FREDERICKSBURG, Va.—Krystal Ball was prepared for the question.

It's become familiar:

What's the deal with her name, the one NBCwashington.com described last year as seeming "out of the adult entertainment industry"?

The answer: Her father has a doctorate in physics and did his dissertation on crystals.

So after her mother named older sisters Heidi and Holly, it was dad's turn.

Ball said she doesn't mind the questions, though, or the jokes.

And she'll certainly be hoping a lot of people remember that name now that she's running for Congress.

The 28-year-old political newcomer on Saturday was formally named the Democratic nominee in the 1st congressional district, which stretches from Hampton Roads to southern Prince William County.

She will face the winner of a June 8 GOP primary between incumbent Rep. Robert J. Wittman and Catherine Crabill, who ran unsuccessfully last year for a seat in the Virginia General Assembly representing the Northern Neck.

Ball said she decided to run for Congress after her now-2-year-old daughter, Ella, was born. The Fredericksburg resident started to worry about what the country might look like 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

(And she joked that her husband Jonathan's last name—Dariyanani, which Ella has—is much more complicated).

Ball chose to run for the House of Representatives because she figured it was the best fit for her background.

She's a CPA, so she said she understands fiscal issues. She and her husband own a business designing educational software, so she knows technology. And she's worked in the Middle East and understands the culture of that region, she noted in a campaign video.

She also said Wittman hasn't properly represented his constituents.

Take aquaculture, which is important in the 1st District, she said:

Wittman voted against the Clean Estuaries Act last month, a day after he put out a press release saying he was encouraged by surveys that report an increased blue crab population in the Chesapeake Bay.

Most political observers say that Ball faces an uphill climb, however, as the 1st District's boundaries were drawn to be friendly to Republicans.

But she said she thinks voters in the district are more independent-minded.

"They are very hard to nail down," Ball said.

And she's gearing up for the race. Job No. 1 now that she has the nomination is to train campaign volunteers.

"We are full-steam ahead," she said

In terms of a platform, Ball said she wants to focus on job creation, on keeping the Bay clean and on supporting the military and military families.

She also said she's in favor of charter schools, which differentiates her from some in the Democratic Party.

She supported the recently passed health-care reform legislation, too. But she said it didn't go far enough in trying to bring medical costs down.

On the other hand, Ball got good news recently about another cost-related matter.

In March, she had more online campaign donors than any other House candidate in the country: 3,587, who gave a total of $35,793.

 

Candidate starts running early for Congress

 

BY CHELYEN DAVIS

 

The 2010 congressional races are 18 months away, but Krystal Ball, who recently kicked off her challenge to Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Westmoreland, doesn't think she's starting her campaign too early.

As a young mother who has never run for office before, and as a Democrat in the Republican-leaning 1st District, Ball said she needs that year and a half to introduce herself to voters and raise money.

"I recognize how difficult the race is going to be," Ball said in an interview. "Well over 90 percent of incumbents get re-elected. Time is one asset I can use to my advantage right now."

A King George County native, Ball, 27, said she has always been interested in politics, particularly economics and foreign affairs. But she didn't plan to get personally involved until the birth of her daughter, Ella, now 15 months old.

"I've always been relatively passive with those interests, thinking about it and learning about it and not really getting directly involved," she said. "After my daughter was born, the way that I look at the world just kind of shifted. It just made me realize I couldn't sit on the sidelines any longer. I want to have an impact on the policies that are most going to affect her life."

Once she decided to get involved in politics, Ball set her sights on federal office because, she said, that's where her interests and experience lie. An economics major who recently passed her CPA exam, Ball has worked for federal contractor CGI. Now she and her husband work from home designing educational software, which Ball said entails much international travel; they were in Jordan for three months, including during last fall's presidential election and President Barack Obama's inauguration in January.

Ball said her campaign is focused on "healthy communities" issues.

The daughter of an educator, she wants to raise teacher salaries and increase teacher training, to help recruit and retain quality teachers. Ball also advocates more "alternative certification" paths so that professionals who are experts in their fields could also teach.

She supports full equal rights for gay people, and said that if she is elected an early priority will be working to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

"Whenever possible, government should stay out of people's personal lives, both at the state and the federal level," Ball wrote on her campaign Web site. "It should stay out of our gun cabinets, our bedrooms, our marriages and our small businesses. We should be free to decide for ourselves who to love and how to raise our families, without government interference."

Ball supports background checks for buying guns but opposes stringent gun-control regulations, saying they have little effect on the root causes of crime and are contrary to her limited-government philosophy.

Ball said she dislikes the way incumbent Wittman has voted on several issues, particularly his votes against the Lily Ledbetter Act--which essentially expands the statute of limitations for claiming discrimination in pay--and his vote against SCHIP, a children's health insurance program.

The 1st District, which stretches from Stafford County to Hampton, has voted Republican for years. Wittman won 57 percent of the vote in the 2008 race, and a Democrat last held the seat in 1977.

The district voted strongly for George Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and for Republican John McCain by a slimmer margin in 2008.

Ball said she is working on fundraising before a June 30 campaign finance filing, and that she'll use the next 18 months to have as much face-to-face contact with voters as possible.

"There's really no substitute for a face-to-face interaction with someone," Ball said. "No print media, no commercial, no radio ad can substitute for looking someone in the eye and telling them why you want to serve."

 

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2010 Candidate for Congress