RICHMOND — Ralph Smith spent much of his first year in the Virginia Senate sitting — both physically and ideologically — in the chamber’s far right wing.

Smith ran for office last year as a rock-solid conservative, and he’s backed that up with his votes and actions this session.

“He’s taken an ideological approach, as he said he would in his campaign,” said Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke. For Smith, it’s a matter of living up to his word.

“The main thing is, 'Do what you said you were going to do,’” Smith said when asked what he’s hearing from constituents.

Ralph Smith arrived in the Virginia Senate in a year when Republicans found themselves in the minority for the first time in nearly a decade. The Senate Republican Caucus had been dominated by moderates, but this year shifted farther to the ideological right — due in part to the addition of conservatives like Smith.

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