Phillips Wins GOP Primary

Patricia Phillips was vastly outspent by her opponent, who dumped $200,000 of his own money into his campaign to represent eastern Loudoun and far western Fairfax County in the Virginia Senate.

Yet at Saturday's Republican primary, Phillips edged John Andrews II, a developer and former Loudoun school board member, claiming the nomination with 53 percent of the vote. She will challenge incumbent Mark R. Herring (D) for the 33rd District seat in the Nov. 6 election.

Phillips, who is anti-tax and socially conservative, yesterday credited her success in part to the individual supporters who promoted her by word of mouth.

"While money and fundraising is a necessary part of campaigning, you really need grass-roots supporters who will go out and ask their friends and neighbors to vote for you," said Phillips, a food industry consultant and former Virginia director of the Concerned Women for America, a Christian public policy group.

Phillips supported her low-key campaign with $45,000; Andrews spent about half of his $348,000 bankroll, much of it on mailers and advertisements.

The unusually high sum was needed to fight what he called an uphill battle against the more conservative factions within the Loudoun Republican Party, said Andrews, who billed himself as a fiscal conservative and social moderate.

During the campaign, Phillips sought to link Andrews with a gay rights group. In a mailing, Phillips's campaign wrote that Andrews was "praised" by Equality Loudoun, something that both Andrews and the group deny.

"I know it had an impact" on Saturday's vote, Andrews said yesterday of the attack.

But Phillips's conservative credentials could hurt her in November. The 33rd District is traditionally Republican, but it supported Herring last year and Democrat Timothy M. Kaine for governor in 2005. Herring won the February 2006 special election handily, defeating a conservative candidate with some of the same backers as Phillips.

Both Phillips and Andrews focused much of their campaign on transportation. While Andrews supported the state legislature's transportation funding package, Phillips opposed it because it gave a regional panel the right to levy taxes.

Saturday's primary was notable also for its low turnout. Of the district's 154,441 registered voters, only 1,471 -- 1 percent -- came to the polls. Both candidates had predicted a much higher turnout, with Phillips expecting at least 4,000 and Andrews projecting 7,500.

"After everything I've done for the community, it's hard to see the 1 percent turnout and go through all the character assassination," said Andrews, who said he plans to take a break from politics and focus on his family.

While Loudoun and Fairfax Republicans were choosing a conservative on Saturday, GOP voters in Westmoreland County picked a moderate in another key race. Lawyer and former commonwealth's attorney Richard Stuart was chosen as the party's nominee to replace retiring GOP state Sen. John H. Chichester (Northumberland) in the 28th District.

Stuart, who was backed by Chichester and House Speaker William J. Howell (Stafford), narrowly defeated John Van Hoy and two others in a party canvass.