Annamarie Andrews is not the type of person who votes in what is called an "off year" election, when only candidates for state or local public office are on the ballot.
Yet Andrews was up at 7:30 a.m. Nov. 3, standing on line to vote at Stratford Landing Elementary School.

Despite the daily media coverage and expensive television commercials, Andrews also wasn’t waiting to vote in the gubernatorial election or the attorney general race. She had actually been motivated to come for the local 44th district delegate race after Democratic candidate Scott Surovell had come knocking on her door.
"This probably isn’t a great reason to give but I came to vote really because Scott stopped by my house once. I don’t normally vote in elections like this but I was just so impressed. I remember it was so hot that day and he made such an effort," said Andrews.

Since she has only lived in the Mount Vernon area for two years, Andrews is not very familiar with all the local civic and political concerns but Surovell struck her as being very down to earth and practical. She wanted to show her support for someone who would make such an effort to reach his potential constituents.

THAT DEGREE of effort is one of the reasons Surovell said he was successful in winning the 44th delegate seat, despite a tough year for Democrats overall, said the candidate.

Surovell earned 9,960 votes, for a total of 53.37 percent of the overall vote in the delegate election. He beat Republican Jay McConville, who received 8,384 votes, 44.92 percent of the vote overall.

"I think I ran a really tough campaign. I knocked on 8,000 doors myself, but Jay worked very hard too," said Surovell while greeting voters outside Stratford Land Elementary School on election day.

As a new legislator, the Democrat said he would focus on trying to make transportation improvements to the Route 1 corridor, including trying to secure more support and funding to deal with the new influx of workers that will be traveling to Fort Belvoir as a result of the Base Realignment And Closure process.

The delegate-elect said he will also focus on issues related to education funding. When the state shortchanges Fairfax County in primary and secondary school education dollars, the impact to Mount Vernon is particularly acute, because the area has a larger population of low-income students than other parts of the county.

Surovell said he is interested in trying to bring preschool programs to the western side of the Route 1 corridor, especially since there are more than a dozen options on the eastern side of Route 1, where more affluent residents tend to live.

SUROVELL got a late start on the delegate campaign season last June because he came in as a last minute candidate to replace retiring Del. Kris Amundson (D). Several days after the final candidate filing deadline, Admundson announced she had to step down to focus on her consulting business, which has suffered during the recent economic downturn.

"I haven’t gone in to vote yet and I think that will be bittersweet," said Amundson, as she volunteered for Surovell’s campaign on the morning of the election. The Democrat has served in the House of Delegates since 1999 and previously represented Mount Vernon District on the Fairfax County School Board.

Even with the late start, Surovell had the advantage of running in a district friendly to the Democratic Party. In the last gubernatorial election, the 44th delegate district supported Gov. Tim Kaine (D) with 61 percent of the vote to Republican Jerry Kilgore’s 37 percent of the vote. President Barack Obama (D) also won the district with 63 percent of the vote last year.

In general, precincts in which Democratic gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds performed well as a candidate were also the same precincts were Surovell performed well, though the delegate-elect tended to garner a slightly higher percentage of the overall vote count than Deeds overall.

According to the Virginia State Board of Elections, voter participation in 44th delegate district was about 44.5 percent, just slightly higher that the countywide voter participation rate for the Governor’s race of 43.5 percent.

Even though he was running on the Republican ticket in a Democratic-leaning district, McConville had thought he was able to stay above the partisan fray.

"Reception to us has been fantastic. Very few people try to talk to me about partisan things," said McConville while campaigning on election day.

SUROVELL, whose grandparents helped build the homes in his historic Fort Hunt neighborhood, said his deep roots in the Mount Vernon community probably gave him an advantage over McConville or another Democratic candidate like Deeds.

He grew up attending public schools in Mount Vernon and was in the first class to attend West Potomac High School for four years. He lives on the street where not only he grew up but also his father grew up.

When campaigning at the polls on election day, he ran into the parents of people who played trumpet with him in the West Potomac marching band as well as one woman who he served as a member of the safety patrols with in elementary school.

Additionally, Surovell has close connections to the Democratic Party and has volunteered for several campaigns in the Mount Vernon community.

During the 2008 election cycle, he was chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, a position he stepped down from when he decided to run for office last summer. Prior to running the county organization, he was in charge of the Mount Vernon Democratic Committee, which would worked closely on campaigns like Amundson’s over the years.

Surovell’s connections to the Democrats may also have helped him raise more money than McConville. The Democrat had $265,546 to McConville’s $195,405 by Oct. 21.

At that time, Surovell’s largest donors were the Democratic Party of Virginia ($65,743), Amundson’s campaign ($15,000) and Vienna resident Edward Hart Rice ($10,000), who one of the largest donors to Democratic candidates in Virginia.

During the same time period, McConville’s largest campaign contributors were the Republican Party of Virginia ($54,973), himself ($24,066) and Public Opinion Strategies in Alexandria ($16,250). s