Jim Dillard was first elected in 1971 under a multi-member district and served throughout the 70's with one blip when he lost in the 1977 election. When single member districts were created he got the seat just south of Fairfax City that was centered in the Burke area. By the 1991 redistricting, Democrats placed him in the neighboring 37th district in hopes of forcing his retirement and picking up his seat. Dillard instead moved into an apartment in the 41st, then convinced Democrats to adjust his district so his home would once again be included in the district after the 1991 election. In 1999, Dillard finally faced a Democratic candidate- Eileen Filler-Corn- who argued his election that year would give the GOP total control of the House and they would redistrict a whole slew of right wing legislators into office. Unfortunately for Filler-Corn being right doesn't get you elected and Dillard easily defeated her and then voted for the GOP redistricting plan. By 2005 Dillard was ready to retire. His aide Dave Marsden first approached the GOP about running, but his association with Dillard led the local GOP leaders to look elsewhere for a more conservative candidate. Dave Marsden then became a Democrat and with Dillard's endorsement easily defeated a libertarian candidate who had challenged Dillard in 2003 and then became the GOP candidate in 2005. Marsden won re-election unopposed in 2007, then narrowly survived a right wing challenger in 2009 downballot from Bob McDonnell's big electoral sweep. The 2009 election opened up the Senate seat held by Ken Cuccinelli and Marsden won the special election to replace him- opening up this House seat. Eileen Filler-Corn won the special election by 37 votes. Her first general election was after redistricting in 2011 after some of the GOP-leaning precincts in this district were put into the neighboring 42nd district to shore up Delegate Dave Albo. Republicans failed to run a candidate in 2011 and Filler-Corn won her first full term unopposed.
House District #41 (map here)
100% of the vote in Fairfax County
2012 Major Party Election Results
Barack Obama 25,253 (58.9%)
Mitt Romney 17,652 (41.1%)
Tim Kaine 25,800 (60.0%)
George Allen 17,212 (40.0%)
Gerry Connolly 24,531 (59.4%)
Chris Perkins 16,768 (40.6%)
NEW JERSEY- The state the Presidential results most closely match with. New Jersey had a margin of 17.9% for Obama, while the 41st Delegate District of Virginia had a margin of 17.7% for Obama.
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One big new addition to the 41st district in the 2011 redistricting was precincts around Woodson High School (both sides of Little River Turnpike, east of Fairfax City) that had never been in the district before. These precincts are high income with not much density. Still they are Democratic leaning, as Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in this area with a 3,926-2,961 (57.0%) vote. The neighborhoods around Braddock Road are where Fairfax addresses begin to turn into Burke addresses and are less dense than other parts of Burke. There the vote for President was 4,278-3,389 (55.8%) for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. In the more dense Burke Centre area, Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney by a 5,478-3,758 (59.4%) vote. On the other side of Burke and into the far reaches of West Springfield (around Lake Braddock and West Springfield high schools) there is a lot of density as well. In those areas Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney by a 5,857-3,294 (64.0%) vote. Finally, the 41st still includes a couple of precincts on the south side of Burke that are just across the Fairfax County Parkway from Fairfax Station and Clifton and where there is very little housing density. That was the closest area of the district, voting for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 1,708-1,703 (50.1%) vote.
In the U.S. Senate race, the largest crossover in the district was in the Woodson area. There, Tim Kaine defeated George Allen by a 4,076-2,832 (59.0%) vote, a 2.0% crossover for Kaine over Obama's totals. Kaine also won a noticeable crossover in the low density areas where Burke and Fairfax addresses meet, a 4,421-3,290 (57.3%) vote over Allen, or a 1.5% improvement for Kaine over Obama. The crossover was much lower in high density precincts. In the Burke Centre area, Tim Kaine defeated George Allen with a 5,541-3,744 (59.7%) margin, 0.3% better for Kaine than Obama. The high density areas around Lake Braddock and West Springfield also voted for Kaine over Allen by a 5,908-3,243 (64.6%) vote, a 0.6% better showing for Kaine than Obama. In the low density areas on the southern tip of Burke, Tim Kaine's crossover grew back to where it was in the lower density areas on the other side of the district- winning by a 1,754-1,650 (51.5%) vote over George Allen, a 1.4% crossover for Kaine over Obama.
