W. Jeff Evans Kicks Off Senate Campaign

I've mentioned this a couple of times, and now it's all but official. Roscoe Reynolds (D-Oblivious) will be challenged for the 20th District Senate seat.

Lacking only an official nomination by the 20th Senate District GOP Committee, W. Jeff Evans, Veteran, Retired State Trooper, and current Vice-Chairman of the Carroll County Board of Supervisors will be campaigning for that position.

Evans formally announced his candidacy last night at the 5th District GOP end of year dinner (OK, let's dispense with the PC stuff, and just go ahead and call what what it is) 5th District Christmas Dinner at the Dutch Inn in Collinsville.

This seat was in very capable, (albeit Democratic), hands for over 29 years before Roscoe succeeded Virgil Goode in 1997. Unfortunately Roscoe has managed to bring few, if any of his Democratic predecessors legacies to fruition.

For example, A.L. Philpott and William F. Stone together had a vision of a four lane highway between Martinsville and Hillsville way back in the late 1960's. Roscoe and Ward Armstrong, their successors, have based each and every campaign on a promise to complete that project. They've both failed miserably.

That failure makes me wonder just how, only a few miles east of here, two members with much less seniority, Thomas C. Wright(R-Clarksville) and Frank Ruff(R-Clarksville), managed to secure funding for an incredible new bridge across the John H. Kerr reservoir.

We all know Ward enjoys making a joke out of the business of the General Assembly, but what could be Roscoe's excuse?

In an article by Mason Adams of the Roanoke Times, Jeff Evans explains why he is running for the Senate, "I believe the biggest problem I've found, and the thing that's motivated me the most, is that our elected officials are out of touch and not out in our communities...".

In that same article Reynolds confirms this by trying to soft pedal some of his social issues, issues that will certainly resonate with the conservative voters of both parties in the district. And he demonstrates how completely out of touch he is just a few paragraphs later when he says,"I'm expecting for there to be a Republican opponent who will receive considerable financing. To do otherwise wouldn't make any sense. If you underestimate your potential enemy, you're making a terrible mistake."

Maybe that's why I believe Roscoe is so vulnerable here in the 20th District, he not only thinks that tossing off a few phrases designed to allay the fears of his conservative constituency will get him re-elected, he thinks the main issue is the financing of Evans' campaign, and even worse, he sees more than 50% of his constituency as the "enemy".