Not much to say about the four contested House of Delegates races in the AFP reader area. The Democrats got pantsed.
Jeff Price’s 28.8 percent showing in his 24th District challenge to Republican Ben Cline was actually the best showing of the four, if you can believe that. And Price wasn’t even able to get what a Green Party candidate, Eric Sheffield, was able to do in 2005 in the 24th against Cline.
Erik Curren got 28.3 percent of the vote against Staunton City Councilman Dickie Bell in the 20th District, even falling short in Staunton by 59.8 percent-to-40.8 percent margin. To put the defeat in Staunton in perspective, Barack Obama won the Queen City last fall.
More perspective – this was the one open seat of the four in the Central Shenandoah Valley. Incumbent Chris Saxman dropped out of the race in July after being elected to four terms in the district, twice unopposed and twice against Democratic candidates who scored into the mid-30s.
Gene Hart got 26.9 percent in his 26th District race with Matt Lohr, failing to match the showing of independent candidate Carolyn Frank two years ago and falling well short of what Lowell Fulk had done in two nailbiter races in the district. Hart surprisingly lost Harrisonburg by a 59.5 percent-to-40.4 percent margin. Obama, as in Staunton, had won Harrisonburg in ’08.
Greg Marrow received 26.8 percent of the vote in his race with Steve Landes, who was challenged only in the Crozet area, where Marrow was able to get 46.1 percent of the vote. Marrow was only able to get 29.1 percent of the vote in Waynesboro, off 15 points from Obama’s showing in ’08 and about half of what Mark Warner received in the River City in his run for the U.S. Senate last year.
– Story by Chris Graham
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