months knocking on doors in advance of Tuesday’s primary, trying to win the opportunity to take on a Democrat in November’s general election.
The three agree on most major issues — opposing tax hikes, cracking down on illegal immigration and scaling back the skyrocketing cost of extending Metro to Dulles airport — but differ in their styles and backgrounds.
No matter who wins, lawmakers in Northern Virginia, long frustrated that so many of the region’s tax dollars are sent to other parts of the state, will gain clout in Richmond as the state continues a steady power shift north to the Washington suburbs.
Northern Virginia — which will soon boast 12 senators and 29 delegates — will host nine primaries Tuesday, more than any other area of the state. Democrats looking to hold onto their slim majority in the Senate see the new seat, moved from a Republican district in Hampton Roads, as a place to possibly pick up ground in the chamber.
In the 13th district, Stirrup faces former Loudoun delegate Dick Black, known as one of the most conservative voices in the House, and Prince William chief deputy clerk Bob FitzSimmonds, a previously unsuccessful candidate for Senate.
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