THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 14, 1995 TAG: 9503140304
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY WARREN FISKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
State Sen. Edward M. Holland of Arlington said Monday that he will not seek re-election to a seat he has held for 23 years. He is the second senior Senate Democrat to announce his retirement this month.
The retirements take on a special significance this year with all 140 seats in the General Assembly up for election in November. Republicans need gain only three seats in the Senate and three in the House of Delegates to control each chamber for the first time in state history.
``I'm just sitting here listening to the clink, clink, clink of Democrats falling out all across Virginia,'' said an elated Scott Leake, executive director of the legislature's Joint Republican Caucus.
To date, no GOP incumbent has announced plans to retire. Leake said he expects all Republican incumbents - 47 in the 100-member House and 18 in the 40-member Senate - to seek re-election.
Holland, 55, is chairman of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee.
Last week, state Sen. Elliot S. Schewel of Lynchburg, the longtime chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee, announced he would not seek re-election. Schewel was first elected to the Senate in 1976.
In a written statement, Holland said he is stepping down to spend more time with two teenage sons - the youngest of his five boys.
He noted that the almost quarter-century he has served in the Senate has been twice as long as Franklin D. Roosevelt's tenure in the White House.
``It's time for someone else to be the senator from Arlington,'' he said.
Republicans acknowledged that winning Holland's seat will be difficult. In recent years, Arlington County has been one of the most reliable Democratic strongholds in the state. Gov. George F. Allen, a Republican, won only 40 percent of the county's vote in his runaway election victory in 1993.
``Arlington County is not a hotbed of conservatism,'' Allen said on Monday, characterizing the opening left by Holland as a ``pretty safe Democratic seat.''
Republicans are more hopeful about winning Schewel's seat. Allen won 62 percent of the district's vote in 1993.
State Del. Stephen D. Newman, R-Lynchburg, is expected to run for the seat. Among the Democrats said to be interested is Lynchburg City Councilman Gil Cobb.
So far, only one House member has announced plans to step down. Last month, Del. Bernard S. Cohen, D-Alexandria, said he would retire.
Cohen, an outspoken opponent of the tobacco industry, was first elected to the House in 1980. His district is considered another Democratic bastion. by CNB