Friday, July 31, 2009
Salem mayor endorses Carter Turner for House of Delegates seat
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roanoke.com/politics
Three days into his campaign, a new Democratic challenger for the House of Delegates picked up a prominent endorsement from a longtime friend.
Carter Turner, the candidate for the 8th District seat, landed the support of Salem Mayor Randy Foley on Thursday.
Turner is running against the incumbent, Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, for a district that includes Salem and the majority of Roanoke County.
In part, the endorsement was easy to predict.
Turner and Foley have been friends since childhood and were teammates on the 1986 Salem High School football team.
"Just a great friend," said Foley, who participated in Turner's wedding. He added, "I want to stress he's very well-qualified, he's articulate, he's intelligent."
But the late-day announcement may have also had an element of surprise.
The Salem mayor has eschewed party partisanship in his own political career. Foley ran for the city council as an independent. And this spring, when asked about partisanship in city politics, said that they had no place.
"It's not anti-Morgan, it's pro-Carter," Foley said Thursday. "It's more about the personal relationship than it is about the politics."
Turner could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday evening.
The Glenvar resident and Radford University assistant professor announced his candidacy for the state House in downtown Salem on Monday.
-- Pete Dybdahl
