The Republican Party will conduct a "firehouse" primary to nominate its candidate to the 37th State Senate District Dec. 1 at Centreville High School from 6-10 p.m.

All voters wishing to participate will be asked to sign a pledge to the Republican Party, in which the voters usually have to state that they intend to support the Republican candidate in the general election, regardless of who it is.

In Virginia, voters cannot register with a specific political party so both Democrats and Republicans typically use a pledge to discourage "crossover voting," when people from one political persuasion participate in the opposite political party’s nominating process.

The winner of the primary will likely face a Democrat and possibly other candidates in a special election on Jan. 12. State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli (R-37), who won a statewide election on Nov. 3, is leaving the seat for the Virginia Attorney General position.

The following is information on the three Republican’s running Cuccinelli’s state senate position.

Steve Hunt

Steve Hunt, a 51 year-old Fairfax Station resident, served as an at-large member of the Fairfax County School Board from 2003-07. A former Navel flight officer, Hunt now works as a senior systems analyst for SAIC corporation.

In addition to Virginia’s "standards of learning," testing scores which students must reach to be considered proficient in a subject, Hunt would like to establish "standards of excellence." The standards of excellence would set higher testing goals for those schools that have an easy time reaching the "standards of learning" thresholds. Those schools whose students met the "standards of excellence" would receive some sort of honor for being among the best schools in Virginia.

Hunt would also like to see the pay of public school principals based on how well students from their particular school perform at the next school level. In other words, elementary school principals would be paid according to the performance of their students in middle school, he said.

When it comes to social issues like sexual orientation, abortion, sex education and gun rights, Hunt is conservative and said most of his views are the same or similar to those expressed by Cuccinelli.

"Folks who are animated and excited today about Ken would be animated and excited about my campaign," said Hunt.

Marianne Horinko

Marianne Horinko, a 48 year-old Chantilly resident, served as an acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during President George W. Bush’s (R) administration and now runs her own environmental consulting firm.

As a state senator, Horinko said she would fight to keep taxes low and even consider cutting some existing taxes. Specifically, she said she would like to look at eliminating the car tax, an idea that originally became popular during Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore’s administration.

"I think we need to look at whether the car tax is worth the amount of infrastructure we use to implement the car tax," said Horinko.

Horinko said she is also interested in establishing a second branch of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in western Fairfax County, since the current campus has to turn away so many qualified applicants now.

"Parents are clamoring for high quality math and science education and we should deliver that to them," she said.

Horinko considers herself a social conservative. She said she is opposed to abortion in all cases and is opposed to some types of contraceptives, including the "morning after" pill.

The candidate describes herself as a defender of Second Amendment rights. If elected, she would support allowing Virginia residents with conceal carry permits for firearms into bars.

Will Nance

Will Nance, 41, lives off Popes Head Road and is the executive director of Greenspring, a retirement and assisted living community in Springfield.

Nance said he is concerned about the expansion of the "nanny state" at the state and federal government level. He is particularly concerns about some of the health care proposals that have been floated, which he said would interfere with end of life care.

"I am interested in protecting seniors at the end of their life. I want to see them getting the top quality care that they deserve until their natural death," said Nance.

Nance would also be interested in working on legislation to clamp down on scams and criminal enterprises that target the elderly.

"Every day, I see seniors targeted at Greenspring. You wouldn’t believe the phone scams and the mail scams that go on," said Nance.

Nance also considers himself anti-abortion, making an exception for cases when the mother’s life is at risk. He said he would also be willing to sign a pledge not to raise taxes.

Nance would fight hard for a Virginia constitutional amendment that would protect citizens’ right to property.

"I just feel it is one of the most American of all the rights that we have, the right to our personal property," said Nance.