Scott Garrett takes Republican nomination

Republican primary results - Scott Garrett vs. Jeff Helgeson

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Lynchburg City Councilman Scott Garrett won the Republican nomination Tuesday night to run for the House of Delegates against incumbent Del. Shannon Valentine.

Garrett defeated fellow councilman Jeff Helgeson by a 55-45 percent margin in the 23rd House District, which includes Madison Heights.

“This is a process,” Garrett said, of an eight-month campaign that started in February. “We have five months to go,” to the November general election.

Garrett said he thought one of the keys to his victory was his group of volunteer campaign workers, along with “our message, and getting it out to constituents.”

Mark Peake, Lynchburg’s Republican Party chairman, said the primary’s conclusion opens the door to a high-profile and expensive race between Garrett and Valentine, who has served in the 23rd District seat since 2006.

“I think now that the primary is over, you will see some real money coming in from the Republicans, because we want to take this seat back,” Peake said. Preston Bryant, a Republican, represented the district before he was named state Secretary of Natural Resources in late 2005.

Valentine issued a statement saying, “I offer my congratulations to City Councilman Dr. Scott Garrett, and look forward to a campaign that is honest, based on the issues, and reflects the character and integrity of the community in which we live.”

“I also extend my appreciation to City Councilman Jeff Helgeson for his willingness to run, and his dedication to public service,” Valentine said.

Peake said the Garrett-Valentine race to November will be interesting.

“You’ve got a doctor’s wife and a doctor going against each other. They know a lot of the same people and it’s going to be an interesting contest,” Peake said.

Valentine is married to Dr. Michael Valentine, a cardiac physician. Garrett is a retired surgeon.

Garrett raised $87,000 for the primary race and spent most of it mailing brochures to voters.

Valentine is sitting on a $170,000 campaign chest, according to vpap.org, but Peake said he expects Democrats to pour more money into the race.

“You will see it from Sen. Mark Warner, you will see it from Tim Kaine, (Virginia’s governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee) and from the Democratic Party of Virginia,” Peake said.

“They are going to pour tons of resources into trying to hold this seat,” Peake said.

Democrats want to gain a majority in Virginia’s House of Delegates, and need to capture six more seats in November in addition to keeping the 45 they now have.

John Lawrence, Lynchburg’s Democratic Party chairman, said Garrett’s campaign against Helgeson focused on portraying himself as conservative on social issues.

When Garrett ran for City Council, Lawrence said, “He tried to portray himself as a moderate independent, and we knew better.”

“His performance on council has shown him to be a right-wing Republican,” Lawrence said.

The Republican race was decided by just more than 8 percent of the 23rd District’s registered voters, with about 4,100 people casting ballots for Garrett or Helgeson.

Even fewer voters turned out in Lynchburg for the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Just 2,666 Democratic votes were cast in the Hill City, with Creigh Deeds capturing 49 percent of them. Deeds’ edge in Lynchburg paralleled his victory margin statewide over Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran.

The city’s Ward I precincts essentially delivered Garrett’s margin of victory with a 10 percent voter turnout. Garrett lives in that ward, which also delivered his strongest margin in his race for an at-large seat on council.

Helgeson won all the precincts in Ward III, which he represents on City Council, but the turnout there was lower than the citywide average.

Peake said, “Scott Garrett is the hardest-working man in politics. He went to work in this primary and just knocked on a whole bunch of doors and sent out lot of literature and made a lot of phone calls and got his people out to vote,” Peake said.

Peake also said he thought the 4,100 voter turnout was strong for a House of Delegates primary, and compared it to the roughly 5,200 in Lynchburg who cast ballots in the Republican presidential primary in 2008.

“To come that close in a House race shows both guys were working hard to get their votes out,” Peake said.

“Jeff ran a good campaign. He worked very hard as well, and he’s a young fellow and he has got a bright future ahead, and he’s going to be a force in the Republican Party for years to come,” Peake said.

Some members of City Council already had chosen sides in the race.

“Even though Scott’s a colleague of mine, I’m going to go with a proven leader in the legislature in Shannon Valentine,” said Councilman Ceasor Johnson.

Both Vice Mayor Bert Dodson and Councilman Mike Gillette had declared their support for Valentine early on in the campaign.

Councilman Turner Perrow, a member of the Lynchburg Republican Committee, said he felt Garrett’s chances of victory come November were excellent. Perrow had remained neutral during the primary campaign.