Quiet, contested Va. House race is picking up volume

VIRGINIA BEACH

The race for House District 21 stands out: In a year when most local delegates are unopposed, this one's actually contested.

Beach attorney Adrianne Bennett, a Democrat, is making her first run for public office, challenging first-term Republican incumbent Ron Villanueva, a businessman and former Virginia Beach City Council member.

The contest has been relatively quiet - neither candidate has turned to TV ads - but a recent debate at Lands-town High School hosted by the League of Women Voters featured some feisty exchanges.

The 21st District is composed of about 51,000 voters in southwest Virginia Beach and a sliver of Chesapeake added after last year's redistricting. Two years ago, Villanueva defeated Democrat Bobby Mathieson, winning by 16 votes after a recount.

Bennett, 39, a former intern for the late Democratic U.S. Rep. Owen Pickett, is stressing her support for public education. "It's time to draw a line in the sand and say no more cuts to public education," she said.

Villanueva, 41, an executive vice president at a 70-employee defense contracting firm with $132 million in government contracts since 2003, according to USA-Spending.gov, a website that tracks contracts, touts his business and City Council experience.

"I'm one of the few in the General Assembly with local government experience, and that matters," he said.

He said the race is about "jobs and the economy" and that school funding will pick up when the economy does. He said having three kids in the Beach public school system shows he understands education issues.

Villanueva had raised $184,000 for the race at the end of the last campaign finance reporting period, according to The Virginia Public Access Project, which tracks political contributions. Much of the money came from Republican groups and elected officials. Bennett had raised $91,000 over the same period. More than half of her money came from her uncle, Carlton Bennett, a Beach lawyer.

At the debate, the candidates clashed over the best approach to fix Hampton Roads' transportation woes.

Villanueva said he was a supporter of Gov. Bob McDonnell's $4 billion transportation plan, which relies primarily on debt for financing and is likely to include tolls.

Bennett said that plan is a start but doesn't come close to what the state needs to spend on transportation issues and doesn't deal squarely with how to raise money for road projects.

"We have $19 billion of needs right here in Hampton Roads," she said.

Bennett said every possible way to raise money for roads should "be on the table," including consideration of a gas tax.

"I don't think we can rely on tolls," she said.

Villanueva, a supporter of tolls, went after Bennett on her gas tax stance.

"Everything is on the table?" he said. "Does that include a 16-cent-a-gallon gas tax, Adrianne? I ask the question."

Bennett had not suggested an amount for a possible gas tax increase.

Later in the debate, Bennett said in her campaigning around the district, Villanueva didn't appear to be well known.

"Most people don't know who their delegate is, and that's a problem," she said.

Villanueva replied, "For her to say most folks don't know who their delegate is, we'll see on Nov. 8."

The two found common ground on one issue. Both are against lifting the state moratorium on uranium mining, fearing a proposed project in south central Virginia could potentially endanger Virginia Beach's water supply at Lake Gaston.

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