Virginia’s newly redrawn 35th Senate district in the DC suburbs, is comfortably blue. Youngkin took just 34% of the vote there and Hillary beat Trump 66.2% to 27.3%. Whomever wins the primary is sure to go to the state Senate. Think about that for one second. The only way to hold a legislator accountable is in the primary. That’s the election that counts in this Fairfax County district that stretches from Lake Barcroft and Mantua down to West Springfield. And the redistricting threw two longtime establishment politicians into the same district, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Dick Saslaw and former Republican Dave Marsden. Both are notorious corporate shills. But Saslaw has all but announced he’s retiring, which would lead Marsden as the sole incumbent.
Right now Blue America is looking into an interesting progressive challenger, Heidi Drauschak and we’ll get back to you about her after we interview her and learn more about her plans for a Senate career. What I have learned so far is that she is very different from Marsden. If people in the district know one thing about Marsden, it’s that in 2020 he was responsible for watering down an effort to raise Virginia's minimum wage. While the House of Delegates passed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 by 2026, Marsden brought the upper limit down to $12 by 2023. In addition, he rebuffed a proposal from House Democrats to peg automatic annual minimum wage increases to inflation. "I’m very concerned that just taking this up will have a... huge impact on the economy and I just want to slow this down a little,” he said.
Marsden is very business-friendly, in a very Republican fashion. The following year he refused to consider repealing Virginia's outdated "Right to Work" provisions, again taking a conservative Republican position against working families. “We need to make sure that Virginia has a strong business climate. I don’t think now is the time to do this... putting this kind of shock to Virginia’s system this year would be ill-advised. I’m pro-union [he isn’t]. I just don’t want to undo ‘right to work’ at this time.”
The more I learned about Marsden— a friend of mine used to work for him— the more convinced I became that he needs to be replaced by someone more in touch with the new realities of this area of Fairfax County. In 2020, as Virginia Democrats were on the verge of passing the Fairness in Lending Act— which would have banned high-interest loans from payday lenders— Marsden attempted to add a reenactment clause, which would have required lawmakers to re-authorize the bill one year later. Critics said that would have been a death knell for the reform effort, giving the industry an opportunity to mobilize lobbyists and step up campaign contributions when lawmakers returned home after the session was over. "We still have to maintain access to this credit,” said Marsden, who received $11,500 from LoanMax since 2007. "I think a reenactment clause slowing this train down a little bit would give us time to react next year giving these companies time to transition.” Marsden also voted against multiple amendments from Governor Northam, which would have implemented the law 6 months earlier than initially scheduled.
The beef many people in the district have with Marsden is that he’s so overtly bought off by corporate interests. He’s taken over a million dollars in corporate campaign contributions over the course of his career. He has taken over $196,000 from Dominion, $31,500 from Altria and $38,850 from Verizon. He has also taken from Appalachian Power, Columbia Gas, Washington Gas, the Virginia Petroleum Convenience and Grocery Association, Pfizer, HCA, Anthem and Raytheon.
But the thing that pisses a certain constituency of his off is his role in the 2021 beagle scandal. Beagles are the least aggressive breed of dogs towards humans. And for that reason beagles are bred and sold to laboratories for experimentation. That year the USDA uncovered abuse and mistreatment of thousands of beagles at Envigo's medical research facility in Cumberland County, Virginia. This followed years of complaints and accusations from activists about Envigo's practices. Marsden, who chaired the Senate Subcommittee on Companion Animals, attempted to kill a bill that would have closed loopholes and provided more oversight to medical breeding facilities, like Envigo's. “This is icky business, let’s face it. But these dogs do provide life-saving research.” This followed an in-person visit of Marsden to the Envigo facility. There are plenty of people who hold him responsible for the needless deaths of 3,000 beagles and will never forgive him.
If you’re a beagle fan… or if you just want to place a conservative corporate shill with a progressive, consider contributing to Heidi Drauschak’s campaign here. We should have a better overview of who she is in a week or two. One thing we do know... she likes dogs.
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