The 41st district is entirely within the 11th Congressional district boundaries. The area near Woodson High School is the home of Congressman Gerry Connolly. Connolly spent years as a local elected official leading the Democratic vote in these neighborhoods around Woodson. So even with the falloff voting, it was surprising to see him beat Chris Perkins here by a 3,827-2,685 (58.8%) vote, a lower raw vote total than Obama's 3,926 or Kaine's 4,076 in these precincts. Sometimes federal issues eliminate some of the hometown favorite vote patterns, but not usually this completely. The falloff voting for Perkins was even larger, which gave Connolly a 1.8% better showing than Obama in percentage. Still that was 0.2% behind Kaine in his own neighborhood with a lower raw vote than Kaine or Obama. The lower density precincts around the Burke/Fairfax address change area gave Gerry Connolly a 4,148-3,294 (55.7%) win over Chris Perkins. That's 0.1% better for Perkins than Romney's showing, but that change in percentage is from fall-off voting again. In the Burke Centre area, Gerry Connolly won with a 5,350-3,585 (59.9%) vote over Chris Perkins, 0.5% better for Connolly than Obama's showing and even 0.2% better than Kaine's showing because of falloff GOP votes once again. The highly dense areas around Lake Braddock and West Springfield high schools voted for Gerry Connolly over Chris Perkins by a 5,593-3,163 (63.9%) tally, a 0.1% improvement for Perkins over Romney's showing because of the fall-off voters. Finally in the low density precincts on the southern side of Burke, Gerry Connolly beat Chris Perkins by a 1,654-1,647 (50.1%) count, the same percentage Obama got in those precincts.
This district had some big changes in redistricting. In the district lines over the last 20 years, over 75% of the population has been in the West Springfield or Lake Braddock precincts with the local candidates coming out of those areas. Now, only about 30% of the population is in those areas, with neighborhoods around Robinson and Woodson High Schools now making up 70% of the population. Eileen Filler-Corn probably got into office just in time since she is from the part of the district that was shrunk in the redistricting. This change of neighborhoods has the potential to lead to some competitive elections here if Filler-Corn is unable to lock down the new district. Being uncontested in 2011 didn't help as many of these precincts still are unlikely to know who their new Delegate is. Filler-Corn will be fairly safe in 2013 with the higher turnout and Ken Cuccinelli leading the GOP ticket, as Cuccinelli represented much of this area in the State Senate and was never very strong in this part of his district. In 2015 though don't be surprised to see this seat be the top GOP target for takeover in Fairfax County- especially with 90% of the district having GOP Supervisors in John Cook and Pat Herrity on the ballot. Filler-Corn will hope to lock the district down in the meantime but she will need to excite these higher density Democratic voters to the polls or the 41st district becomes a lot more competitive than it looks in a Presidential election.
Previous Districts Covered
House District #1- Terry Kilgore (Utah)
House District #2- Mark Dudenhefer (Delaware)
House District #3- Will Morefield (Utah)
House District #4- Joe Johnson (Wyoming)
House District #5- Israel O'Quinn (Wyoming)
House District #6- Anne Crockett-Stark (Oklahoma)
House District #7- Nick Rush (Kansas)
House District #8- Greg Habeeb (Arkansas)
House District #9- Charles Poindexter (West Virginia)
House District #10- Randy Minchew (North Carolina)
House District #11- Onzlee Ware (Rhode Island)
House District #12- Joseph Yost (Virginia)
House District #13- Bob Marshall (New Mexico)
House District #14- Danny Marshall (North Carolina)
House District #15- Todd Gilbert (Idaho)
House District #16- Don Merricks (Mississippi)
House District #17- Chris Head (Tennessee)
House District #18- Michael Webert (South Dakota)
House District #19- Lacey Putney (West Virginia)
House District #20- Dickie Bell (Texas)
House District #22- Kathy Byron (Kentucky)
House District #23- Scott Garrett (Idaho)
House District #24- Ben Cline (Arkansas)
House District #25- Steve Landes (Kentucky)
House District #26- Tony Wilt (Mississippi)
House District #28- Bill Howell (Florida)
House District #29- Bev Sherwood (Tennessee)
House District #30- Ed Scott (Montana)
House District #31- Scott Lingamfelter (Minnesota)
House District #32- Tag Greason (New Hampshire)
House District #33- Joe May (Alaska)
House District #36- Ken Plum (Rhode Island)
House District #37- David Bulova (Massachusetts)
House District #40- Tim Hugo (North Carolina)
House District #50- Jackson Miller (Michigan)
House District #51- Rich Anderson (Ohio)
House District #52- Luke Torian (Hawaii)
House District #57- David Toscano (Hawaii)
House District #58- Rob Bell (Texas)
House District #59- Matt Fariss (South Dakota)
House District #60- James Edmunds (North Carolina)
House District #67- Jim LeMunyon (Michigan)
House District #86- Tom Rust (Massachusetts)
House District #87- David Ramadan (Washington)
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