Senate Defeats Party Affiliation Bill

Candidates running for office in Vienna and Fairfax County will continue to appear without a party affiliation next to their names on local ballots.

Virginia's senate voted 25-14 against a bill by Sen. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) that would have required candidates nominated by a party to identify with that party on Election Day ballots.

Virginia law enforces ballot party tags for candidates running only in statewide, federal or General Assembly races. The Fairfax County School Board, by law, must be a non-partisan race,

Ballots for local races — including those for Vienna Town Council and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors — are party-free. Vienna Mayor Jane Seeman spoke out against the bill at Monday's council meeting, saying non-partisan elections for the town council were part of the town's charter.

"Non-partisan elections are part of their culture and the citizens like it that way.  There is no request to change the law," said Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax), who represents Vienna, in a statement. Fairfax City, which Petersen also represents, has a similar condition in its charter, he said.

It's not the first time the bill has appeared before the Senate: It was also introduced in 2011, largely touted as an effort to take partisan politics out of local races. This year, it passed committee on an 8-7 vote but couldn't carry enough support to pass the full body.

This year's bill, Obenshain said, wasn't about ending nonpartisan offices or elections, but about "pretending that a party nominee’s partisan affiliation isn’t meaningful information and isn’t worth sharing with the voters," he told the Washington Post.