Thursday, November 01, 2007
One-term delegate defending 6th District seat
The challenger, a 33-year veteran of the judicial bench, is vying to replace the GOP incumbent, a retired teacher.
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roanoke.com/politics
It's a race between stereotypes: An incumbent bankrolled by special interests facing a challenger who is financing his campaign largely out of his own pocket.
But the 6th District House race between Del. Anne Crockett-Stark, R-Wytheville, and Bill Thomas, a Democrat and retired judge from Pulaski, isn't really a campaign of cardboard cutouts.
Crockett-Stark is a grandmother of 11, a retired teacher and guidance counselor. She was the first chairwoman of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors and the first woman elected to the Wytheville Town Council.
Thomas spent 33 years as a juvenile and domestic relations district court judge. He maintains that all those years of making hard decisions on the bench prepared him to make the hard decisions legislators face as a matter of course.
He has decided, for instance, that the abusive driver fees passed during the General Assembly's last session -- fees earmarked for transportation improvements -- should be repealed. He calls them unfair and unreliable.
"I don't think it's a good source of revenue for our transportation," Thomas said, adding that some people don't pay traffic fines, no matter how hard the state tries. "You can get your judgment against them, but collecting it is another matter."
Crockett-Stark, who did not return several messages left at her campaign and legislative offices for this story, voted for the fees. She has argued that the legislation can be -- and should be -- amended and saved.
Thomas also expressed concern about the state's new energy plan, especially its hybrid regulation of electric companies. Thomas said he prefers the state's old style of regulating utilities over the hybrid system it has now.
More broadly, Thomas spoke of spreading the benefits of a productive economy around the state.
"I just don't want to see a commonwealth of Virginia where you have a commonwealth of haves and have-nots," he said.
Technology and two state universities can be the keys to economic development in the region, he said.
"I hope [future] CEOs will look back and say, 'The best four years of my life were at Virginia Tech, or at Radford University' and decide to put their offices here," Thomas said. "With technology, offices can be anywhere."
Thomas took a hiatus from politics during his time on the bench, so he doesn't have the campaigning experience of Crockett-Stark. But Thomas said it has been refreshing to hit the streets to engage in some retail politics.
"They say run for public office ... really, you walk for public office," he said.
Meanwhile, Crockett-Stark is nearing the end of her second campaign. Two years ago, she beat three-term incumbent Benny Keister with 54 percent of the vote. During that race, Crockett-Stark emphasized that, as a woman, she would be part of an underrepresented group in the General Assembly, and she also said as a Republican, she would be part of the majority party and could get more done.
In the General Assembly's most recent session, none of the would-be laws Crockett-Stark introduced was passed. One -- extending the distance a person can drive a car with antique license plates -- was incorporated into another delegate's bill that did pass.
On her campaign Web site, Crockett-Stark touts several funding initiatives that she backed that are part of the state budget, including $1 million for the New River Valley Center for Excellence. She also lists her support of more restrictive legislation to protect private property owners, and her support of more education funding.
With that, along with her incumbent status and teaching background, Crockett-Stark was endorsed this year by the Virginia Education Association -- a group that backed her opponent, Keister, in 2005.
Crockett-Stark has also had to deal with her own staffers' missteps on the Internet in 2005 and this year.
Two years ago, a staffer blogged about trolling for votes among "rednecks" who resembled Bigfoot and freak-show tattooed men who lived in places that looked like horror movie sets.
This year another staffer filed a Facebook entry that quoted Crockett-Stark referring to campaign contributors with an off-color term. Crockett-Stark denied the quote and the staffer left the campaign.
Those issues have not affected her support from political action committees representing special interests. They represent the majority of her top supporters.
Alpha Natural Resources, an Abingdon-based coal company, and the Virginia Dental Association were her biggest contributors through Oct. 24, each giving her $4,000. PACs representing bankers, cable television companies, hospitals, real estate agents and wine wholesalers are also among Crockett-Stark's top 10 supporters.
The real estate agents gave her an additional $1,500 donation last week. The Virginia Federation of Republican Women gave her a late donation of $2,000.
Thomas hasn't received any money from industry PACs.
"My contributions have basically been from individuals rather than corporations and organizations," he said.
No individual has given more to Thomas' campaign than Thomas himself -- $35,000 through the latest reporting period, which ended Oct. 24. The day before Halloween, Thomas got $1,500 from Leadership for Virginia's Future, Del. Brian Moran's PAC. Moran, who represents parts of Fairfax County and Alexandria, is chairman of the Democrats' House Caucus.
At the end of that reporting period, mainly because of the money he had loaned himself, Thomas had out-raised Crockett-Stark $74,364 to $72,097, according to the latest reports compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project, an online campaign finance database.
Crockett-Stark had outspent Thomas by about $4,000. With just days left before the election, both candidates had about $20,000 left to spend.
The money totals in this year's race are lagging far behind two years ago. Crockett-Stark raised $232,000 over that campaign, and Keister raised $193,000.
