Delegate fulfilling a promise to ‘give back’
By Brittany Daniels
RICHMOND – In 1992, Robin Abbott contracted a severe illness and spent several months in a hospital in Richmond.
“I wasn’t expected to live and made some promises if I did, that I would give back to my community,” Abbott recalled.
After she recovered, she returned to college, earned a law degree and last fall ran for political office for the first time. She challenged Phil Hamilton, who had held his legislative seat for more than 20 years – and Abbott won.
Now she is the new delegate representing the 93rd House District, which includes parts of James City County and the City of Newport News.
Abbott prepared for her venture into politics by attending the Thomas C. Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia.
“I went to the Sorenson Institute for political candidates, and that was a four-day crash course on campaigning. I learned a great deal,” she said. Afterward, Abbott said, “I had a much better idea and my expectations kind of flowed from the institute. It pretty much ran true to form.”
Hamilton had been running unopposed for more than a decade, and Abbott wanted to give voters a choice. She also wanted to serve the people who had taken care of her through her life-threatening illness in 1992.
Abbott said that ordeal “had a profound impact” on her. She said she was somewhat disappointed in herself for not trying to accomplish her childhood dreams.
Her illness and recovery sparked her return to college. She set out to become an attorney. She attended Thomas Nelson Community College, Christopher Newport University and, finally, the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, earning her law degree in 2001.
For the past several years, Abbott has served as a consumer advocate, representing plaintiffs in consumer matters, in Newport News.
Abbott moved to Virginia from Florida in 1970 when she was 17 years old. She worked for the FBI while taking one class a semester at college to complete general education requirements. Because her husband Gary was in the military, she moved around a lot and didn’t attend college regularly until the mid-1980s.
Abbott served in several leadership positions in school, beginning with the civics club in grade school. She was also president of the girls’ athletics and pep squad. At Thomas Nelson Community College, Abbott was vice president of the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society, and she started the government club at Christopher Newport University and served as its president for a few years.
Still, it was a big jump from heading a college government club to challenging Hamilton, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. The 93rd House District had never elected a Democrat before, and some people said Abbott didn’t stand a chance.
But Hamilton was dogged by a scandal for taking a state-funded $40,000-a-year job at a teacher training center that he helped create at Old Dominion University. In her campaign, Abbott stressed the need for ethics reform – and that seemed to resonate with voters: She won the election with 54 percent of vote.
Abbott has had to endure sniping from some newspapers and bloggers who supported Hamilton. They latched on to a remark Abbott made in Hampton Roads in support of federal health care reform. “Most of the time, I’m very proud to be an American,” Abbott said at the outdoor event before her election.
The author of the Virginia Conservative blog questioned Abbott’s credentials. That blogger said Abbott’s campaign lacked a focus, “other than her life story, which I heard multiple times in debates, campaign literature, and at rallies.”
Abbott said such remarks do not faze her.
“Does it bother me what’s being said? No,” she said. “I think that the people spoke on Nov. 3. And they were aware of all of the facts, and they made their choice … it’s clear to me that all the people in the 93rd have a seat at the table.”
Abbott plans to run for re-election in 2011, to see if the voters think she did a good job. She learned from her campaign that there is a lot of work to be done – whether in her district or in Richmond.
“There’s a lot of work you can do to make the quality of people’s lives better,” Abbott said. “Wherever I am, I do know that my focus will be in that direction.”
To succeed at the General Assembly, Abbott has learned she must have the ability to laugh at herself.
“There’s a process known as hazing of the new delegates,” Abbott said. “When a new delegate brings forth their first bill is when the hazing occurs. All the delegates will ask the speaker if the new delegate will yield for a question, and they just bombard them with questions.”
Besides deploying humor, Abbott can turn serious and use her personal narrative to make a point.
Abbott has four sons: Bradford, 35; Nicholas, 30; Tony, 28; and Michael, 27. Nicholas was born with cerebral palsy. He learned to walk when he was 5 years old, and he cannot speak.
Abbott spoke about Nicholas and the need to help disabled Virginians in a House floor speech. She was responding to comments by Delegate Robert Marshall, who suggested that disabled children were a punishment for women who aborted a previous pregnancy.
“I was disturbed to learn this week that a member of this body believes that disabled children are somehow punishment or deserved by the parents,” Abbott told her colleagues on Nicholas’ 30th birthday. “I hope this view is not supported by other members in this chamber.”