OPINION:
Virginia state Sen. John Chapman “Chap” Petersen and I have a few things in common. We are the same age, 55, and we both grew up in Fairfax County. We also remember a time when lots of moderate Democrats held elective offices in Fairfax.
Mr. Petersen’s defeat last week in the Democratic primary to left-wing challenger Saddam Salim brings the Petersen era to an end, and with it an era of centrist Democrats in Fairfax. Perhaps not forever, but certainly for the near future.
Due to redistricting, Senate District 37 included some of Falls Church, which made up about 12% of the electorate. That was new territory for Mr. Petersen, and very helpful to Mr. Salim, who made an issue of the incumbent’s opposition to an assault weapons ban and to extended masking in schools.
Still, Mr. Petersen’s loss was an upset and an indicator of how far left the Democratic Party has moved.
(As further evidence of that, Fairfax Democrats also ousted a liberal state senator, George Barker, in favor of school board member Stella Pekarsky, who challenged Mr. Barker from the left. Democratic primary voters also rejected a moderate challenger to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, a soft-on-crime prosecutor backed by leftist billionaire George Soros.)
Even though I’m a conservative Republican, I am saddened by Mr. Petersen’s loss. To me, he was the last sensible elected Democrat in my home county.
I first heard the name “Chap” Petersen in 2001, when he challenged Republican state Del. Jack Rust. Mr. Rust was in line to become speaker of the House of Delegates, but the hardworking Mr. Petersen snuck up behind him in a fairly major upset.
Some Republicans did see it coming. I recall GOP state Sen. Jane Woods telling fellow Republicans: “Don’t underestimate Petersen.” Apparently, Mr. Rust did just that and lost.
That upset victory helped Mr. Petersen acquire the moniker the “scrappy fighter.” Years later, I found myself in his office and noticed that he had an editorial cartoon depicting him as the “scrappy fighter” hanging on his wall. He was proud of that sobriquet.
When Mr. Petersen entered the House of Delegates in 2002, I was working for a conservative group in Richmond, and my job was to track various bills. My view of Mr. Petersen formed in that first session. I watched and concluded that Mr. Petersen was generally a moderate Democrat who would buck the Democratic then-governor, Mark Warner, from time to time.
He probably enjoyed the attention, and no doubt took pride in having an independent streak. His House district probably had a high percentage of centrist Democrats who appreciated Mr. Petersen’s moderation. In 2002, the party still had a sizable number of moderates.
In 2008, Mr. Petersen moved up to the state Senate after making a quixotic 2005 run for lieutenant governor, in which he came in third in the Democratic primary.
Mr. Petersen’s victory in the state Senate race in 2007 was also considered an upset. The “scrappy fighter” had struck again. He ran against moderate Republican then-Congressman Tom Davis’ second wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, and the Davis machine. Not all Fairfax Republicans were disappointed by Ms. Devolites Davis’ loss.
But the politics of Fairfax County have changed greatly since Mr. Petersen was first elected to the state Senate. Consider this: Just two years later, Republican Bob McDonnell was elected governor in 2009, and he carried Fairfax County. That would be unlikely to happen now.
The earnest and hardworking Mr. Petersen no doubt thought that he could remain a moderate, and through some combination of constituent services and personality, along with fidelity to Democrats on a few high-profile issues, remain in office.
Mr. Petersen probably thought that his Democratic base would grant him some leeway. After all, in his mind, he had earned it, and they owed him. He had beaten Mr. Rust. He had beaten the Davis machine. Surely he would be afforded some independence, some votes of conscience, some occasional wandering from orthodoxy — off the reservation, as it were.
But Mr. Petersen was too much of a moderate, too much of a freethinker for a Democratic Party that is increasingly in sync with far-left Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent — at least in Fairfax County.
Mr. Petersen generally supported the Second Amendment. He realized some of the constitutional problems with red flag laws. He also seemed uncomfortable with “woke” campaigns to change highway names in Fairfax County.
He also believed that then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a fellow Democrat, was wrong to shutter our state and close our schools for so long during the pandemic. Mr. Petersen thought it was wrong to keep masks on kids in schools. Nor was he on board with transgender ideology.
In other words, Mr. Petersen was a rational, reasonable person. Nowadays, such a person is not going to win in a Democratic primary in Fairfax County.
University of Virginia professor and pundit Larry Sabato once opined that if former President Ronald Reagan were alive, healthy and politically active today, he couldn’t get the Republican nomination for office.
Well, Mr. Sabato doesn’t have to speculate about a historical figure. When it comes to examining the ideological shift of a political party, he need look no further than at what happened on June 20 in Virginia. The Democratic Party has moved so far left that Mr. Petersen was denied his party’s renomination for a state Senate seat he has held since 2008.
• David Shephard, who blogs on Virginia politics at TheVaGentleman.blogspot.com, is the author of “Elections Have Consequences: A Cautionary Tale,” a roman-a-clef novel loosely based on actual Virginia politics, published last summer.
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