RICHMOND -- I have seen the future, and it is impatient, irreverent, and girded with conviction.

Ken Cuccinelli II moves through the halls of the Virginia General Assembly looking more like a legislative aide than a member of the august Senate fraternity. But when he speaks, there is nothing tentative or self-effacing in the message.

``There are other conservative folks there,'' the slender, dark-haired newcomer says when asked if he expects his presence to alter the tone of the state Senate. ``But in Northern Virginia at least, no one ran as straightforwardly conservative a race as I did.''

At 34, Cuccinelli is the youngest and second-to-newest senator. But he is hardly the least known. Running in a special election in August, the Centreville patent lawyer focused his campaign on opposing the sales tax referendum for transportation. His win, by nearly the same margin as the referendum, foretold the 55 to 45 percent victory of anti-tax forces in the November vote.

Political activists well beyond Cuccinelli's home region are asking whether that compelling win in a Republican-leaning, but competitive district was a fluke or a harbinger of an anti-tax, limited-government future. After several years in which moderate Senate Republicans have kept an aggressively conservative House of Delegates in check, observers wonder also if Cuccinelli and fellow freshman Jay O'Brien are the start of a shift.

Cuccinelli is as unsure as anyone of the answer. But he does know that his anti-tax, anti-abortion, pro-gun-rights agenda resonated powerfully. ``In my district, we're overtaxed,'' he said. ``The message from voters was not just `stop raising taxes,' but `we need to cut taxes.' ''

He finds it telling also that something of a statewide constituency has appeared. Folks from around the state drop into his Richmond office or e-mail to wish him well. ``I got elected running on a philosophical agenda, and philosophical agendas don't know geographic boundaries,'' he said.

They do, however, have to face the gantlet of 139 other egos and agendas at the General Assembly. Cuccinelli's legislative reception has been somewhat chillier than the electorate's embrace. In an arena more accustomed to freshmen who defer to their elders, his assertiveness is labeled brash.

``I've heard him called the Doug Wilder of the Republican Party, going his own way, doing his own thing,'' chuckled Sen. Benny Lambert, a Richmond Democrat, referring to the former Democratic governor.

``I see a lot of me in him,'' observed Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach. ``When I got here, I wanted everything to happen as quickly as it possibly could.''

A signal that Cuccinelli will have to learn patience came last week when Senate Finance Chairman John Chichester summarily dismissed, without even a vote, one of the youthful senator's favorite legislative proposals, a bill capping local real estate tax increases. At a time when Virginia localities are widely seen as having more responsibilities than resources, Chichester apparently was unwilling to tie city and county hands further.

For his part, Cuccinelli said he is trying hard to rein in his wise-cracking nature and to master the legislative niceties.

``I knew I was going to run up against that wall'' not wanting to dictate to localities, he said.

So now, his alternate plan is to work with his grass-roots organization in upcoming elections to rid Fairfax County of tax-hiking supervisors. ``We're going to try very hard to make them pay at the ballot box,'' he said, suggesting a broader political agenda that gives some Northern Virginia Democrats chills.

The price of such activism is severely curtailed time for five daughters, ranging in age from 7 to 6 months. ``That's the greatest sacrifice of this endeavor,'' he said, noting that he is able to be away from home because his wife, Teiro, shares his philosophical and political aspirations. ``We look at this as working toward a shared goal.''

The future of those goals depends on the number of Virginians who share them. One thing is sure. At 34, if the voters are willing and his determination holds, Ken Cuccinelli stands to be around to find out longer than anyone else currently in the Virginia Senate.

Margaret Edds is an editorial writer for The Virginian-Pilot. E-mail her at edds@richmond.infi.net.