When Mount Vernon representative Del. Kris Amundson (D-44) made a late and unexpected decision in June not to seek re-election this year for personal financial reasons, she immediately contacted Scott Surovell.

Surovell, 38 and Fairfax County Democratic Committee chairman, had helped deliver a large margin of victory in Fairfax to President Barack Obama in the 2008 election cycle, which significantly contributed to the Democrats winning their first presidential election in Virginia in over 40 years.

Surovell also happened to be Amundson’s constituent and a life-long Mount Vernon resident.

"He was the first person I thought of to replace me. I considered him the ideal candidate for the district," said Amundson, who has held the 44th seat in the House of Delegates since 2000.

"Scott is deeply committed to Mount Vernon because he grew up here. He is also raising his children here, so he cares about the future of Mount Vernon too," she said.

Amundson said Surovell is also one of the most organized and hardest-working people she knows.

"He has the ability to work harder than anyone I have ever seen. He seems to need a lot less sleep than a normal person," said Amundson.

SUROVELL faces Republican Jay McConville on a Nov. 3 ballot. The delegate seat primarily encompasses those neighborhoods from the Potomac River to Fort Belvoir and Huntley Meadows Park that are also located south of Sherwood Hall Lane. It also includes a few communities that hug Route 1 farther north toward the City of Alexandria, such as those in the Huntington, Groveton, Bucknell and Belle Haven voting precincts.

The 44th district is one of three open seats in Fairfax County this year. Many political watchers believe McConville and the Republican Party’s chance of winning it improved when Amundson dropped out of the race.

But it is hard to imagine someone with deeper roots or a wider breadth of experience in Mount Vernon than Surovell.

"I grew up going to the Mount Vernon ice cream social," said the candidate.

On his campaign literature, Surovell not only lists what year he graduated from college and law school but also the years he graduated from Waynewood Elementary (1983) and Stephen Foster Intermediate School (1985).

Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D) handed Surovell his diploma as he walked across the stage during the 1989 West Potomac High School graduation ceremony. The candidate was also in the first class to attend West Potomac for all four years of high school.

According to his Web site, Surovell has worked at the Bob’s Big Boy in Beacon Mall and at Belle Haven Country Club in the Tennis Pro Shop.

Though Surovell’s law firm is located in the City of Fairfax, he is a member of the Mount Vernon-Lee Chamber of Commerce. As an adult, he held offices in his community’s homeowner’s association for seven years and coaches his daughter’s team in the Lee-Mount Vernon Soccer Association, where he also played as a child.

TO UNDERSTAND Surovell’s connection to Mount Vernon, one has to reach back to his parents and grandparents, who have been active in Fairfax County civic affairs, particularly in the Mount Vernon area, for more than half a century.

Surovell’s grandparents were among 20 "founding" families of the Tauxemont Community, a Mount Vernon neighborhood developed in the 1940s that was added to the National Register of Historic Places a few years ago.

The neighborhood’s founders, including Surovell’s grandparents, designed Tauxemont and built the neighborhood’s first 20 homes themselves after pooling their resources to purchase the land in Mount Vernon and housing construction supplies in bulk.

Surovell, his wife and four children live on the site of his grandparents original home and the candidate grew up a few houses away, where his parents, who divorced when Surovell was a child, bought properties with adjacent backyards.

One of Surovell’s daughters currently goes to the Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool, which his grandparents also helped start and he and his father both attended.

Still a resident of Mount Vernon, Surovell’s father served on the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission and his mother is active in the Friends of Dyke Marsh.

"His family has always been interested in serving the community. And they have always been interested in politics," said Dena Andre, who grew up with Surovell’s father in Tauxemont and served on the Tauxemont Community Association with the candidate.

AS MUCH as Surovell is associated with Mount Vernon, he is also associated with the local Democratic Party.

The candidate recently stepped down as Fairfax County Democratic Committee chairman to run for delegate.

Under Surovell’s leadership, one of Fairfax’s congressional seats also flipped from red to blue, when U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-11) replaced retiring U.S. Rep. Tom Davis (R) last year. The Fairfax County Democrats also managed to retain the county chairman position in a special election when Surovell was in charge, despite the Republicans mounting one of its strongest countywide campaign efforts in years.

Prior to his work as county chairman, Surovell had also led the Mount Vernon District Democratic Committee. And back in 1991, the candidate became U.S. Rep. Jim Moran’s first constituent services intern, working out of the congressman’s Franconia Road office. The source of Surovell’s political activism may also have familial roots.

"My father was in the middle of running for the House of Delegates when I was born," said Surovell, whose father did not win the election.

The candidate’s mother also worked for Democrats in the U.S. Congress for 28 years, including local U.S. Rep. Herb Harris (D-8), who represented Mount Vernon on Capitol Hill from 1975 to 1980.

"My mother did a lot of the nitty-gritty, door-to-door precinct work. Our dinner time conversations growing up were always about politics," said Surovell.

STILL, some Republicans have accused of Surovell of being "highly partisan."

Several Democrats called Braddock District Supervisor John Cook’s swearing in speech at March ceremony offensive when the Republican implied that all federally subsidized housing was "crime ridden," "drug infested," and a societal blight. But Surovell took his outrage with Cook farther than others.

On the Fairfax County Democratic Committee blog, Surovell accused Cook of "race baiting" and using "law and order demagoguery" during the speech. Some Republicans asked Surovell to apologize at the time and he refused.

