Although Del. Jeannemarie Devolites (R) would've likely have won had she decided to remain in the House of Delegates, she opted instead to run for the state Senate seat for the 34th district. The seat became open when the district boundaries were redrawn.
Being in the Senate will have several advantages, Devolites said, including longer terms and fewer legislators in the body.
"Because I have an opportunity to be a Republican female voice in the Senate, I will bring a dimension and perspective that isn't represented presently," Devolites said.
Devolites, 47, has lived in the Town of Vienna for 12 years and in Oakton for eight years, along with her four daughters, ages 25, 22, 18 and 15. She works as a partner in ICG Government, which helps companies facilitate relationships with state, local and federal governments.
For the past six years, she has represented the 35th house district, serving as Majority Whip in the last two years of her term.
"To be elected into leadership in just four years is quite an achievement. I think that speaks of my leadership skills," Devolites said. "Second of all, in the last six years, I have been the chief sponsor for 75 bills that have gone through the House and the Senate and signed by the Governor, 19 this past session. I'm really proud of that record. I've worked really, really hard the past six years, and I think that's a good measure of success, achievement, and hard work."
As Devolites looked at the issues of transportation, education and taxes, she offered suggestions which she hoped would improve the quality of life in northern Virginia. For transportation, Devolites supports a combination of mass transit projects and major road improvements, including rail to Dulles and an additional bridge to Maryland. As part of the Public-Private Transportation Act, she has been working with a company representative on a proposal to bring HOT lanes to the Beltway. Devolites also suggested better light synchronization and more turn lanes so traffic wouldn't back up.
"What dollars we do have for transportation, we need to use more efficiently," Devolites said.
On education, Devolites advocated school accountability and changes to the funding formula. With other Republican legislators last year, Devolites proposed changing the formula over time, and included an equitable clause saying that if a jurisdiction had a decline in student population, the jurisdiction wouldn't get more money.
"We're continuing that [discussion] so the rest of the legislators can hear, we may be the wealthiest part of the state, but we have tremendous needs as well, and we need more of our dollars back to provide what we need for our schools," Devolites said.
Regarding taxes, Devolites suggested revenue sharing, as well as tweaking the income tax and sharing income tax revenues with local governments. She also wanted to see Fairfax County make cuts to their budget as well, as real estate tax accounts for more than half of the county's budget.
"I think the Virginia state government is very lean right now, but I've noticed in Fairfax County, real estate taxes have gone up 54 percent in the last four years, which is way greater than population and inflation combined. And they had a $39 million dollar surplus this year, and did not choose to reduce our real estate tax rate, and relieve some of the burden, but spend it as they though was the wisest way to spend it," Devolites said.
She continued, "But I'm not so sure they're running such a lean operation, and I'd like to know that the members of the Board of Supervisors would have an outside inspector general...They keep crying out that Richmond needs to send them more, but I think that's because they'd rather that the state legislators deal with increasing the tax burden instead of looking at their own operation, and that concerns me."
A Devolites' win would also help give Republicans a better majority ratio in the state Senate, said fellow Republican Bill Schmidt in an April interview. Schmidt serves as Sully chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee.
"It'll be another conservative voice in the Senate," Schmidt said.
But not only would a win for Devolites favor Republicans, it would favor her constituents as well, said Paula Roberts of Vienna. Devolites had helped her receive $20,000 from Kaiser Permanente after they had improperly treated on Roberts' daughter, who had a broken bone.
"She just got in like a tiger and pulled in for me," Roberts said.
Roberts added that Devolites' honesty also makes her an attractive candidate.
"She's quite straight up about what she wants to do...To me, she's doing it because she cares about the state of Virginia," Roberts said.