Falwell says he’s ‘surprised’ by election results

Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said Monday he was surprised by Del. Shannon Valentine’s narrow defeat at the polls last week.

“I really thought she was going to win,” he said, noting the local Democrat’s incumbent status and general popularity in the community. “That was just my personal opinion. I was really surprised it went the other way.”

Students at LU are widely credited with tipping the balance in the 23rd District House of Delegates race in favor of Republican challenger Scott Garrett, who was edged into office by 208 votes.

This was only the second general election in which LU students participated en masse following the launch of an aggressive on-campus voter registration effort in fall 2008. LU has been heavily promoting local voting among its students, primarily in hopes of affecting future City Council decisions.

The presidential elections last year produced an impressive LU turnout, but speculation followed as to how the students would respond to the less-glitzy state and local races.

Their turnout last week left little doubt in the minds of local officials that this new voting bloc is here to stay.

“Last (Tuesday) did demonstrate that LU is a significant factor,” City Councilman Michael Gillette said in an interview last week. “And I think that is going to have a significant influence on City Council.”

Mayor Joan Foster, whose seat will be up for election next spring, said LU must now be recognized as a “force.”

“I think it certainly has changed the face of politics in the city of Lynchburg,” she said. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Falwell has readily acknowledged that he wants to see LU priorities get greater consideration from city government, specifically when it comes to matters of taxation and the regulation of college construction.

The collective power that the overwhelmingly conservative LU voters can bring to bear in a local election has rattled some in the community. The defeat of Valentine, particularly, startled and frustrated many of her supporters.

“Shannon Valentine won the delegate’s seat when it comes to the citizens who work here and send their kids and grandkids to school here and who expect their future to be here,” said Vice Mayor Bert Dodson, who had given an early endorsement to Valentine.

“Shannon won without Liberty,” he said. “Obviously, Scott owes Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University a favor. It’s pretty obvious. It’s not political spin. It’s the numbers.”

Garrett himself brushed off such claims. He noted that while he garnered slightly more than 1,900 votes at the Heritage Elementary School precinct where on-campus LU students vote — compared to 324 ballots cast there for Valentine — he also took in more than 10,000 votes districtwide and won nine precincts.

“If even one of these places had not stepped up to the plate, we could not have prevailed,” he said last week. “Clearly, the largest bloc of votes was in Heritage Elementary. But I needed to do well across the city. You can’t just win one precinct.”

Falwell said he’s never asked a state delegate for a favor and noted Garrett was not the candidate with the strongest ties to LU in this race. Councilman Jeff Helgeson, LU’s ward representative and a school alumnus, had run against Garrett unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination earlier this year.

Helgeson, currently part of a conservative minority on council, said in a recent interview he was glad to see Garrett headed to Richmond and was optimistic about next year’s city elections, which could change the balance of council.

“I’m looking forward to it wholeheartedly,” Helgeson said of the May elections. “I’ve been a minority voice on council, but a majority voice in the city.”

“I think we’re going to see a turning of the tide back to more conservative leadership,” he said. “Frankly, we can’t get much more liberal now. There are more onerous regulations, tax increase after tax increase, increases in budget and spending. Hopefully, we’ll get back to fiscal conservatism.”

Falwell said he felt the council elections would be less “divisive” and less partisan than the House of Delegates race.

“You won’t see such a clear conservative/liberal or Democrat/Republican divide,” he said. “But I think you will see a City Council more attuned to the issues that affect students, regardless of who wins.”

Falwell called Valentine “gracious” and “pleasant” and said there was no ill will toward her at LU.

“Shannon Valentine was never in our sights,” he said. “She was not our target. It just so happened Scott Garrett’s views were much more in line with our students. Our objective was not to throw her out of office.”

The consensus on both sides of the spectrum seemed to be that concerns about LU’s continued presence at the polls would, or should, generate greater voter turnout among other parts of the community.

“I hope the message will be that voting is extremely important,” said Foster, who praised Valentine as a “very hard act to follow.”

“Every vote counts and everyone needs to get out and do their civic duty,” she said.

“I think for democracy to work, everyone has to vote,” said Gillette, who also publicly supported Valentine. “If everyone votes, nobody can complain about the outcome.”

Falwell said he felt there would be greater turnout all around as the students become more energized about voting and opposing factions respond to that activity.

“I think you’ll see more participation on both sides because of what happened last Tuesday,” he said. “I think it will be healthy for the city overall.”