I wanted to jot down some quick facts on the records of the two candidates who will meet in person tomorrow night for the "Putting the 'Fair' in Fairfax" State Senate Candidate Discussion Forum. Both State Senator Jeannemarie Devolites-Davis and former state Delegate Chap Petersen are scheduled to attend the event. We thought it would be useful to present a few facts about the candidates' histories prior to the event.
Candidates Janet Oleszek and George Barker in the 37th and 39th State Senate districts will also be in attendance, but their opponents in those races, Sen. Ken Cuccinelli and Sen. Jay O'Brien both will not be in attendance citing other commitments. Both campaigns not in attendance have been given an opportunity to submit statements that could be read at the forum.
In the 34th Distrct race between Sen. Devolites-Davis and former Del. Petersen, both candidates voted to pass the infamous "HB 751" or "Affirmation of Marriage Act" in 2004, Devolites-Davis as a member of the State Senate, and Petersen as a member of the state House of Delegates. Petersen received a lot of criticism from within the GLBT community after his vigorous support of the measure in 2004 and during his subsequent unsuccessful run for the Lt. Governor nomination in 2005. Devolites-Davis received criticism for her support as well, within the GLBT community.
Devolites-Davis voted to support the so-called "marriage amendment" or the Marshall-Newman constitutional amendment in 2006. Petersen, although no longer a member of the legislature in 2006, was on record as supporting such an amendment during the 2005 session and during his run for Lieutenant Governor. However, prior to the 2006 election, Petersen announced (see his comments here and this Raising Kaine post) that he would be voting against putting the amendment into Virginia's constitution in its sacred and long-standing Bill of Rights.
Both candidates have supported non-discrimination laws and policies. In fact, in the 2007 session, Senator Devolites-Davis was the chief patron of a public employment non-discrimination bill that would have codified Governor Kaine's non-discrimination order in state public employment. The bill failed in committee by only one vote along party lines (7-8).
Also recently, Petersen's membership in the Truro Parish congregation in Fairfax that voted to leave the US Episcopalian Church over the inclusion of gay & lesbian people and their relationships in congregational life, has been an issue discussed in the Virginia blogosphere.
Both candidates have a record of engaging on our issues and we are delighted to have them in attendance tomorrow evening. This is by no means an exhaustive synopsis of their records, but it's a starting point.
Tomorrow's forum will be an excellent opportunity for these candidates to discuss not only what they've done in the past on our issues, but what we can expect for them to do in the future if they are elected this November. We look forward to an engaging evening and hope the members and friends of Equality Fairfax will show up in force to engage these two candidates on important issues to our community!