In Fairfax Senate Race, Candidates Are Playing Against Stereotype

With the double burden of running under the banner of an unpopular president and serving a district where most new residents are young singles, northern transplants or immigrants -- all groups that lean Democratic -- the incumbent says "the atmosphere for Republicans is certainly negative, and that casts a pall."

About 30,000 of the district's 117,000 voters in the Fairfax City, Vienna and Oakton areas have moved here since the last Virginia Senate election, and Devolites Davis is trying to persuade them that she's not like downstate Republicans who win elections by emphasizing guns, gays and God. She says she wants to keep the state and religion far apart, give gay people all the legal benefits of marriage without the label itself, and let localities ban guns from schools, libraries and recreation centers. The real divide in the state, she contends, is not between R and D, but between NoVa and RoVa: Northern Virginia and the rest of the state.

"What I have become over time, being a mom and having a kid who's been in trouble, is that I don't see easy answers anymore," she says. "I'm not motivated by ideology but by pragmatism. I've gotten to know gays and lesbians, and I see them as individuals and I see that nothing is black and white. Everything's gray."

Petersen rolls his eyes at his opponent's purported moderation and attributes it to her declining standing in the polls. "Once their numbers start going south, they become bipartisan," quips the lifelong Fairfax City resident who served two terms in the General Assembly before a losing bid to be lieutenant governor.

In an era when party identification is weaker than ever before, Petersen argues that this election is very much about party. "There's going to be a change in leadership in this state," he tells voters at a Mantua Civic Association debate. "Are we going to be part of that change? Don't let people from downstate tell you you're not a real Virginian. We are the Virginia experience."

Devolites Davis's retort to that applause line is to argue that a senior Republican wields more power than a freshman Democrat, which makes some sense.

Unless, that is, the Democrats take back control of the Senate, which they are four votes away from doing. In Richmond, party determines power.

E-mail:marcfisher@washpost.com