Editor, The Herald,

On the afternoon of Thursday, April 28, the Senators in Richmond voted to approve the second and final redistricting map for the 40 Senate districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As will happen in politics, there was quite a bit of gerrymandering during the process and many of the districts now have an odd and distorted appearance. One unique result of the redistricting was the creation of a entirely new senate district with no incumbent senator.

I am talking about the brand new 22nd Senate District that includes the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Buckingham, Cumberland, Fluvanna, Goochland, Prince Edward, a slice of Louisa County and about half the City of Lynchburg. With no incumbent, this district is up for grabs and we have a lot of old and new faces from all over this new district jumping into the race.

There are five contenders in the race for the Republican Nomination which will be decided in the August 23 primary. We have Brian Bates from Buckingham County, Tom Garrett from Louisa County, Mark Peake from the City of Lynchburg, Bryan Rhode from Goochland County, and Claudia Tucker from Amherst County.

All five candidates will be debating one another on Monday, July 18, at Crawley Forum on the Hampden-Sydney College campus and the debate will begin at 7:00 pm. Important issues that are facing our Commonwealth of Virginia such as the flow of illegal immigrants into Virginia, job growth, regulations and taxes, education, and more will be subjects discussed in the debate.

Come on out and bring a friend this coming Monday to hear what these candidates have to say and chose which candidate you want to support in the upcoming August 23 primary. For more information, call 434-392-5297. I look forward to seeing you there!

Daniel Bradshaw, Chairman

Prince Edward County

Republican Committee