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

DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994                   TAG: 9412190065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Short

BOUCHER OUTSPENT OPPONENT 3-1

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, outspent his Republican opponent more than 3 to 1 in easily winning his seventh term in Congress last month.

Boucher defeated Steve Fast with 59 percent of the vote. It was the first run for elected office for Fast, a 33-year-old assistant professor of mathematics at Bluefield College.

Boucher spent $651,517, compared with Fast's $198,022, according to post-election reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

In 1992, Boucher spent $660,452 in defeating Republican Gary Weddle. He should surpass that mark in the final 1994 campaign report, which will be filed later.

Though well outspent, Fast did better at fund raising than any Boucher opponent since the late Del. Jefferson Stafford, who narrowly lost in 1984. Fast raised $203,492, only $8,800 of that from political-action committees. As of Nov. 28, the Fast campaign stood slightly in the black.

Boucher still has $308,300 in the bank. He started the year with $480,000 squirreled away. Since January, he raised another $482,245, nearly 60 percent of it from PACs, reports show.

Keywords:
POLITICS

by CNB