Five GOP candidates seeking new Senate seat

A primary election coming in August will acquaint voters with a new state Senate district that many of them haven’t heard about yet.

Most of Lynchburg’s northern precincts are in the newly created 22^nd Senate District, as are voters in Amherst and Appomattox counties.

With five candidates already announced for the Republican nomination, voters in the new 22^nd District can expect a summer with countless yard signs, brochures in their mailboxes, and ads on radio and TV.

And that’s just for the right to run in November, when Democrats say they expect to have a candidate — as yet unannounced — on the ballot.

Because the new district does not have an incumbent senator, it is proving attractive to candidates from one end to the other.  Both Lynchburg and Goochland County, in Richmond’s outer suburbs, are represented by Senate hopefuls.

The southern part of Lynchburg remains in the 23^rd Senate District, where incumbent Sen. Steve Newman does not have an announced opponent. But Newman will campaign in new territory this fall in Botetourt and Craig counties, along with a northern slice of Roanoke County.

In the 22^nd District, the announced Republican candidates are:

Claudia Tucker, an Amherst County supervisor and manager of government relations for a health insurer; Mark Peake, a Lynchburg lawyer; Brian Bates, a Buckingham County supervisor who teaches at Longwood College; Bryan Rhode, a Goochland County resident and Richmond city prosecutor; and Tom Garrett, Louisa County commonwealth’s attorney.

Democrats on the majority side of the state Senate put the 22^nd District together in late April from a group of counties that lean Republican and gave Gov. Bob McDonnell more than 60 percent of their votes in 2009.

Nearly half of the district’s 196,000 people live in northern Lynchburg or the adjoining counties of Amherst and Appomattox.

Other counties in the 22^nd District are Buckingham, Cumberland, Fluvanna, Goochland and Prince Edward, along with part of Louisa County. 

While the district is about 100 miles long and includes localities concerned with street crime, family farms and suburban growth, candidates say the communities think alike about several key issues. 

Here is a sample of how candidates are approaching those issues: 

Mark Peake: “All of the counties have a center-right, conservative view of government, and Lynchburg city has that same conservative view. There is more community of interest than people realize.”

All of the counties are interested in creating jobs, and developing an environment for private industry to generate jobs, Peake said.

Claudia Tucker: “I have both corporate-America and small-business experience,” and because she and her husband operate Tucker Family Farm in Amherst County, “We very much understand the struggles and the farming community.”  Also, Tucker said, she worked on constituents’ needs while serving as a legislative assistant to former Del. Vance Wilkins. “That’s what government is there for,” Tucker said.

Bryan Rhode: “The 22^nd District offers the opportunity to get a good, conservative Republican leader in the state Senate who is going to take problems seriously and focus on jobs and economic development.

“I will work extremely hard to attract employers to the area, by making sure infrastructure is in place such as high-speed Internet and cell phone coverage. I’m for streamlined regulations, high-tech infrastructure, a well-trained work force and low taxes.”

Brian Bates: “I identify it as Virginia’s heartland district because, regardless of geography, we share some very common values. I don’t see the values farmers being substantially different from those in Lynchburg or Goochland.

“I will go to Richmond and advocate for jobs. Of everybody in this race, I am the only one that has a definable track record on that.” Bates said he played a key role in persuading Dominion Power to build the Bear Garden generating plant in Buckingham County, which brought 800 construction and 24 permanent jobs. “The multiplier effect of that can’t be measured,” Bates said.

Tom Garrett: “The issue — local, state and federal — is the economy an access to opportunity. The need for opportunity is uniform from Lynchburg to Louisa County. The best way to create opportunity is not to go to Richmond and bring home the bacon.  It should be, ‘Go to Richmond and leave the bacon at home.’ Let us have access to the fruits of our own labor and the opportunity to act on our ideas. At the end of the day, it’s more important where you stand than where you sleep.”