Under his leadership, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee also launched Web site aimed at spreading negative information and attacks about Fairfax County’s three remaining Republican incumbents in the Virginia House of Delegates.

These blogs, "www.bustrust.com" aimed at Del. Tom Rust (R-86), "www.nomohugo.com" aimed at Del. Tim Hugo (R-40) and "www.albomustgo.com" aimed at Del. Dave Albo (R-42), sometimes take on a less than professional tone.

For example, one of the most recent posts on "Albo Must Go", pokes fun at Albo for a spelling error by stating, "That’s why we at Albo Must Go are so disappointed to see that Dave [Albo] hasn’t fully bothered to learn English."

That Surovell has endorsed using this type of political tactic raises questions about whether he will be able or willing to work in a bipartisan and professional manner with people like Albo, who happen to represent the district next to the one Surovell hopes to win, said Republicans.

"He engaged in highly partisan and divisive politics as the Democratic Party chairman that didn’t help bring our community together. … Name calling and other tactics like that are not productive," said Surovell’s opponent McConville.

"We have a different take on how to do things. I am trying to reach out and bring in all parts of the political spectrum," added the Republican.

SUROVELL admits he is extremely competitive, which often comes out during political campaigns. But he objects to the partisan label.

"The role of the chairman of the party is very different from that of a candidate," said Surovell.

"As an elected official, you have to be able to work with the other side. You have to be able to find common ground," he said.

Surovell added that knows Republicans who have committed to voting for him in the election.

Other elected officials said they are confident Surovell would not put the interests of the Democratic Party above the interests of his constituents.

"I know he is not going to vote with the party all the time. He is always going to vote in the best interest of Mount Vernon, even if that is not what the Democrats want," said Amundson.

When the candidate went door knocking in the Stratford Landing area Aug. 27, Surovell ran into two residents who had attended West Potomac with him, another woman whose child was in his daughter’s preschool class and yet another person who had taught Surovell’s children in kindergarten at Waynewood Elementary. And that was just on one block.

Surovell had a connection to only one household on the street, which already had a Surovell sign on the lawn, through the Democratic Party, he said.

BEYOND POLITICS and campaigning, several people have also been impressed with Surovell’s mastery of public policy issues.

Amundson said Surovell has been able to absorb much more information about Virginia’s complicated education funding formula than she thought possible in such a short period of time.

"He is not an expert yet but he exceeded my wildest expectations in terms of how much he understands about it," she said.

Surovell also impressed Mount Vernon resident Jenifer Smith when he knocked on her door one recent Sunday evening.

Smith, who said she is taking care of a sick child living on life support out of her home, had several complaints about the Medicaid system in Virginia. She said the standards are far too high for a person to be able to qualify and that the program makes it difficult to keep a sick or elderly person at home.

"Virginia has one of the most restrictive Medicaid programs in the country. You either have to be very very poor or very very sick to qualify and that is unacceptable. The bar is way too high," said Surovell, who agreed with Smith’s general complaints.

The resident was surprised that Surovell was knowledgeable about many problems she faces. Though she leans Republican, Smith said she was inclined to support Surovell because he had impressed her with his detailed knowledge of the issues.

Surovell added that he is very concerned about making it easier for people who qualify for Medicaid to receive care in their own home, particularly because many residents in Mount Vernon have expressed an interest in aging in place rather than moving to a nursing home.

When it comes to transportation, Surovell is primarily concerned about traffic congestion and the infrastructure needs along Richmond Highway. With several thousand new jobs coming to Fort Belvoir through the base realignment and closure process, the congested corridor will be getting considerably worse, he said.

According to Surovell, Route 1 needs to be completely redesigned. The community also has to revisit the contentious discussion over taking more right-of-way to widen the corridor, he said.

Surovell would like to see dedicated bus lanes on both sides of the highway for more reliable bus service. In the long term, Mount Vernon should push for the Metro to be extended from the Huntington station to Fort Belvoir, he said.

MANY DEMOCRATS are cautiously optimistic about Surovell’s chances of winning the seat.

"I think he has an excellent chance of winning. Scott is an energetic candidate with a top-notch campaign and he definitely knows the issues that matter to the Mount Vernon community," said Del. David Englin (D-45), who also represents part of the Mount Vernon area.

Amundson enjoyed fairly comfortable election victories in recent years. The incumbent beat Republicans by at least 13 percentage points in 2003 and 21 percentage points in 2005. She faced no major party opposition in 2007.

But during her first three elections, Amundson won her delegate seat by slim margins of two to three percentage points, keeping her seat with fewer than 400 votes in 2001 for example.

Amundson said this is one of the most diverse districts in the House of Delegates, particularly when compared to other compact districts in suburban and urban areas.
The housing stock in the 44th district includes every thing multi-million dollar homes along the Potomac River to trailer parks and public housing apartment complexes.

Richmond Highway, the primary road that runs through the district, is the longest commercial corridor in Fairfax.

Some of the most heavily Caucasian neighborhoods in Fairfax and some of the largest concentrations of African-American residents are both located in the 44th district.

There are communities, like Surovell’s, where the housing turnover is extremely low. Yet residents, such as those who work on the military base, move in and out very frequently in other areas of the district.

"The bottom line is you know there is always going to be some portion of the district that is not happy with the way you voted because the spectrum is so wide. You have to communicate with the voters often because you can never assume you know what all your constituents are thinking in the 44th district," said Amundson.