GOP rivals heat up race for Beach Senate seat

VIRGINIA BEACH

On Saturday, a few thousand Republicans living in the eastern half of the city will most likely choose Virginia's newest state senator.

Retired businessman Jeff McWaters and Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson, both Republicans, are battling to fill the seat state Sen. Kenneth Stolle vacated. Stolle was elected Virginia Beach sheriff earlier this month.

The campaign has turned increasingly negative, with both candidates seeking to burnish their conservative credentials while trying to poke holes in each others'. No Democrats have announced plans to challenge the winner. The 8th Senate District is regarded as strongly Republican.

As with most special-election primaries, or canvasses, which are run by party officials, voter turnout will probably be low. The candidate who appeals most to party loyalists and has the biggest network of friends has the edge.

"The core party activists and people who are personally invested in the candidates will turn out, and you're not going to get much more beyond that," said Quentin Kidd, a political science professor at Christopher Newport University.

To attract the Beach's dedicated Republicans, McWaters and Wilson offer contrasting biographies.

McWaters, 53, who is making his first run for public office, touts his business experience in founding and running Amerigroup Corp., a managed health care firm that is one of the city's largest private employers.

When McWaters retired as CEO in 2007, he was earning a salary of $725,000, which has helped fund his $165,000 campaign - he contributed $50,000 - and has made him a prominent Republican donor. Since 2000, McWaters has given $139,000 to Republican candidates, including $60,000 to 2005 gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore and $18,800 to Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks money in politics.

McWaters is an elder at Virginia Beach's Trinity Church, an evangelical congregation that broke off from Galilee Church in 2007 because of the Episcopal Church's 2003 approval of a non-celibate gay man as a bishop in New Hampshire.

Wilson, 59, a former school teacher who is now a real estate agent, has raised $30,600 for her run. She emphasizes her experience as a School Board member and a City Council member serving her third term. She attends Virginia Beach United Methodist Church.

Wilson has attacked McWaters for advocating that health insurance be required, attempting to link him to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul effort.

McWaters says he favors mandated health insurance for those who can afford it.

He accused Wilson of negative campaigning, saying her charges amounted to "another Creigh Deeds desperate attempt."

Wilson also criticized McWaters for being at the helm of Amerigroup when a federal judge in 2007 found the company avoided enrolling unhealthy patients and pregnant women in Illinois who were more costly to treat. Amerigroup eventually settled for $225 million.

"I have a big concern they took Medicaid money and denied women health care," Wilson said.

"To take that issue and try and taint an individual is the worst kind of politics," said Chris LaCivita, a McWaters campaign consultant.

McWaters has portrayed Wilson as favoring higher taxes, citing examples such as Wilson floating an idea in 2006 to increase the personal property tax rate to compensate for lowering the real estate tax rate.

He also criticized her suggestion at a recent forum that getting rid of a business tax would require finding new revenue, and for her vote for a $10,000 City Council pay increase in 2005.

On transportation, both candidates said their first priority would be to back improvements to the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Both also said they would work to create jobs.

McWaters said he would aggressively pursue CEOs to move companies to the Beach.

Wilson said she'd work to get small businesses tax breaks for creating jobs.

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