In Northern Va., a Republican Brigadoon

Clifton Remains One of Few Enclaves in Strongly Democratic Region

One of the last remaining Republican enclaves in the Democratic stronghold of Northern Virginia is not in Loudoun, and it's not in Prince William: It's Clifton, a tiny Civil War-era railroad town in southwestern Fairfax County.

Since 2000, the last time most voters in Northern Virginia sided with a Republican for president, the region's political map has changed dramatically. With each year, Democrats have captured more ground, gaining majorities in Centreville, Sterling, Manassas and McLean and upending decades of GOP-leaning voting patterns.

But not in Clifton. The 4,500 registered voters of the town and its surrounds, a rolling rural expanse of estates and horse farms along Bull Run Creek and the Occoquan River, have unwaveringly defied the trend lines. Clifton voted for Republicans Mark L. Earley and Jerry W. Kilgore for governor in 2001 and 2005; for George Allen for the U.S. Senate in 2006; and, by an almost 2 to 1 margin last month, for Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the GOP presidential nominee.

As the rest of Northern Virginia has grown rapidly and, in places, transformed from exurb to suburb to city, Clifton has not. Strict growth restrictions have kept it largely untouched. And politicians on both sides of the aisle say it might never be overtaken.

"Clifton is far from the city. It is a very rural place, and from a political standpoint that makes it more Republican," said former GOP congressman Tom Davis, who represented Clifton until his retirement last month. "The town isn't much different than it was 30 years ago."

Clifton's downtown is a quaint collection of Victorian houses, a general store and a restaurant, the Heart in Hand, that was a Nancy Reagan favorite when her husband was president. Outside of town, Clifton's estates rise one after another along scenic roads, often separated by picturesque post-and-rail fencing or old-growth boxwood.

"We have a lot of successful businesspeople down here, business owners," said Mayor Tom Peterson, a retired schoolteacher who lives on historic Main Street. "Business owners tend to go with Republicans. That's my personal slant on it."

Peterson, a self-described "conservative Republican," finds it remarkable the way the area around Clifton has shifted so much toward Democrats.

"We are an island in Fairfax County," he said. "I am a lifelong resident of Fairfax, and I have friends who hold the same views as I do. We do ask ourselves sometimes, 'Who are these people?' "

Compared with the rest of Fairfax County, Clifton's residents are older, according to U.S. Census data. They are whiter. They are more affluent. Greater Clifton's population of 15,000 is less than 3 percent black. The average home value was $661,000 at the beginning of this year, compared with a countywide average of $524,000.

Clifton Republicans are complicated. In 2006, they voted for a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, but by a slimmer margin than they supported Allen that year or McCain last month. They overwhelmingly approved every local bond vote in recent years to invest in schools, parks, roads and human services, even though that meant higher taxes.

All of which makes Clifton's electorate neither deeply socially conservative nor uniformly opposed to taxes. Locals say they are longtime Republicans whose association with the GOP brand hasn't wavered despite decades of change in the party. Clifton residents are "Republican lite," one prominent local Republican said -- libertarian-minded individuals who like privacy and separation but don't mind paying for the government services they want and are not as focused on social issues as many other Virginia Republicans.

"A lot of the Republicans in Clifton are like a lot of Republicans in Fairfax used to be," said Sen. George L. Barker (D-Fairfax), who defeated an incumbent Republican last year despite a steeper loss in Clifton than in the portion of his district in Prince William County. Barker lives in Clifton, but he won his election with huge margins in the Lorton, Kingstowne and Franconia areas of Fairfax. "A lot of them are very moderate on social issues and moderately conservative on fiscal issues. They believe strongly that we need to address our issues and problems in the county and the state."

Clifton is not the last GOP enclave in Northern Virginia. Republicans hang on in the Nokesville area in far western Prince William and the Forestville precinct in Great Falls. Both areas have this in common with Clifton: large parcels that attract wealthy families and prohibit the type of tract housing, townhouses or apartments that many political observers say explain the Democratic shift in communities such as Sterling, Centreville and Vienna.

In Virginia politics, Davis said, people who live in townhouses and apartments tend to vote Democratic, and those who choose suburban-style, single-family neighborhoods lean more Republican. Residents of more rural areas include fewer minorities, and they tend to stay put. Development in the Clifton area was restricted years ago (when Davis was on the county Board of Supervisors) to protect the watershed of the Occoquan Reservoir. Today, homes must be built on parcels no smaller than five acres -- a restriction that has done much to shape the economics and political bent of Clifton's residents.

Barker won't seek reelection until 2011, but even then, he expects a tough battle for Clifton. And few Democrats familiar with the politics of the enclave expect to be able to mount a serious campaign next year against Del. Timothy D. Hugo (R-Fairfax), who lives in and represents the area. Outsiders assume that Democrats will continue to snap up the remaining Republican-held legislative seats in Northern Virginia. Insiders say that in Clifton, it won't ever be that simple.