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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995                   TAG: 9511080020
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY COUNTY GIVES KEITH 2ND TERM

Phil Keith won another four-year term as Montgomery County commonwealth's attorney Tuesday night.

With all 20 precincts reporting late Tuesday, the Democratic incumbent won by about 1,400 votes over his Republican challenger, Joey Showalter.

Keith drew 54 percent of the votes, carrying 14 of the 20 precincts.

It had been a hard-fought campaign for Keith, who first had to turn back Roy Thorpe, the county attorney, to secure the Democratic nomination.

Showalter, 33 and a political newcomer, had run an aggressive campaign to unseat Keith.

He told voters he would implement an education plan that would make the commonwealth's attorney's office take the lead in educating teen-agers about the consequences of drug abuse and juvenile crime.

Keith, 44, had emphasized his 17 years of experience in the office, the last six years as commonwealth's attorney. He also stressed life sentences his office obtained for high-profile cases, including a trio charged with the 1992 slaying of a manager of a Christiansburg shoe store.

Although the campaign had avoided direct references to Keith's health, there was what Keith called a "whisper campaign" with people concerned he was not up to a second, four-year term. The prosecutor had been out of his office for seven weeks this summer for radiation treatment for recurring problems with a benign brain tumor for which he has twice had surgery since 1992.

"I'm very gratified that the voters would ... return me to office," Keith said. "I do congratulate Joey for not bringing my health up as an issue. ...

The campaign heated up in the last two weeks of the election, when Showalter produced a copy of a letter at a forum and read it. The letter, from Virginia Tech Police Chief Mike Jones, chastised Keith for not fighting harder for a car forfeiture.

Keith charged the letter was stolen. Jones was upset the letter was used without his permission and said Keith had satisfactorily explained to him that the car was returned to the defendant after a judge ruled that it should be.

Showalter said copies of the letter existed other than between Jones and Keith, making it less a private letter than Keith and Jones contended. And he said concentration on the letter took away from the real issues in the campaign.

Keywords:
ELECTION