BY CHELYEN DAVIS
Both political parties finalized their slates of legislative candidates yesterday with a group of primary elections around the state.
All 140 General Assembly seats are up for election this year, and Republicans are hoping to seize the chance to retake control of the state Senate, where Democrats have only a two-seat majority.
Locally, Republicans held four primaries to nominate candidates.
In the 99th House District, Margaret Bevans Ransone won the Republican nomination. The 99th covers all of the Northern Neck and part of Caroline County.
The incumbent, Del. Albert Pollard, is retiring.
Ransone took 61 percent of the vote to beat Dean Sumner, who had 21 percent, and John Lampmann, with 18 percent.
Ransone had the lead in every county in the district. About 12 percent of the district's registered voters turned out for the election.
Reached by phone last night, Ransone said she was excited to be the nominee.
"I am so grateful that people came out like this," she said. "So it's a good feeling. I am really energized, I'm going to take all that energy straight forward to the general. I'm so proud."
Ransone will face Democrat Nick Smith in the general election.
In the 36th state Senate race, former delegate Jeff Frederick beat out conservative activist Tito Munoz for the nomination. Frederick will face Sen. Toddy Puller, the Democratic incumbent, in the fall election.
Frederick won the nomination easily, with 70 percent of the vote to Munoz's 30 percent.
Frederick, reached by telephone Tuesday night, said he was happy about the win.
"It was a good race, but it's not over yet," Frederick said. "We still have a much bigger challenge ahead. We can't solve everything in Virginia by raising the taxes, and that has been Sen. Puller's primary solution to the challenges that people face. And if we're going to attract businesses, create jobs, grow our economy, that's exactly the wrong way to go."
Turnout in the district was only about 5 percent.
The 36th is mainly a Prince William and Fairfax district but was redrawn to include part of Stafford County in this year's redistricting.
Also thanks to redistricting, the 22nd state Senate seat was moved east and became open, leading five Republicans to seek the nomination in the primary.
In a close vote, Tom Garrett Jr., Louisa commonwealth's attorney, won the nomination with 26 percent of the vote. Brian Bates came in second with 25 percent, followed by Mark Peake (23 percent) Bryan Rhode (21 percent), and Claudia Tucker (6 percent).
The 22nd District had a voter turnout of about 10 percent.
In the 18th House District, which was moved east and now includes a part of Culpeper County, Michael Webert beat Kevin Kelley for the Republican nomination, taking 56 percent of the vote to Kelly's 44 percent. Voter turnout was about 7 percent.
In the 56th House District, which covers all of Louisa County and a small part of Spotsylvania, Republicans nominated Peter Farrell, the son of Dominion CEO Tom Farrell, as their candidate.
The 56th was not a primary; a small group of party leaders chose Farrell from a slate of six candidates in a meeting yesterday afternoon.
The seat became open unexpectedly after its incumbent, Del. Bill Janis, announced this month that he would not seek re-election. Instead he is running for Henrico County commonwealth's attorney.
If no Democrat runs, it essentially means Farrell is the new delegate.
Farrell lives in Henrico and is the founder of an alternative energy company called Recast Energy.
Steven Thomas, the Spotsylvania County Republican chairman, had also run for the nomination, but said he will work to help elect Farrell.
All 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for election this November.
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com