THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 21, 1996 TAG: 9605210327
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
There will be at least one contest for a U.S. congressional seat in Hampton Roads this fall.
A race was assured for the 2nd District House seat of Rep. Owen B. Pickett, a Virginia Beach Democrat, over the weekend when John F. Tate won the Republican nomination.
Tate, 33, was unopposed at the 2nd District GOP convention in Norfolk.
Tate, a Virginia Beach resident, runs a Virginia Beach branch office of the National Right to Work Committee, a lobbying group that works to outlaw compulsory union membership.
Pickett is a five-term incumbent. The 2nd District includes parts of Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Two other incumbent Democratic congressmen, Reps. Robert Scott of the 3rd District and Norman Sisisky of the 4th, still have no opposition for re-election this fall.
No Republicans emerged to oppose them at district conventions over the weekend. But Republicans in both districts - the 3rd, meeting in Williamsburg, and the 4th, meeting in Windsor - agreed to leave their options open in case candidates step forward. They could reconvene anytime up until June 11.
The 3rd District includes portions of localities from Hampton Roads to Richmond. The 4th extends from Chesapeake west and north to Louisa County.
The area's other congressman, Peninsula Republican Herbert Bateman, faces an opponent within his own party. Bateman and David Caprara of Spotsylvania County, a former state director of housing and community development, will face off in a primary June 11 in the 1st District, which spreads from the Peninsula and the Eastern Shore north to Stafford County.
Democrats in the 1st District don't have a candidate yet, but still could nominate one at the state Democratic convention June 8.
KEYWORDS: CONGRESSIONAL RACE by CNB