I will keep you posted throughout the evening.

Update: According to the State Board of Elections, Marsden is ahead by 5 points with 18 out of 40 precincts reporting.

Update: With 70 percent reporting, Dave Marsden is ahead five points.
Source: Virginia Board of Elections

With 80 percent of precincts reporting, Marsden is now ahead two points.

Update: 95 percent of precincts in…Hunt is down by 360 votes.

Final Update: Hunt is down 300 votes with all precincts. Marsden wins, unless a recount is ordered by Fairfax County.

Jeff McWaters is running against Bill Flemming in the 8^th, which is located in Virginia Beach. McWaters is looking to replace former State Sen. and newly elected Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle in this seat.

In the 37^th State Senate District, which includes Centreville, Burke, parts of Springfield, and parts of Fairfax, Steve Hunt is taking on current Delegate Dave Marsden in the quest to replace Ken Cuccinelli in the State Senate. Cuccinelli will be sworn in as Virginia’s next Attorney General on Saturday.

Voter turnout is expected to be low in both elections. From my observations, I voted in the 37^th District this morning at 7:45 a.m., I was voter 82. Poll workers said this could be a very low turnout. If you live in either one of these districts, I urge you to get out and vote today. You can vote at your normal polling location, and the polls close at 7 p.m.

Here is the link for some videos of the forum. Note: The video was filmed using an iPhone, so my apologies for the quality.

Don’t forget to vote on January 12^th if you live in the 37^th District!

Cathy Ruse of the Family Research Council wrote a blog post about The Washington Post’s blatant attempts to smear conservative candidates in the Commonwealth. Ruse focuses on Steve Hunt, who is running for State Senate in the 37^th District, and how the Post is working hard to smear his candidacy for standing up for marriage and families. (Note: The special election will take place on January 12.)

Also, The Washington Times published an op-ed by State Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg). Obenshain takes Virginia’s U.S. Senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, to task for their recent votes for the health care bill. This is spot-on analysis.

Obenshain says:

Outrageous, right? What did our intrepid duo in the U.S. Senate do to stand strong for the rights and interests of Virginians? Absolutely nothing. They fell right in line with Mr. Reid and the rest of the Democrats in the Senate and voted for this abomination. They required little coaxing and no incentives. Jim Webb may have been “born fighting,” but he did not hesitate to run up the white flag here.

This is not the garden-variety pork, the proverbial lard that has long greased the wheels of Congress. It is now evidently acceptable to exempt entire states from costly mandates if that is what it takes to secure one more vote. Even if it was too much to ask Messrs. Warner and Webb to break ranks with the president and their leadership over the government takeover of health care (something to which Virginians and Americans have expressed their overt opposition and which threatens to transform fundamentally the landscape of our freedoms as we know them), Virginians nonetheless had every right to expect them to reject these crass deals doled out to the states of their recalcitrant colleagues.

Messrs. Warner and Webb signed off on a plan that makes Virginia the loser coming and going. Not only must we shoulder an increased Medicaid burden, which could not come at a worse time for Virginia’s taxpayers, but all those sweetheart deals come with a price tag, and we are the ones left holding (and footing) the bill – a bill we cannot begin to pay.

The three candidates running are:

• Steve Hunt
• Marianne Horinko
• Will Nance

Each of these candidates have impressive qualifications. If you are in the 37^th State Senate District, make sure you get out and vote tonight.

What shocks me is the narrow win by Marsden in this previous election cycle (2009)? He only won by 209 votes to Kerry Bolognese.