TV ads next step in 23rd District delegate race

In an election between a surgeon and an incumbent legislator who is married to a doctor, Lynchburg residents can expect TV commercials — a Hill City rarity in local races — in addition to the usual door-knocking campaigners.

Del. Shannon Valentine, a two-term Democrat, is facing her first serious challenger in Republican Scott Garrett, a city councilman and retired surgeon. They want to represent Lynchburg and Madison Heights in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Valentine’s TV ads already are on the air, powered by a campaign chest that totaled $226,000 at the end of August. The ads focus on Valentine’s efforts to work with members of both parties to get bills passed in Richmond.

Garrett, meanwhile, has been wearing out shoes in a door-to-door campaign. He said he talks with people about their concerns over jobs, their futures and federal spending on the stimulus and health care.

Valentine also has done door-to-door work, assisted by staffers and volunteers delivering a message about serving Lynchburg’s diverse needs.

Before entering politics, Valentine worked with Habitat for Humanity and other volunteer housing programs in the city’s lower-income neighborhoods.

Family issues are the theme of Garrett’s campaign. He told a Lynchburg Voters League forum last week that stable homes are the key for solving education problems, crime and other issues.

Garrett often says he performed surgery on about 13,000 people, without ever checking the political affiliation of a gall bladder or appendix.

People attending the forum also mentioned receiving phone calls from an opinion-survey company that described the candidates’ positions on issues. People who said they listened to all of the surveyors’ questions were told at the end of the call that Garrett’s campaign paid for the survey.

Garrett picked up about $15,000 in contributions from Republican Party sources in August, nearly matching the $19,000 that Richmond Democrats have poured into Valentine’s campaign.

Money is an obvious difference in the two campaigns.

Garrett’s balance at the end of August was just $32,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, vpap.org.

Most of Garrett’s campaign for the November election seems to use the same door-knocking, direct-mail methods that won him the Republican nomination in a June primary against Jeff Helgeson.

Garrett raised $122,000 in the primary race and spent $115,000, most of it for mailing out brochures, calling voters and printing signs and bumper stickers.

Total funds raised this year in the 23rd House District race, according to Virginia Public Action Project figures available Friday afternoon were: $242,000 for Valentine and $191,000 for Garrett.

Helgeson, like Garrett a member of City Council, raised about $61,000 in his primary campaign.

Altogether, the district’s political spending stood at nearly half a million dollars in August with two months of fund raising still to go. The next public reports of campaign contributions are due Oct. 15, and will cover September fund raising.

The year’s totals include cash contributions, in-kind contributions of bulk mailing and other services, and loans.

Garrett and Valentine each received about $4,000 from doctors and others in the health care fields during the July-August period, according to campaign reports posted by vpap.org.

Valentine is married to Dr. Michael Valentine, a cardiologist.

Garrett listed more than $5,000 in campaign contributions from people in construction-related businesses in the Lynchburg area during July and August, more than any other industry.

Valentine’s largest category of contributors in July and August was political action committees, which gave more than $14,000 to her campaign.

The PACs represent health care associations, utility companies, road builders and other industry groups that routinely contribute to incumbents’ campaigns.