Viewpoint: Questions surface on Heidi Drauschak’s voting record
By George Waters
There are discrepancies about when and where Heidi Drauschak, a candidate for Virginia Senate District 35, has voted in the past few years.
Drauschak is challenging Sen. Dave Marsden in the Democratic Primary on June 20.
In May, Marsden put out a mailer based on records he had received from both the Pennsylvania and Virginia election departments, as well as the Chester County, Pa., Department of Voter Services and the Fairfax County Office of Elections.
The Pennsylvania Department of Elections concluded that Heidi Drauschak was still registered to vote in Pennsylvania as recently as April 26, 2023, and that she had voted six times in the past seven years in Pennsylvania.
Drauschak responded by calling the Marsden mailer “false and deceptive.” She suggested that folks check with the Virginia Department of Elections. It turns out the only way to find that information is to pay the department $293 for the official Vote History List.
Marsden purchased the list, which had no record of Drauschak having ever voted in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He then repeatedly asked the Department of Elections to explain the discrepancy.
Finally, last week state election officials told Marsden they discovered a glitch in the system. If someone voted in 2022 under the newly created same-day registration policy, those 25,000+ people ended up with totally blank voting histories published on the Vote History List that Marsden and many others had purchased.
The officials indicated they were working to fix this and would provide everyone who purchased the list with an updated and fully complete record. They have yet to do so, and to this day Heidi Drauschak does not appear on the Virginia Vote History list.
Marsden then sent a second mailer pointing out that, per the Pennsylvania Voting History Per Voter record dated and received in his campaign office on May 10, Drauschak had in fact voted in Pennsylvania in the primary and general election in 2015, the primary and general election in 2016, and the general elections in 2018 and 2021.
Drauschak accused Marsden of lying. While she acknowledged voting absentee in Pennsylvania in 2021 while traveling around the country in an RV, she said she did not vote in Pennsylvania in 2018.
Related story: Candidates for the state senate clash on corporate campaign contributions
I have a copy of the Voter History Per Voter document from Chester County, Pa., dated May 10, 2023. It shows two things quite clearly:
- Heidi Drauschak voted on Nov. 6, 2018, in Chester County.
- When voting in Chester County in 2021, she changed her party affiliation from Democrat to “not affiliated.”
So, if that doesn’t raise some questions about veracity, consider the following information. Having been accused of misleading voters, Marsden again asked Chester County to send a copy of Heidi’s Pennsylvania voting history.
He received a second form, which I have a copy of. It’s identical to the first but with two changes. This form is dated June 9, 2023. Also, the previous indication of Drauschak having voted in Chester County in 2018 is gone!
For five years, her official voting history in Pennsylvania remained the same, including having voted there in 2018. Only when she recently published her voting history in Richmond, which included having also voted in Virginia in 2018, did her five-year-old Pennsylvania record suddenly change.
How did Drauschak’s Pennsylvania voting history change between May 10 and June 9 of this year? How were those records changed? Who changed them, and at whose request?
To have read today in the Falls Church News-Press that she only moved into the 35th District for the first time this past November is equally unsettling.
George Waters is a resident of Mason District.
Another hit piece on a progressive democratic candidate challenging moderate incumbent to distract us from the actual issues of the race and corporate lobbying.
Interesting how the focus is incorrectly on Heidi’s voting record and not Sen. Marsden’s votes on allowing guns in bars, stalling increasing the minimum wage, hurting workers rights, and stopping paid family leave.
Mr. Waters is a wealthy man looking out for his buddy to protect corporations, sad that they would hurt families to enrich themselves.
I am very alarmed that a senior Virginia senator is sending out negative and personal attack ads against his young female competitor. He is even using his inner circle to publish false attacks in the press.
This is the conduct of someone who does not deserve to hold public office. I have voted for Senator Marsden in the past, but will never be voting for him again.
This is just weird. You report that the Virginia Department of Elections admitted they “told Marsden they discovered a glitch in the system” which explained the discrepancy. You also write about discrepancies between what you and Marsden received from Pennsylvania but then you seem to imply you discovered something nefarious from data that was clearly never meant to be used the way you are trying to use it. Should the Virginia and Pennsylvania Departments of Elections try to clean up their act? Maybe.
Maybe Senator Marsden should have worried more about the people he was supposed to be representing rather than protecting corporate puppy mills and giving rich companies like Amazon, Dominion, payday lenders, and towing companies anything they want.
Heidi is a carpet bagger. That is all that needs to be said.
“vax2themax2” Which plantation did you grow up on?
Did you not read her bio. She just registered to vote in the county less than a year ago.
Todd you need to turn up your candles in your log cabin or get contemporary spectacles!
Fascinating responses. If I am wealthy someone needs to tell my wife; she’ll be quite surprised.
The issue here is two-fold. 1) We have a progressive Democratic Senator (endorsements from REPRO Rising, an F grade every year from the NRA, support from Moms Demand Action, etc.) with seniority in the Senate and who can use that to assist his constituents, but that’s not good enough for the far left. 2) If a Republican moved into our area six months ago to rent a house and challenge a progressive Democrat and if that same challenger – claiming longstanding ties here – had voted in another state in 2018, while also voting in Richmond in 2018 (but then somehow had the other state’s voting record miraculously changed), and then voted again in that same state in 2021 – still claiming longstanding ties here – and if that same challenger had 80% of their campaign funded by a hedge fund billionaire and his wife (while campaigning against corporate interests), I would bet those same folks objecting above would be raising holy hell and not playing the ‘but what about-ism’ game. Vax2themax2 is exactly right, Heidi is a carpetbagger. I’d like my State Senator to know where Little River Turnpike is without having to use GPS to get there and I would like them to have paid some dues and been involved in issues locally before deciding, with the backing of a billionaire, that they should suddenly ascend to the State Senate and endeavor to replace an incumbent with a lifetime of ties and work on our behalf. Call me crazy.
