For months we have said that the road to a Republican majority in the state Senate runs through Southside and Southwestern Virginia; now the Roanoke Times is reporting that there might be a bump on that road.
Sen. Ralph “Rock Solid” Smith relocated into the 19th Senate District after the Senate Democrats’ redistricting plan moved the 22nd District to central Virginia and placed him in Steve Newman’s reconfigured 23rd District. While no Democrat has emerged to challenge Sen. Smith in the strongly Republican-leaning 19th District, it now appears that he might have competition from a familiar face: former senator Brandon Bell.
Bell told the Roanoke Times that he is “seriously considering” a run against Sen. Smith.
“‘Is it 100 percent? No. But I’m pretty certain I’m going to run,’ Bell said. …’I want to make this happen. There’s still a chance it may not, but I’m pretty serious about moving an effort forward.'”
Brandon Bell’s impetus for running appears to be his feelings about Ralph Smith, who defeated him four years ago in the 22nd District Republican primary. As a state senator, Bell worked with former Gov. Tim Kaine and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly to champion Virginia’s smoking ban in restaurants and also missed the vote on former Gov. Mark Warner’s tax increase package. He was then challenged by Smith, the former mayor of Roanoke, who argued that the incumbent did not adequately represent the conservative values of 22nd District residents. Ultimately, Smith defeated Bell by a mere 75 votes and went on to hold the seat for the GOP. In the Senate, Sen. Smith has made a name for himself as one of the chamber’s arch-conservative members.
In his statement to the Roanoke Times, Brandon Bell did not directly cite Sen. Smith’s conservative voting record but did object to Smith’s recent move into the 19th Senate District:
“…’when they started running the U-Hauls around, I got irritated because it seemed to be more about the party than the people in the district. I started wondering if anybody was going to step in and make a contest of it. As it’s gotten closer and closer I’ve gotten more and more likely to run as it looked less and less likely that someone would step forward.'”
If Brandon Bell ultimately decides to challenge Sen. Smith, he will do so as an independent, but with, perhaps, significant support from district Democrats who have not (yet) been able to field a challenger. Among Bell’s most enthusiastic supporters to-date is the liberal blogger “Not Larry Sabato” who described Bell’s record in the Senate as “more progressive than [Sen. Dick] Salslaw’s” (with the exception of social issues) and believes that Bell could only become more progressive now that he does not have Republican primary voters to hold him accountable. (Of course, only Brandon Bell would know that for certain.) At least one local Democrat has pledged donations and support to Bell if his party cannot find a candidate of its own.
For his part, Brandon Bell appears to be eschewing both Sen. Smith’s conservatism and the Democrats’ “progressivism”, instead opting for something akin to nonpartisan, “No Labels” politics.
“There are a lot of people upset — particularly when they see what’s going on in Washington — about it being more important to represent a party,” Bell said. “I think people are more interested in somebody representing them than an outside group, a small group or a party.”
As he makes his decision, Brandon Bell might also want to think about what’s going on in Richmond. Senate Democrats have been so fixated with placating the “progressive” wing of their party that we have no congressional redistricting plan, critical judicial vacancies that have gone unfilled and senate districts that have been gerrymandered so badly Elbridge Gerry himself would be appalled. Will a Brandon Bell candidacy help the Democrats retain their Senate majority, thus continuing to block important services and kill good bills passed by the House of Delegates and supported by Gov. McDonnell? If elected, would Sen. Brandon Bell (I-19) choose to be part of the problem or part of the solution?
