Scheer Carries

Scheer Carries

County As Dems

Keep Assembly

7

By SANDY HUME AND

SHARON KILPATRICK

Times Newspapers Staff Writers

Democrat Sue Scheer narrowly carried Rappahannock County in her challenge of incumbent Republican Jay Katzen for the 31st House of Delegates seat. However, Katzen easily carried his precincts in Fauquier and Warren counties to win reelection 10,891 to 7,979 for Mrs. Scheer.

Facing no ballot opposition State Sen. Kevin Miller, R-26th District, easily won reelection garnering 1,938 votes in Rappahannock County.

Mrs. Scheer carried Sperryville, Scrabble and Flint Hill precincts, while Del. Katzen carried Washington, Amissville and Chester Gap.

In Rappahannock Mrs. Scheer won with 50.7 percent of the vote compared to 49.3 percent for Del. Katzen, but in the district as a whole Del. Katzen had 57.8 percent of the vote to 42.2 percent for Mrs. Scheer.

The race had statewide parallels, but its implications for the statewide struggle 'for control of the General Assembly ultimately proved overblown.

While Del. Katzen won. Republicans failed in their bid to overturn a Democratic majority in the legislature that stretched back to Reconstruction. GOP candidates, running as members of a larger Republican movement led by Gov. George Allen, needed to gain four seats in the house and three in the senate. They gained none in the house, and managed only a tie in the senate. That gives Democratic Lt. Gov. Don Beyer a final say on deadlocked legislation.

Still, the strategy worked for Del. Katzen. He was happy to have Mrs. Scheer make an issue of his allegiance to Gov. Allen, who carried the district two years ago with 68 percent of the vote.

“1 believe that the agenda he advanced two years ago and again this year was the one the people wanted,” Del. Katzen said. “The message, I think, was really pretty simple: trust the people... The people don’t want the government in every part of their lives.”

The results, particularly the margin of victory, came as a surprise to some. The Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote in September that there was “an upset brewing” in the 31st District, pointing to Mrs. Scheer’s steady advantage in fund raising and her ties to the environmental movement that thwarted the Disney’s America theme park proposal a year ago.

She mobilized the support of a number of well-known and well-heeled Republicans that Katzen alienated by supporting the Disney proposal. Acknowledged even by her critics as a quick and conscientious study, she tackled the task of ousting the incumbent with vigor.

Mrs. Scheer followed the lead of Democrats across the,

See Assembly, Page A-8j

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