One of the last times Morgan Griffith and Adam Light shared a stage, they were rivals for the 9th District Republican nomination to challenge defeat Rep. Rick Boucher. Yesterday, however, Rep. Griffith joined his former rival in Cedar Bluff, Virginia as Adam Light formally announced his candidacy for the 38th Senate District. The 38th Senate District, which encompasses Bland, Buchanan, Dickerson, Russell and Tazewell counties, as well as parts of Pulaski, Smyth, Wise and Wythe counties in far southwestern Virginia, has been represented by Phil Puckett since 1998, when he was elected in a Special Election to replace the retiring Sen. Jackson Reasor. Light, 40, is a Tazewell County businessman and is well-known to many of southwestern Virginia’s conservative activists. Below is his campaign announcement:
“I’m announcing my intent to seek the nomination of the Republican Party for Virginia’s 38th District State Senate seat,” declared Light. “I do this having had many encouraging discussions with family, friends, and fellow activists in both the Republican Party, and the Tea Party.
“I’ve taken their recommendations into prayerful consideration and feel that now is the time to step forward. I believe that the people of the 38th District are ready for new leadership.”
Decrying the failures of big government, Light noted, “We’ve been promised for my entire life, that if we give government more money, more power, and more control, prosperity will be right around the corner.
“Despite decades of promises, the 38th District continues to struggle. Our opportunities are fewer and our debts are greater.”Pledging to apply the principles of limited government, free markets and local control to Virginia’s government, Light said, “It’s time to take a new direction. But it’s not a new path; it’s one we’ve walked before. It is the path of our founders.
“We must fight to protect the Commonwealth’s 10th Amendment rights so that Virginians can decide what the best course for Virginia is, not Washington politicians or bureaucrats.
“We must fight to protect our traditions and our beliefs, by acknowledging that things like faith in God, the sanctity of life, and the right to keep and bear arms are not just options to us, but that they are core values of free men.“I ask now that you all join me in this journey. I ask for your support and prayers, and I look forward to serving the people of the 38th District as your next State Senator.”
If the GOP hopes to regain control of the state Senate, the 38th District is the kind of seat the party needs to win: its rural setting and the generally conservative outlook of its residents probably makes the seat a much lower-hanging fruit than some of the Commonwealth’s more urban, upstate Senate districts. That having been said, it is difficult to predict the outcome of this race: Sen. Phil Puckett has only faced opposition twice—once in the special election in which he was first elected and again in the next general election—and he won handily in both races.
Despite the dearth of electoral data, much has transpired since 1998 to alter the political landscape for Sen. Puckett. The Democratic Party has lost favor with southwestern Virginia voters as its image has been transformed from that of a moderately conservative party of blue-collar, Southern Democrats to a “progressive” party of Northeastern gentry-liberals. Many lifelong Democrats have realized that the contemporary Democratic Party is inimical to the coal industry that is the lifeblood of southwestern Virginia’s economy (especially several of the counties that comprise the 38th Senate District). Furthermore, since 1998, Republicans like Annie B. Crockett-Stark and Will Morefield have defeated incumbents to occupy seats in the House of Delegates that have been long-held by Democrats. Then there is Morgan Griffith’s now legendary defeat of heretofore safe incumbent Rick Boucher (some of Rep. Griffith’s strongest support came from counties within the 38th Senate District). Sen. Puckett also has a mixed record in the State Senate: he voted for the Healthcare Freedom Act in 2010, but opposed the Repeal Amendment, which some have argued could be used to defeat the disastrous Cap-and-Trade scheme, should it ever become law.
While redistricting remains a wild card in this race, Dels. Crocket-Stark and Morefield and Rep. Griffith have demonstrated that with the right message, the right campaign, sufficient resources and dedicated grassroots volunteers, Republicans can win in far southwestern Virginia. Adam Light hopes that on November 8th, he can add his name to that list of victorious southwestern Virginia Republicans.
