Pragmatism the overall winner in local elections

By Wednesday, Virginia's simple preference for practical politicians was on display in results from the top of the ballot to the bottom.

In Virginia Beach and Suffolk, for example, local politicians known for solving problems - or at least not being part of them - were rewarded with victories that add up to a call for change.

That choice of pragmatism over partisanship is an echo of the one that carried Mark Warner to the U.S. Senate and - to some degree - Barack Obama to the White House.

The 2nd District

Even so, the stunning upset of U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake will stand as one of the surer local signs of the sheer force of the wave that washed through Washington and America Tuesday and swept newcomer Glenn Nye into her office.

In Virginia's 2nd - a sprawling district constructed to be one of the most reliably Republican in the commonwealth - Drake's personal touch and constituent service just weren't enough to overcome a huge turnout and her myopic vote against the new GI Bill.

Two years ago, residents of the district watched as Drake was exiled, along with the rightward wing of her party, to Congress' back benches and to the margins of the national conversation, which was shifting inexorably toward compromise.

Like Warner and Sen. Jim Webb, Nye ran as something other than a predictable Democrat, endorsing the Bush tax cuts and a responsible withdrawal from Iraq.

The former foreign service officer campaigned as the kind of candidate who cares more about fixing what's broken than adhering to doctrine, a message that clearly resonates in Virginia's expanding moderate middle, which has claimed hold on the 2nd District.

Campaigns such as Nye's are easy to run when you're at home, surrounded by voters who are fed up with partisan bickering. It'll be more difficult to keep those promises when Nye finds his way to Washington and is surrounded by a newly ascendant Democratic Party leadership.

The 2nd District will be watching closely to make sure he makes good on his promise to be a voice for reason and responsibility in a House that will otherwise have few checks to keep it from overreaching.

Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach voters expressed Tuesday what people have been saying quietly for months: Meyera Obern-dorf, their populist ceremonial mayor for 20 years, had served the city well, but it was time for a mayor with the fortitude and the aptitude to dive into the city's thorniest challenges.

Will Sessoms' upset victory brings an end to the traditional ambassador role of mayor. Now the former vice mayor, a bank president, must make good on his promises to recruit new businesses to the Beach, step up efforts to deal with traffic and transit and figure out how to protect the city's quality public services and schools in the face of severe budget cuts. Sessoms' victory is a plus for Hampton Roads and gives Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim a much stronger partner in championing a regional agenda.

Of the city's 288,000 registered voters, 58 percent cast ballots in the mayor's race - more than three times the usual turnout in municipal elections. The anemic showing of candidates backed by the Taxpayer Alliance demonstrates that there is little appetite for dramatic change in municipal direction.

A page has turned in Virginia Beach. Voters signaled the end of the line for two of the longest-serving women politicians in the region, Oberndorf and Reba McClanan, a six-term incumbent.

Both came to power in the 1970s as part of the anti-growth movement. Both have spent their lives serving the city honorably and diligently. But voters soured on McClanan's habit of voting no and having nothing to show for it.

Her challenger, Glenn Davis, presented himself as a sharp and appealing contrast with a positive, business-like vision.

Beach voters also rewarded new terms to incumbents Rosemary Wilson and Harry Diezel. Bob Dyer of Centerville, a proponent of budget reform, got a free pass.

Suffolk

In Suffolk, Mayor Linda Johnson, the first woman chosen by the City Council for that post, became the first mayor elected by voters, emerging from a crowd of a half-dozen hopefuls with a decisive victory across the city.

After a tumultuous two years in office, Johnson's sure presence during the spring tornado, where she both gave voice to the tragedy and helped lead the humanitarian response, stands as an example of the kind of dedication voters hope to find in their elected officials.

The former Sleepy Hole councilwoman's knowledge of the issues helped her win support across the city and its demographic groups, precisely what leaders hoped for when they advocated the direct election of the city's mayor.

If Johnson's victory - along with the re-election of councilmen Curtis Milteer and Leroy Bennett - was an endorsement of the city's municipal track, the results of the School Board voting leads to another conclusion.

In a school division that has struggled to satisfy the demands of a rapidly growing population, voters insisted on change.

The two incumbents running for re-election - including the vice chairman - lost on Tuesday. Three newcomers, Diane Foster, Phyllis Byrum and Thelma Hinton, will now take seats on a School Board that will immediately have to begin working harder to satisfy the growing demands of students and their parents.

NORTH CAROLINA

The divide-and-conquer style of politics, employed so effectively by longtime U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, doesn't appear to work as well in North Carolina anymore.

A year ago, Republican Elizabeth Dole - who served in high-ranking posts in three White House administrations and is the wife of former GOP presidential candidate and longtime Sen. Bob Dole - was widely regarded as a shoo-in for re-election to a second term in the seat long held by the late Helms.

But Dole was upset by Democrat Kay Hagan, a state legislator and the niece of the late Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles. Hagan captured 53 percent of the vote, with Dole trailing at 44 percent.

Hagan was part of a national shift toward Democrats, evident in Barack Obama's apparent victory in North Carolina, the first by a Democratic presidential candidate in the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Dole began to lose ground when Hagan focused a spotlight on how little time the senator, a North Carolina native, actually spent in the state, all of 13 days in 2006, according to one news report.

Dole sealed her fate with TV commercials that portrayed Hagan as "godless" for attending a fundraiser in Massachusetts hosted by several dozen people, including two atheists. The "Hagan the Pagan" label, as a Charlotte columnist dubbed it, apparently didn't sit well with voters. Hagan happens to be a longtime Sunday school teacher and elder at her Presbyterian Church.

Similar tactics failed for Republican Robin Hayes, a five-term congressman from the Charlotte area. He, too, was ahead until he declared that "Liberals hate real Americans" at a October rally for John McCain. Hayes lost by 10 points to a small-town teacher, Democrat Larry Kissell.

Given the backlash against Dole, Hayes and others around the country who stooped to similar rhetoric, it appears that voters - particularly North Carolinians - have finally developed a distaste for candidates who engage in Helms-style smears.