By Editorial, Wednesday, October 19, 12:20 AM 

SINCE THE 2007 ELECTIONS, when they gained a narrow majority in the upper house of Virginia’s General Assembly, Senate Democrats have been the grown-ups in Richmond. The role was forced on them by House Republicans, who have sent over waves of reckless legislation.

Senate Democrats defeated a House attempt to force Virginia colleges and universities to allow students and faculty to carry guns on campus and a bill to repeal the state’s 20-year-old law limiting individuals to one handgun purchase a month. They killed legislation targeting illegal immigrants that would have plunged Virginia into the same bitter debates and federal litigation that have ensnared Arizona and Alabama. They rejected a bill that would have outlawed abortion in Virginia by granting fetuses legal rights and another that would have forced welfare recipients to undergo drug screenings. They halted Republican attempts to raid scarce funds for public schools and colleges.

All that is cause for worry about the consequences of a GOP takeover of the Senate in statewide elections Nov. 8. So is the pledge that many (though not all) Republican candidates have taken to oppose any new taxes, a stance that would condemn Northern Virginia to a future of steadily worsening traffic gridlock.

Northern Virginia has just one sitting Republican senator, which suggests the region’s voters have found the latest generation of Republicans too extreme, partisan or divorced from state and local issues. Unfortunately, in our view, that remains the case in most of the Senate races.

(To determine your district and candidates, go to https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicLookup.aspx and click on “My Ballot.”) 

DISTRICT 32: Janet D. Howell, a 20-year Democratic incumbent, was the first woman named to the powerful Senate Finance Committee. Today, as one of a handful of budget negotiators in the legislature, she’s among the most influential lawmakers in Richmond and a key advocate for mental-health issues. Her Republican challenger, Patrick Forrest, is a socially moderate lawyer. But he’s misled and alarmed voters by suggesting that Dulles Toll Road commuters may soon face $17 tolls — a wildly unrealistic projection based on obsolete data. In any event, the tolls are unconnected to Ms. Howell, who has ably represented this slice of northern Fairfax and Arlington counties.