The partisan composition of the University's surrounding three districts may create for a predictable election day in November for the Virginia House of Delegates, Politics Prof. Larry J. Sabato said.
"Geography is destiny in politics," Sabato said. "These districts are heavily tilted toward one party or the other."
Former Charlottesville Mayor David Toscano has returned to politics to sweep the Democratic primaries for delegate in the position left by retired Delegate Mitchell Van Yahres in the 57th district. Running against Democrats in the primary Rich Collins and Kim Tingley, Toscano pulled 54-percent of the vote.
Toscano said if he wins he will have to build strategic coalitions with moderates within the Republican Party in order to achieve his goals.
"I hope for a Democratic governor who will push budgets that fund education first and provide the funds necessary to improve our air and our water and provide services that people in the commonwealth have come to expect," he said.
Toscano said his campaign will be vigorous and issue-oriented with significant face-to-face contact.
"This will be a civil race and I don't expect negative campaigning on my part or my opponents," Toscano said.
Toscano is running against Republican Tom McCrystal, chief technology officer at the multimedia company Creative Perspectives.
McCrystal began working with the Virginia Senate and House Joint Commission on Technology and Science in 2001, spending a day a week with the General Assembly during session and working with technology policy. McCrystal said he believe the relationships that he has developed with legislators could help him in providing good representation.
After Van Yahres decided not to run again, McCrystal said he was concerned about Charlottesville continuing to have good representation.
"I pretty quickly realized that a moderate Republican inside the majority caucus can do a lot more than a Democrat who would be outside of that caucus," McCrystal said.
McCrystal said is aware that the 57th district has strong Democratic leanings, but is not concerned about that.
"I love this district," he said. "I feel that it's filled with a lot of smart people who care about good ideas and I really think that people are tired of partisanship.And I think that they really are looking for someone who can deliver results rather than someone who can play the partisan game."
Sabato said David Toscano would most likely take the 57th district and Robert Bell is an almost-certain winner of the 58th district.
"It's a good thing that the opposition is running a candidate to give the people a choice even though the results are probably preordained," Sabato said.
Republican Del. Robert Bell is running for reelection for the 58th district.
Bell is a University and Law school graduate with honors, who then went on to work as a prosecutor in the Albemarle area after his graduation.Bell said his particular concerns were drunk driving, domestic violence and school bullying.He won a contested election in 2001 for the 58th district seat.
"If you look at the issues I told people I'd focus on and the new drunk driving laws, new laws to address people who were victimized by sexual predators.This last year we worked to pass a statewide bullying prevention bill," Bell said. "Ultimately, it will be a referendum on whether people think I'm doing a job that they approve of."
Scottsville Democrat Stephen H. Koleszar, an Albemarle County School Board member for the last ten years, will challenge Bell in the election.
"I have a real passion for public education and I've been very frustrated at our current delegate for not supporting education and other infrastructure needs," Koleszar said.
Koleszar said his opponent was a professional politician and that monetarily, he could not compete with Bell.
"In my school board races, I've been outspent four to one," Koleszar said. "One of the things I'm going to do is show that you don't have to have a lot of money to win a race like this."
In the 25th district, Republican Delegate Steve Landes is running uncontested.
"These aren't on anybody's list of targeted races, because they just aren't going to be particularly close ore competitive," Sabato said.
Editor's note: News Editor Matt Galati is an intern for the Robert Bell campaign. He was not involved with the reporting or editing for this article.
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