Bell wins re-election in landslide
Incumbent Republican Dickie Bell won re-election in the 20th House District by receiving 69.8 percent of the vote in his race with Democrat Laura Kleiner.
Bell, a former Staunton City Councilman and Augusta County schoolteacher, was strongest in Augusta County, where he won 82.8 percent of the votes against Kleiner, a recent Mary Baldwin College graduate.
Bell won majorities in every locality in the 20th, which was redrawn in the 2011 legislative redistricting to add Waynesboro and Nelson County. Bell garnered 72.4 percent of the vote in Waynesboro and 66.4 percent of the vote in Staunton, where he had won four elections to City Council before running and winning in the 20th House District race in 2009.
Kleiner performed best in Democrat-friendly Nelson County, though she still fell short of a majority in Nelson, getting 44.1 percent of the vote there.
Kleiner gets Democratic Party nod in 20th
Local Democrats on Wednesday nominated Laura Kleiner to compete for the 20th House District seat in the Virginia General Assembly.
“I am honored to be the Democratic nominee for the 20th House District,” said Kleiner, who will face Republican incumbent Dickie Bell in the November election. “I am running because I believe our Virginian values are worth fighting for.”
Kleiner thanked the many volunteers who swelled her campaign in its weeks leading up to tonight’s caucus. “I know that I cannot do this alone,” she said. “You lifted my spirits, and together, we proved that Virginians in the 20th District care about our children, our future.”
“Tomorrow, our campaign will move full speed ahead to victory in November, and we will seek the support of everyone to do it,” Kleiner said. “If tonight is proof of anything, it’s that when we stand together, we can accomplish great things.”
Kleiner announces candidacy in 20th
For the record, she’s not 21. On Saturday, Laura Kleiner, who announced her candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 20th House District, turned 22.
A dozen local Democrats turned out at an event at the Stratton Building in Downtown Staunton for the announcement. Kleiner to date is the only candidate in the race for the Democratic Party nomination in the 20th, which will now represent Waynesboro and Nelson County in addition to Staunton, portions of Augusta County and the entirety of Highland County.
Republican Dickie Bell, a former Staunton City Councilman, currently holds the seat.
A current member of Staunton City Council, Bruce Elder, helped introduce Kleiner at her announcement event on Saturday.
“We are here on this glorious, sunny, perfect Virginia day to talk about the future of Virginia,” said Elder, a second-term City Councilman who ran unsuccessfully in 2005 for the 20th District seat, losing to former State Del. Chris Saxman.
Also on hand was Creigh Deeds, a state senator whose House district used to represent a wide swath of territory now encompassing the new 20th District.
“It’s tough as nails to run as a Democrat in this part of the world. And I’ve got a few scars I can show you,” said Deeds, who lost as the Democratic Party nominee in the 2009 governor’s race.
“Laura understands that. She’s going into this race with eyes wide open,” Deeds said. “She’s got a positive vision for Virginia’s future. She’s got positive energy and lots of ideas. She’s exactly the kind of person that we need to be encouraging to get involved in the political process. And she’s going to bring leadership to the House of Delegates that moves the ball forward and creates opportunity for all Virginians.”
Kleiner is a Mary Baldwin College senior who will be graduating from the Staunton private college this month. The Blacksburg native pledged on Saturday to focus her attention on job creation, economic opportunity and education.
“I’m well aware of the economic crisis with which we continue to struggle,” said Kleiner, talking up initiatives ongoing in Staunton promoting entrepreneurial startups and opportunities for established businesses to expand their operations locally.
“As your delegate, I will work to cultivate economic growth,” Kleiner said.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
The soft underbelly of the Bell candidacy
“You’d think he could get somebody to vote with him every once in a while,” a friend who is a longtime local Republican leader was telling me this week at the Augusta County Fair about Dickie Bell, the GOP nominee in the 20th House District.
I had just said something to her about how I assumed Bell’s consistent conservative voting record on Staunton City Council would be a feather in his cap among Republican voters. “At least he can say, you know, he’s got bona fides as a conservative.” Read more
Bell responds – finally – to debate invitation
Dickie Bell didn’t like Erik Curren letting the local media in on his invitation to Bell to participate in a debate series in their 20th District House race. So Bell let the local media in on his response.
“Based on my experience in four previous election campaigns I find events such as you propose to be largely media events that are often poorly attended by voters,” Bell wrote to Curren in an e-mail that was sent simultanteously to Curren and to members of the local mainstream press late Thursday night. Read more
Curren reissues debate challenge
Remember how 20th District Republican nominee Dickie Bell told The News Virginian a couple of weeks ago that he was “a little disappointed” to have been informed by the news media that Democratic opponent Erik Curren wanted to schedule a series of debates for voters, and that he would talk to Curren to “work out some dates” for the debate series? Read more
Chris Graham: Who I’m voting for in the 20th House
Posted by afp on November 7, 2011 · 2 Comments
This other Dickie Bell, the one who comes across as a hard-core social and fiscal conservative, I don’t know him that well, but I understand what’s going on there. Back when Dickie first got the nomination to run as the Republican nominee for the 20th House District seat in 2009, he was about as close to the political center of the long list of candidates as you could be and still be considered a Republican.
He could have viewed his ultimate blessing by the party hierarchy as an endorsement of his approach to politics, but decided instead to run to the right after having secured the nomination. A curious move, indeed, but it’s hard to criticize – he won the November 2009 election with more than 70 percent of the vote in a district that includes Democratic-leaning Staunton.
Now with the borders of the 20th redrawn to include Waynesboro and Nelson County, Bell could very well face a challenge at some point down the road in a district that is tilting back toward the political middle. This is where the old Dickie, the one that I like, would do well to re-emerge.
He doesn’t have anything to worry about in 2011. Laura Kleiner, God bless her for trying, but it’s hard to imagine a lot of people, even diehard Democrats, being able to justify pulling the lever for her given her age (22) and lack of experience (she’s a recent college graduate with no meaningful political or business qualifications). Bell, for his part, has plenty to call upon – four terms on Staunton City Council, for starters, plus a long run as a teacher and coach in the Augusta County school system.
And he has a history of reaching across the aisle to get things done. I know this personally, having worked with Bell for more than a year in the early 2000s on an effort to develop a public skateboard park in Staunton. Through an orchestrated series of public meetings and private one-on-ones, Bell was able to methodically gain support for the effort, and the results are what we’d both said they’d be when he first brought the idea up and I first began to write in support of it – it’s a rare day to drive by the park on Lake Tams and not see it teeming with skateboarders.
I still have issues sometimes reconciling the Dickie Bell that I’ve known and worked with over the years with some of the public pronouncements I see being made in his name on some issues of the day. In the end, I get it, that’s politics, and when the politics are accounted for, the Dickie that can get a skateboard park built in the face of initial opposition from City Council and the local newspaper is the Dickie that can get things done in Richmond.
That’s why I’ll be pulling the lever for Dickie Bell on Nov. 8.
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