Marrow wins nomination in 25th

One down, one to go.
“Fifty percent plus one. That’s all we need,” said Greg Marrow, a Rockingham County optometrist and now the Democratic Party nominee in the 25th House District by virtue of his impressive showing in Tuesday’s primary contest with Augusta County resident Jim Noel.

Marrow actually picked up 66.8 percent of the vote in the two-way race, receiving 1,324 of the 1,983 votes cast in the primary. Turnout was a relatively high 3.9 percent, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections, far outpacing turnout in the 25th in recent primaries in 2005 and 2006.

Marrow moves on to face Republican Steve Landes in the November general election. Landes is a seven-term state legislator, but has not faced a Democratic Party opponent since 1995.

Marrow figures to give Landes a run for his money in the general election. He showed well in Waynesboro and Crozet, two localities in the 25th that combined accounted for more than half the votes cast in the district in the 2008 general election. Marrow got 79.5 percent of the vote in Crozet and 73 percent of the vote in Waynesboro in the primary, with turnout in Crozet near 7 percent and in Waynesboro at 4.4 percent.

Crozet gave solid majorities to Barack Obama and Mark Warner in ’08, and Warner won Waynesboro last year while Obama received 44 percent of the vote in the River City in ’08.

To the money game – Landes doesn’t necessarily enter the general-election campaign with a solid money advantage that you normally see for a long-term incumbent. According to the State Board of Elections, Landes reported having in cash on hand just $32,727.38 as of his June 1 campaign-finance report. It is still something of a head start, but in a race that could end up costing each candidate in the area of $100,000 apiece by Election Day, he’s not that far down the track in that respect.

– Story by Chris Graham