Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Roscoe Reynolds readies for competition
The Democrat will face an Army veteran and former state trooper for the 20th District.
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From The Roanoke Times
Southside Democrat Roscoe Reynolds will face opposition next year in his campaign for re-election to the Virginia Senate.
Jeff Evans, an Army veteran, former state trooper and current vice chairman of the Carroll County Board of Supervisors, has announced he's seeking the Republican nomination to run in the 20th District against Reynolds, a Democrat from Henry County.
Evans, 50, is a native of Grayson County. He spent three years with the Army before being hired by the Virginia State Police in 1978. He remained there until retiring in 2002.
Evans was elected to the Carroll County Board of Supervisors and is approaching the end of his first term.
He said he's running because he believes Reynolds doesn't adequately represent the district.
"I believe the biggest problem I've found, and the thing that's motivated me the most, is that our elected officials are out of touch and not out in our communities," Evans said. "I see the votes that are carried forth are not the votes that I know."
Reynolds, 64, first won his Senate seat in a 1996 special election by defeating Del. Allen Dudley, R-Rocky Mount, to replace Virgil Goode, who had left for Congress. Prior to that he'd served 12 years in the House of Delegates.
His district is largely rural and was reshaped in 2000, when the Republican-controlled General Assembly drew new district boundaries. In his first campaign after redistricting, however, his opponent all but dropped out after a published report detailed past legal and financial problems, including a drunken-driving conviction and unpaid child support. Even so, Reynolds still won only 68 percent of the vote. In Wythe County, he won less than 50 percent.
So despite conventional wisdom that says state Republicans will be on the defensive in 2007, Reynolds is taking Evans as a serious threat.
"I'm expecting for there to be a Republican opponent who will receive considerable financing," Reynolds said. "To do otherwise wouldn't make any sense. If you underestimate your potential enemy, you're making a terrible mistake."
Evans said he plans to campaign on the issues of taxes, illegal immigration and moral values. He said Reynolds doesn't represent the "votes of the mainstream."
"It's time we get back to the mountains and the 20th Senate District," Evans said. "It's a family-oriented area that believes in the family structure. But yet we're seeing that torn down."
Reynolds did vote for the marriage amendment that voters approved in a ballot issue last month. The amendment adds the state's ban on gay marriage to the Virginia Constitution's Bill of Rights.
According to Project Vote Smart, his abortion ratings have fluctuated over the years. From 1978 to 1999, for example, the Virginia Society for Human Life found Reynolds voted an anti-abortion position 100 percent of the time. In 2004 and 2005, the society found he voted with its interests a third of the time.
"I've been a leading advocate for parental notification and parental approval of an abortion for a child," Reynolds said. "The opposition will always try to portray you as something other than what you are. That's the way it's been in the past."
Evans has also attacked Reynolds for supporting a tax increase in 2004. The budget that year increased state taxes by about $1 billion. And Evans said illegal immigrants and the loss of jobs overseas is hurting the regional economy.
"We're not only seeing our jobs leave but we're seeing illegal immigrants take over our communities," Evans said. "Galax has a high percentage of immigrants, and most of them are illegal. I know that from being a trooper. And it seems that nothing's being done in Richmond."
Reynolds is returning to Richmond next month for the six-week General Assembly session. He said his legislative priorities will be to secure additional funding for Southside's New College Institute, push for the state to finish widening U.S. 58 to four lanes between Stuart and Hillsville, and increase governor's economic opportunity funds for district businesses.
The 20th District includes Carroll County, Floyd County, Galax, Henry County, Martinsville, Patrick County, and parts of Grayson County and Wythe County.
