Houck concedes; GOP clinches control of Va. Senate

By Bob Lewis

RICHMOND

Democratic state Sen. R. Edward Houck conceded a narrow loss Thursday to Republican Bryce Reeves, guaranteeing the GOP control of not only the Senate but state government.

Houck, who has served seven terms from Spotsylvania, announced at an evening news conference that he would not contest the results of Tuesday's election. Houck finished 222 votes behind Reeves, a former undercover narcotics officer who now owns his own insurance firm.

The margin of loss was just under 0.5 percent of the 45,077 votes cast, entitling Houck to seek a recount at government expense, but he said his advisers concluded after final vote canvasses were complete Thursday that a recount would not produce substantially different results.

"It's finished. It's done. I don't want to perpetuate another month of false hope," Houck, sounding weary but at peace, told reporters during a late-afternoon telephone news conference.

"In the end, the results from campaign No. 8 were different from the first seven," Houck said, remembering a Senate career that began in 1983.

Pensive at times and speaking barely above a whisper, Houck cited a verse from the Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes.

"There's a time for everything," he said, "a time to seek, and a time to give up."

He said he called Reeves at 4 p.m. and conceded defeat after a bruising campaign in which the state Republican Party targeted Houck in a moderate-to-conservative district, staking Reeves to more than $600,000 for a race in which both sides spent about $1 million.

The pro-choice Houck was the target of incendiary brochures produced by the anti-abortion No Excuse Ministries, a group independent of Reeves' campaign, that ask "Would you support killing African-American babies?

The brochures were a reference to Houck's support from Planned Parenthood, whose founder, Margaret Sanger, sought to provide birth control services — but not abortions — to black women in the segregated South during the early 20th century. Houck said they likely made a difference.

"An overwhelming amount of Reeves' money and support came either from his party or from those outside sources," Houck said.

With Houck's concession, Republicans are assured of the two-seat gain they need to forge a 20-20 split in Virginia's 40-member Senate, where the presiding officer, Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, holds the tie-breaking vote.

Bolling and Republican senators said Wednesday they planned to use their one-vote advantage to assume the Senate majority, giving the party the right to dominate committees. And the new Senate GOP caucus will be dominated by conservatives, they said, not centrists like those who led the previous Senate Republican majority before it lost power to the Democrats in 2007.

The House and governor's office are already under GOP control.

Republican Sen. Ryan McDougle said it's a relief knowing that the race is over, and Senate Republicans can begin organizing their conservative leadership as early as next week.

"A lot of people are going to take a break over this weekend," he said.