Incumbent Valentine gears up for tough campaign fight

Del. Shannon Valentine formally opened her re-election campaign Saturday morning as about 150 supporters in downtown Lynchburg crowded under a tent, trying to talk louder than a bagpipe band that was playing under a shade tree while the temperature climbed past 82 degrees.

“We all could be doing a number of things this morning, but we chose to be here,” said Anne Gibbons, a Lynchburg College chaplain who ran the rally for Democrat Valentine’s bid for a third term in the House of Delegates.

Former state Sen. Elliot Schewel told the crowd, “This is going to be a tough election. We know our friends on the mountain are going to be active on the other side,” a reference to Liberty University students and officials that drew chuckles from the audience.

Valentine’s Republican opponent will be Scott Garrett, a Lynchburg City Council member and retired surgeon. Garrett won the party’s nomination over Jeff Helgeson, another councilman, in a primary election held June 9.

Political observers have framed the Valentine-Garrett race as a key to which party holds a majority in next year’s House of Delegates. Democrats would need to gain six seats statewide, and Republican leaders see Lynchburg’s 23rd District as one they’d like to take back.

Both parties are expected to pour money into the contest, and Valentine already had $171,000 in her campaign treasury at the end of May, according to the Virginia Public Access Project (vpap.org).

Schewel listed many Valentine supporters, starting with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner and moving on to local officials in Lynchburg and Amherst County.

“It’s interesting to note that the Medical Society of Virginia is supporting Shannon, considering the opposition,” Schewel said.

Valentine’s husband, Michael, is a cardiologist and a medical school classmate of Garrett.

“Shannon is much more than a doctor’s wife,” said Cheryl Glass of Virginia University, drawing the loudest cheers of the morning. “Shannon is the kind of leader we can trust.”

The most noticeable endorsement during the rally came from Mike Mohler, president of the Virginia Professional Fire Fighters, which provided the bagpipe band.

Valentine is a legislator who “protects the protectors,” Mohler said.

Valentine opened her remarks by saying she has teamed up with other legislators, many of them Republicans.

“It is working,” she said. “The willingness to work together is the reason we have been able to do so many things.”

She listed a second daily Amtrak train that will start serving Lynchburg in October, $25 million in federal stimulus funds for Lynchburg’s combined sewer overflow project, legislation to prevent identity theft, and health-care bills as some of the efforts she participated in.

“It’s not about winning or losing because your team is in charge,” Valentine said.

“It is about a willingness to stand up for every man, woman and child regardless of who is in charge,” she said.

“It has nothing to do with Washington, it has nothing to do with Richmond, it has everything to do with our community,” Valentine said.

“We can make wise investments, reduce waste, and focus on results and create a world that is better, and that is why I am running,” she said.