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BY FRANK DELANO
Northern Neck Del. Albert C. Pollard Jr. narrowly avoided becoming a victim of a Republican wave that swept through Virginia yesterday.
With all but two precincts reporting late last night, Pollard, D-Lancaster, held a slim lead over Republican Catherine Crabill in his bid for a fifth term in the House of Delegates.
According to Crabill's campaign manager, Bill Kling, Crabill conceded the election to Pollard in a phone call about 9:45 p.m.
At the time of her concession, Pollard was leading Crabill by 721 votes out of more than 21,000 cast in the 99th House District race. He carried Northumberland County by just one vote, but won Westmoreland and Richmond counties by a total of 1,023.
Crabill carried King George County and the Bowling Green and Port Royal districts in Caroline County by a combined margin of 763 votes.
But Pollard led Crabill by 460 votes in Lancaster, the home county of both candidates. As of 11:30 p.m., results from two Lancaster precincts had not been filed with the Virginia State Board of Elections.
Kling said one of the unreported Lancaster precincts "was heavily Democratic, so it was unrealistic to think that she could overcome that 721-vote deficit." Crabill went home after making her concession call from an election-night gathering at a Kilmarnock restaurant, Kling said.
With 48 percent of the vote, Crabill's showing was strong for a candidate who had been disowned by Republican leaders for her unorthodox comments and who had raised only $15,000 for her campaign through Oct. 21, compared with Pollard's $87,000.
Pollard, who watched the returns with worried supporters at a gathering in Warsaw, attributed Crabill's strength to the Republican tsunami that swept over the state yesterday and carried to victory GOP candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
"If this is happening to me, a lot of my Democratic colleagues must be dropping like flies," Pollard said. "But regardless of the margin, my job as a delegate will be the same: to work together for a better Virginia."
Frank Delano: 804/761-4300
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com
