
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990                   TAG: 9005150567
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: CHILHOWIE                                LENGTH: Short

SMYTH MAN EYES CONGRESS RACE

Charles D. Counts, a 75-year-old preacher and farmer from Smyth County, said Monday that he would seek the Republican nomination to oppose Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, for the 9th District congressional seat.

District GOP officials said they may decide not to oppose Boucher, who is in his fourth term, but Counts said he will not be deterred by his fellow Republicans' cool reception.

"I'd like to run with their blessing," Counts said. "But I told them I thought I could win without their blessing."

District Republicans will meet June 9 at 2 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Wytheville to decide what to do. At a district GOP committee meeting in Wytheville May 6, Republicans voted to postpone a decision until the June 9 meeting to see if any potential nominees showed interest in securing the party candidacy.

"We've been discussing the alternatives to running a candidate," district chairman Jim Ferreira said Monday. "It will be a group decision."

Counts tried to unseat Boucher in 1979 when Boucher was a state senator, but Boucher got 63 percent of the vote to win.

by CNB