Posted on 01/25/2006 10:41:35 AM PST by jmaroneps37
Republican Christopher K. Peace of Mechanicsville won a narrow victory over Democrat John W. Montgomery Jr. of Sandston in a special election for the 97th District House of Delegates seat yesterday.
Peace, a former lobbyist, built a winning margin in his home base of Hanover County in defeating the Sandston lawyer.
Peace won 4,572 votes to Montgomery's 4,352..... Turnout was about 17.6 percent.
The district consists of New Kent County and portions of Caroline, Hanover, Henrico, King and Queen, King William and Spotsylvania counties.
Peace won his home base of Hanover handily and carried King William, New Kent and Spotsylvania by smaller margins -- in the case of Spotsylvania, by only three votes. Montgomery carried King and Queen, Henrico and Caroline.
This was Montgomery's second try at the office. He narrowly lost to McDougle in 2001. A West Point graduate, he is a former Army Ranger who served in Operation Desert Storm.
Peace is the son of the late Nina K. Peace, a well-known Hanover judge and supervisor. He ran as a conservative Republican, emphasizing low taxes. Montgomery did not mention his Democratic ties and campaigned as a moderate. Both advertised heavily on television in the closing days.
Both political parties invested considerable money in the campaign. The Republicans, having lost a seat in a special election a week ago, wanted to stem the tide. Democrats wanted to continue a special election winning streak after gaining the Lynchburg-area House seat formerly held by L. Preston Bryant Jr., a Republican who is now a member of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's Cabinet.
The election of Peace brings the Republican numbers in the House to 57. Democrats control 40 seats, and there are three independents.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
And don't forget, he was president of the PTA. That line on his commercials just made me laugh.
51.2% to 48.7% doesn't seem such a "narrow victory" to me. Anyway, it was a vicory for the good guys no matter how they spin it.
Richmond ping
Geez....
Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marine. Tim McVeigh was a Gulf War vet. So, by the Rats reasining, McVeigh was fit for public office?
Vets deserve our respect for what they have done to protect out country, but that doesn't mean they are always the best people to hold office. It's a plus, but there are other things to look at.
Not to mention John sKerry......
Interesting--glad we won. How did this district vote in the gubernatorial race? If Peace outpaced Kilgore's results and took a seat in Kaine country (Richmond), that is good news!
This is a bellweather election!!!!! These results are the tea leaves!!! Republican's will actually increase house seats this year! I can't wait to hear Krissy Matthews shout this from the highest mountain./sarcasm off
And Montgomery was on that goofball board at Game & Fisheries that liked to safari in Reno.
Maybe I'm being needlessly alarmed, but the VA GOP has dropped an astonishing number of seats in the Assembly since it got control of redistricting a few cycles ago (at one point outnumbering the 'Rats by around 67-33, taking into account the GOP-leaning Indies, now down to 57+2 Indies to 40D+1 Indy). They also just lost a GOP seat in a special just a few weeks ago and barely held this one mentioned in the article. The 'Rats now only need to flip 9 more seats to reach parity, something that was unthinkable after the GOP finally took its rightful majority on its own terms. They had better take a look at the erosion going on before that "unthinkable" becomes the reality within another few cycles.
If a DEM Loses by less than 10%, it's "close" or "tightly-contested"..
If a Republican loses by more than .3%, it's a "Landslide" and a "Mandate"........
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