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By DAN TELVOCK
The two pro-Virginia Railway Express incumbents won re-election to the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors last night, ensuring the county's membership to the commuter rail service.
Supervisor Gary Skinner, who represents the Lee Hill District, won easily over challenger D.J. McGuire. Skinner won with 58 percent of the vote based on unofficial results.
Supervisor Benjamin Pitts defeated Chris Yakabouski, who held the seat from 2004 to 2007. Pitts took 54 percent of the vote.
Both Pitts and Skinner supported VRE membership, which became a top issue in the election after the Board of Supervisors decided in August to join VRE, but opted to wait until after last night's election to make it official in February.
Skinner, who held a celebration with friends and family at Danny's Pizza near Massaponax, thought his support for VRE was one of the chief factors in his win.
"We had such a great turnout from the VRE supporters," Skinner said. "The people that don't use VRE know it is a good thing for this county."
Skinner said he wants to focus on tourism and bringing business to the county in his four-year term.
Spotsylvania County moved to staggered terms last year, which meant three districts would have two-year terms for one election cycle.
"It is nice to know I have four years to get something done. Two years went really, really fast," Skinner said.
The other supervisor with a shortened term, longtime Berkeley representative Emmitt Marshall, was uncontested for re-election.
Skinner and Pitts saw their campaign coffers filled late in the campaign with thousands of dollars from developers and Realtors.
The Realtors Political Action Committee, an arm of the Association of Realtors, gave both candidates $1,500. Landowner and real estate advisor Fitz Johnson, who is a key VRE supporter, gave $500 to both candidates.
Last night's results mark the second election cycle in a row in which Spotsylvania Republicans candidates lost in contested races.
McGuire and Yakabouski, received most of their money from local Republican stalwarts, such as Alfred King, Gary Bullis and the Spotsylvania Republican Women's Committee, who gave each candidate more than $2,200 total.
Benjamin Pitts said his VRE support did play an important role in his race.
"I think the people I represent want to move Spotsylvania forward into the 21st century," Pitts said. "We need to find multi-modes of transportation to address the issue."
Pitts said he will focus on education, public safety and transportation issues during his four-year term.
Pitts said joining VRE was attractive to him because the county is expecting excess revenue from the 2.1 percent wholesale gasoline tax it will enact by becoming a VRE member. County officials have estimated that after paying its share of VRE operations, the county could have $3 million annually left over to use for local transportation projects.
Pitts said the county also needs to do a better job with recycling and building green, energy-efficient buildings.
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com
