Two Republicans run for Stolle's seat; another Democrat out
If the Democrats settle on a candidate to replace Sen. Ken Stolle in Virginia Beach, they may find themselves already running behind the pair of Republicans who have been campaigning for months -- Jeff McWaters and Rosemary Wilson.
McWaters founded a company that strives to improve healthcare for seniors and people with disabilities that eventually became a Fortune 500 company, Amerigroup Corp. He served on the Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary.
Wilson, a former teacher who served on the Virginia Beach School Board, now sells real estate and is a member on the City Council. She was chairwoman of the Hampton Roads Women for McDonnell group.
Unlike the trio of Republicans running to replace Sen. Ken Cuccinelli in Fairfax County, McWaters and Wilson have been campaigning for months. Their Websites have been up and running and they have political signs all over the place (so much so that Virginia Beach party leaders asked them to scale back until after the November election.)
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Moody E. "Sonny" Stallings, who held the Senate seat from 1989 until 1992 when he was defeated by Stolle, said he considered running again but decided not to because his chances for victory would be slim.
"I have concluded that the people who vote in that district would not support my ideas about government," he said, noting that he supports increasing the gas tax to pay for transportation improvements. "That's the beginning of the end. It is a no-tax crowd through and strong. And they vote."
Stallings said he is not certain any Democrat will seek the seat.
"The district is overwhelmingly Republican and you would have to spend an extraordinary amount of money just to energize what Democrats are there. I hate to be defeatist about it, but I'm being practical."
By
Anita Kumar
|
November 11, 2009; 2:46 PM ET
Categories:
Anita Kumar
,
Election 2009
,
General Assembly 2010
,
State Senate
Share This: E-Mail | Technorati
| Del.icio.us | Digg | Stumble
Previous: Villanueva certified winner in Va. Beach House seat
Next: Updated: Only 9th Street astir on quiet holiday
No comments have been posted to this entry.
We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.