Longtime incumbent faces familiar foes in 82nd District

VIRGINIA BEACH

It's a three-way race in the 82nd House District, with two challengers trying to knock off the longtime Republican incumbent, Del. Bob Purkey.

Both candidates took a shot at Purkey in 2005, but Peter Schmidt lost in the Republican primary and John Parmele, an independent, fell in the general election. This time around, Schmidt, 60, is running as a Democrat.

Purkey, 75, has held his seat since 1986 in the district that encompasses Little Neck, Great Neck, the Oceanfront and much of the Shore Drive corridor.

Purkey and Schmidt have taken swipes at each other, largely ignoring Parmele.

A stockbroker and vice president of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc., Purkey chairs the House Finance Committee. He said retaining public ownership of the port of Hampton Roads in the face of unsolicited offers to buy or lease the port is one of his biggest goals.

Schmidt, a former Beach councilman who owns a construction materials company, is focusing his campaign on transportation issues. He said raising new money is essential to fixing regional road woes.

"Anyone who's telling you we're going to solve our transportation problems without new revenues is not telling you the truth," he said, suggesting a combination of tolls and a gas tax increase to pay for local transportation projects. Schmidt said Virginia hasn't done anything meaningful for transportation since 1986, the year the gas tax was instituted.

Purkey was skeptical of a gas tax hike, saying he'd want buy-in from voters.

"People are saying, 'Let's raise taxes.' Well, you can't raise taxes in a down economy," he said.

He suggested that some projects, such as a new U.S. 460, could be built privately and funded through tolls.

Purkey criticized Schmidt for switching parties.

"I've remained in the same party I started in, and now he's running as a Democrat," Purkey said. "The voters need to be aware of that."

Parmele, 66, a retired Navy chief petty officer, said he favors a 3- to 5-cent gas tax increase.

"A lot of people say boo to this, but if you're going to use the roads, pay for it," he said.

Both Purkey and Schmidt have amassed war chests for the campaign, while Parmele has raised hardly any money. Purkey had $101,000 and Schmidt had $52,000 at the end of the last campaign finance cycle. Parmele, making his eighth bid for public office, had $900.

Parmele said if elected he'd push to make it illegal for motorists to use cell phones, ban liquor sales on Sunday and legislate against baggy pants, praising a failed effort by Norfolk Del. Algie Howell Jr. to ban so-called droopy drawers.

"Black guys started it and the white guys emulate it," Parmele said. "Exposing their underwear, they think it's fashionable, but it isn't cool."

Schmidt, who was director of the Department of Environmental Quality under former Gov. George Allen, said he'd work to create a regional wind farm industry and get more state money for vocational education. "We subsidize higher education, and there's certainly a way we can do the same for vocational training," he said.

Purkey railed against federal health plans being debated in Washington, saying they would "raise our health care costs dramatically."

He said Virginians without health insurance should be required to get it.

"If you cannot show you have insurance, you have money deducted from payroll which would go into an uninsured medical reimbursement fund," he said.

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122, aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com