By MARKSCOLFORO

By MARKSCOLFORO

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

Robert M. “Bob" Darby, the Republican Party candidate for the 31st District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, knows exactly where he will focus his energies if elected in November.

He wants to be appointed to the General Assembly’s Education Committee as well as to find areas in which to cut spending throughout the state budget.

“In the long run, if I could do something for our public school system, that would be something I’d like to accomplish,” said Mr. Darby, a retired businessman who moved with his wife Tnsh and daughter Ann to Millwood Farm in Woodville 4'/2 years ago.

Anticipating a potential fight in Richmond between “poor” school districts and “rich” ones, Mr. Darby said he would fight to maintain Rappahannock, Warren and Fauquier’s fair share of state funds.

“My understanding,” said Mr. Darby, “is that (membership on the Education Committee) is not hotly contested. Maybe they think it is boring.”

When he meets the public, the 54-year-old candidate talks about public education, but he also hammers home his deep concern with the state’s financial problems.

In an interview this week he said that starting with the Baliles Administration, state government has diverted funds to make the budget picture look better than in fact it really is.

He cited raids on Lottery revenues, the Literary Fund, and public employee pension monies as examples of the Democrat’s “smoke and mirrors” budget.

Although he won’t “take the read-my-lips, no-new-taxes pledge,” said Mr. Darby, he vows to “resist tax increases and look for ways to cut state spending. ”

Manpower, he said, is where he would start, citing the 2,900-employee increase in the state payroll since the start of the Wilder Administration (for a total of 105,000 state workers).