George, you’re sounding a lot like a conspiracy theorist. You are also coming after a young woman who is trying to serve her community. Pretty sad. Very disappointed to see the rampant misogyny of Marsden and his supporters.
I don’t see how opposing a minimum wage increase and supporting “Right to Work” (which crushes workers’ rights and labor unions in Virginia) would be considered progressive. Marsden also was an active Republican for most of his life…..
So, if Senator Marsden’s opponent was a middle-aged man who was still registered to vote in a different state 7 weeks ago, had only moved in and rented a house here six months ago, and was being bankrolled by a hedge fund billionaire from Charlottesville, it would be OK to reference. But when those same facts are raised about a young female, they then become examples of misogyny? Seriously? That kind of thinking would set feminism back about a quarter century.
Nice to see a man defining what is and is not feminism. Ha!
Your demonization of Marsdens opponents as “far left” and agreement with a known troll, vax2max2, on this site does not help your case and just proves you are not a progressive. Heidi has been very honest about her background, she studied in American university in 2014 where she also said she was interested in Federal politics and in 2015 she went University of Richmond where she got into VA state politics. She got her MBA and law degree in 2018. Since 2020 she has admitted to living in an RV in several states and in a interview before running in 2022, she said she has lived in VA for a couple of years. As mentioned here
https://youtu.be/8idpi2ysViU?t=86
Heidi was the executive director of the nonprofit Virginia Our way which as she brings up was one of the money nonprofits she worked at for campaign reform since her time in Richmond. She was in a scoop meeting in 2020 covering the Northam’s special session for COVID when Jennifer McClellan and delegate Josh Cole. To frame her as living in her home PA or frame this as a conspiracy theory even despite the error made and acknowledging she lived in an RV is just painfully dishonest and partisan lies. This is not a carpetbagger, she has deep ties and history of Virginian advocacy on campaign reform and to misconstrue your hypothetical as analogous to her is absurdly false. Also no matter how you demonize Clean Virginia as a millionaire PAC you will fail to convince people who are not ignorant and they will know the PAC is actually fighting to reduce the influence corporate money has on elections.
Deep ties? After registering to vote in Fairfax County for the first time 6 months ago? Yeah, right.
An entrenched incumbent should be able to fight off a primary challenge from an unproven outsider simply by referring to a proven track record of good constituent service and legislation. The fact that Sen. Marsden is reduced to personal attacks gives me pause and makes me wonder how ineffective he has been at actually passing legislation. He has fast-tracked legislation benefiting utilities and other corporate and monied interests, all the while slowing down gun legislation and raising the minimum wage, effectively killing such legislation through inaction. Regardless, what is he going to do in the next four years that he hasn’t already done in the first 13 years as a senator? Sen. Marsden should go quietly into the good night like Kaye Kory who at least had the good sense not to run against Marcus Simon, knowing she would have lost handily against someone who actually shows up and can get legislation passed in the General Assembly.
It is absolutely laughable that lobbyist George Waters publicly endorses candidates. His long and poor track record includes supporting Republicans like Tom Davis and Reid Voss (a Democrat in name only). His Democratic ties are always secondary to his opportunism.
As for the charge of “carpetbagging,” no one under the age of 60 years cares about that outmoded concept any more. It is the charge leveled by party insiders who have nothing of substance to offer and cannot otherwise excuse away the inaction or glacial speed of their chosen incumbents in passing meaningful legislation. Of course, when they want to support a candidate, they have no problem with “carpetbagging.” Somehow, I don’t think I missed Waters’ commentary on Hillary moving to NY when that Senate seat opened up. If someone moves into my district tomorrow and wants to improve our lives, I will take that person over any entrenched incumbent who has lost touch with my district. Instead of condescending lectures, maybe George can remind his wife, “We are rich. We have a $1.75M dollar house on Lake Barcroft and lots of other assets, too.” It seems as if George is as out of touch as the candidates he endorses
Heidi’s campaign sent me exaggerated attack flyers stating Marsden supported guns over families and accepted dirty money, rather than running a positive campaign. She claimed there was much that was wrong with Virginia and she was running as “an angry mom.” Yes, Marsden took money from Dominion, but she did not provide any evidence of how that influenced Marsden’s vote that was detrimental to Virginia residents. She claimed that Dominion was making tons of money from consumers, but our rates are below average compared to other states and the rates are set by the State Corporation Commission. I agree, that we should limit corporate funds in our campaigns, as they generally favor an incumbent, but in this case, she was being funded by an anti Dominion hedge fund billionaire. Nevertheless, I wish her well, and will gladly support her when she can artculate good policies and initiatives for VA that are likely to pass and runs a more positive campaign.
I was asked early in the campaign about my opinion of Marsden, my reply was “silly.” His signature legislation is…?
He’s not established a voting record against gun violence prevention. He simply absents himself.
When I saw that his opponent was well funded, I thought, well, his enemies are afraid of how effective he’s been for his constituents or special interests, but, getting back to “silly.”
So now, thanks to the revanchist geezers, we’re stuck in time with Amazon’s favorite senator, we’ll retire “Dominion Dick,” and rebrand “Dominion Dave.”