90th House, 3rd Senate votes reflect new lines

RICHMOND

Two nominating contests for the Virginia General Assembly will be open to some South Hampton Roads voters when primary elections are held Tuesday.

One is in the 90th House District, encompassing portions of Norfolk and Virginia Beach but no longer Chesapeake, whose precincts were removed during redistricting this spring.

That race pits incumbent Del. Algie T. Howell Jr., D-Norfolk, against Norfolk Police Department retiree Rick James. It is the second consecutive election cycle in which Howell has faced a primary challenge; he defeated the son of Chesapeake Democratic Del. Lionell Spruill Sr. in 2009.

The other race will determine the Republican nominee in the 3rd Senate District, which is mainly on the Peninsula but picked up a couple Suffolk precincts during reapportionment.

Candidates in that contest are longtime Sen. Tommy Norment of James City County and tea party-aligned conservative Mark Frechette of Gloucester County.

In both contests, the ideological purity of the incumbents is doubted by some special interests associated with their respective political parties.

Local units of the state teachers lobby are backing James instead of Howell over disagreements with the incumbent on past education votes - including his support for a bill, defeated this year, to give tax credits to companies that donate money for private school scholarships.

And the Virginia Citizens Defense League's political arm has endorsed Frechette for his pro-gun views rather than Norment, a moderate by modern Republican standards.

The two races are among the 16 legislative primaries scheduled across Virginia on Tuesday, a date set later on the calendar this year because of redistricting.

In some ways, the Senate GOP primary is a microcosm of the ongoing identity tug-of-war within the Republican Party.

Norment is a senior member of the Senate and serves as GOP minority leader of a caucus that is moving further to the right philosophically. Despite that shift, he doesn't automatically reject tax increases, saying he has voted for them when appropriate and would consider them again if warranted, though not in this economy.

Frechette, who considers himself "a more conservative alternative" to Norment, favors a flat 5 percent income tax, strict limits on abortion, the prohibition of gay marriage, giving local school divisions more curriculum flexibility by freeing them from state education standards, and term limits for legislators.

He has self-financed his campaign with less than $5,000, according to the Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks political spending. That's a far cry from Norment's coffers, flush with more than $387,000 as of this month.

Norment, a lawyer, also holds public sector positions that have exposed him to past criticism - he teaches at the College of William and Mary and serves as commissioner of accounts for James City and Williamsburg, overseeing the disposition of estates.

His already considerable legislative influence grew when he was selected as a budget negotiator, a role tailored to skills honed during the behind-the-scenes bargaining commonplace in the Assembly.

Making his case for re-election in a reshaped district, Norment touts his experience and the "institutional knowledge that I have accumulated from being in the trenches of the legislative process" during nearly two decades in the General Assembly.

Frechette seems unconcerned about getting acclimated to the Assembly if elected.

"Every new job has a learning curve and takes time and practice to become proficient," he said. "If the Lord is with me, I will be successful and effective."

For James, this run is the culmination of more than 20 years of preparation to enter the political arena, a path that began when he met former U.S. Rep. Owen Pickett in the late 1980s.

In an interview, James said Howell is inaccessible to constituents and hasn't fully supported public education or done enough to promote business development in the district. He pledged to be a more engaged advocate.

Howell, perhaps best known for his 2005 "droopy drawers" bill to fine people for exposed underwear, said he has done plenty to benefit the district, including his efforts to secure funding for Norfolk State University and the Southeastern Virginia Training Center.

"I'm beholden to the constituents," said Howell, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee. "My record speaks for itself. You support the district beyond everything else."

Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com