“Delegate Orrock has that longer tenure and a biography that is less all-politics than a lot of people,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a politics professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, where a closely watched House contest and another for Senate could decide control of both chambers. “It’s who he is. And it’s an asset.”

Schapiro: Spinning a lot of tunes, perhaps winning a few votes (Richmond Times-Dispatch)