Tax Issue Spurs Challenges

In 16 years in the Virginia House of Delegates, John A. "Jack" Rollison III (R-Prince William) has never faced a challenger in his own party.

Term after term, he fended off Democrats as he sped up the legislature's leadership ladder to become co-chairman of the powerful Transportation Committee and a strong voice in the Northern Virginia delegation.

But on Tuesday, Rollison will face an opponent for the 52nd District seat whose candidacy sprang largely from a single issue -- the incumbent's support of a sales tax to generate new highway money for Washington suburbs.

"It really was a mistake on his part, as a leader in the General Assembly, to look toward taxing his people," said Robert D. Berry, of Southbridge, who faces Rollison in the Aug. 21 Republican primary.

Berry, 44, was recruited by the new Prince William Taxpayers Alliance, a group of conservative Republican activists who are campaigning almost entirely against Rollison's fervent support of the sales tax, which failed in a referendum. The group is supporting another anti-tax candidate in the race for the open 31st District seat, and a similar organization is fielding anti-tax candidates against incumbents in Fairfax County.

Tuesday's winner will face Democrat Davon Gray in the Nov. 6 election, which will decide the state's three highest offices and all 100 seats in the House of Delegates. Gray is scheduled to announce his candidacy today.

The 52nd District stretches from Woodbridge, east of Interstate 95, through Occoquan and south to Dumfries and Quantico. It's considered a swing district. Democrat Al Gore won 50 percent of the vote there in last November's presidential election, while President Bush won 48 percent.

This is the first run for public office for Berry -- a Pentagon analyst -- though he has been active in GOP politics for years, working in the public affairs office during the administration of former President George H.W. Bush and as a field coordinator for Virginia Attorney General Mark L. Earley. He describes himself as an evangelical Christian.

He has focused his campaign on one theme -- that Virginians should not pay higher taxes for new highways and mass transit when, he said, there is enough money in the state budget to cover transportation spending.

"The only thing [Rollison] can come up with is to raise our sales taxes after 16 years," Berry said. He argues that too much state spending is devoted to "health and human service" programs whose budgets, he said, have spiraled up in recent years.

Berry's challenge is a long-shot effort short on money. He has raised $900, $300 of it donated by the taxpayers alliance, campaign finance records show. Rollison has spent $16,000 of his $64,000 war chest on the campaign.

Rollison, 51, of Dumfries, called Berry's platform "extremely vague" because he has failed to say where in the state budget lawmakers would find millions of dollars for highway and transit projects. With a maximum income tax rate of 5.75 percent, Virginia is not a "high-tax" state, Rollison said, and he cited growing needs for the state's exploding population of school-age children and college students.

"I don't have any intention of moving this state backwards," he said.

Rollison, who owns an auto-repair business, touted his legislative record supporting road improvements in Prince William and sponsoring bills to improve service at the Department of Motor Vehicles and penalize fathers who fail to pay child support by suspending their drivers' licenses.

He also portrayed Berry as an extremist candidate. "The people who made up the tax alliance called themselves the Christian Coalition. Now they have changed their name to the Family Alliance. And now they have become the tax alliance," he said.