Virginia GOP Optimistic About Legislative Sweep

Virginia Republicans are two state Senate seats away from controlling the state’s three executive offices and the General Assembly’s two chambers, the Virginian Pilot reported Monday. That has the GOP girding for the fall elections.

Republicans controlled both chambers for about a decade until 2007, but their agenda was hampered by Democratic governors. A win in the fall would allow the GOP to push its agenda without obstruction.

"Bringing common-sense conservative leadership back to the Senate is probably the most important thing we can do in this election," Garren Shipley, a spokesman for the state Republican Party, told the newspaper. "We really want to take the Senate back."

Joe Guarino, who heads the legislative committee of the Richmond Tea Party, said a shift in power would change the outcome of the many bills in favor of the conservatives.

"I think you'll see a lot of tea party folks who will get out and work in campaigns across the commonwealth" this fall to try to change the balance, he said.