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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 29, 1994                   TAG: 9402010009
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BLUEFIELD PROFESSOR TO BEGIN GOP CHALLENGE TO BOUCHER

A Bluefield College professor will launch a campaign next week for the Republican nomination to challenge six-term incumbent Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, this fall.

Steve Fast, who lives in Tazewell, will hold three news conferences across the 9th Congressional District: in Bristol, in Bluefield and in Salem, campaign worker Matt Leen said Friday. The Salem event will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 5 in the Holiday Inn.

Fast, who has been making the rounds among GOP activists this winter, is the mathematics department coordinator at Bluefield College. An Ohio native, he is married and has two sons.

He has been active in the Tazewell County Republican Party, according to Leen, and worked as a volunteer for the three statewide Republican candidates last year.

Boucher first won his House seat representing the bulk of Southwest Virginia in 1982. He has won re-election five times, including 1986 and 1990 when he was unopposed. If Fast does win the GOP nomination, this would mark the first time since his initial election that Boucher has had an opponent in a nonpresidential election year.

Boucher defeated Radford clothier and City Councilman Gary Weddle with 63 percent of the vote, and an overwhelming fund-raising advantage, in 1992.

The 9th District stretches from Roanoke County,whose precincts are split between the 9th and 6th districts, all the way west to the Cumberland Gap and includes the New River Valley.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB