Cline keeps seat in 24th House District

Republican Del. Ben Cline turned back a challenge from Madison Heights Democrat Jeff Price on Tuesday, winning his fifth term to represent a district that includes most of Amherst County.

Cline, R-Rockbridge County, gathered 71 percent of the vote in a 24th District election that featured relatively positive campaigning by both candidates.

The two candidates appeared together in several forums, none of them in Amherst County and none that had any real controversy.

The candidates spent a lot of time talking about education, with Cline focusing on plans for more scholarships and degree programs for community college branches in Amherst and Buena Vista.

Price advocated apprenticeship programs for high school juniors and seniors who were not headed to college, and for more flexibility for local schools in their use of state education funds.

Cline, 37, was elected to the House of Delegates in 2002, and before Tuesday had defeated three opponents by margins of 15 percent or better. He was unopposed in his last election in 2007.

Cline is also an assistant prosecutor in Rockingham County.

Price, 30, a manager in his family-owned Virginia Lime Works in Madison Heights, was making his first bid for public office.