Creigh Deeds To Seek Re-Election

State Sen. Creigh Deeds announced Monday that he will run for re-election in 2011.

The e-mail announcement to supporters ended speculation that the Bath County Democrat would retire from politics following his loss to Bob McDonnell in the 2009 gubernatorial race.

Deeds has served in the General Assembly since 1992.

“No doubt, many of my detractors consider me vulnerable and maybe even finished,” Deeds wrote in the e-mail. “I am running for re-election because I am not finished. I am running for re-election because I know that to create opportunity in every corner of this commonwealth, we have to invest in the necessary transportation and educational infrastructure to support economic growth.”

Following the November 2009 gubernatorial race, Deeds, 52, returned to Bath County to resume his law practice.

He was first elected to the General Assembly as a member of the House of Delegates in 1991.

In 2001, Deeds moved to the Senate after winning a special election to fill the seat of the late Emily Couric.

In 2005, he ran for state attorney general, but lost by a narrow margin to McDonnell.

Deeds’ 25th Senatorial District covers a sprawling area of Virginia.

It includes the counties of Alleghany, Bath and Nelson, and the cities of Covington, Buena Vista and Charlottesville.

The district also includes most of Albemarle and Rockbridge counties, and one precinct in Buckingham County.

Approximately 76 percent of the district’s population lives east of Afton Mountain.

“It’s a real microcosm of Virginia. It’s very spread out and very distinct,” Deeds said, in describing his district this morning.

Using information from the 2010 Census, the General Assembly will draw new boundaries for all of Virginia’s 140 legislative districts this year.

Deeds has long sought to create a bipartisan redistricting commission. His proposal has won support from the Senate in past years, but failed in the House of Delegates.

Nevertheless, he expects that the economy will be the hot-button issue during the 2011 campaign.

“It’s going to be the economy. We have to put people back to work, especially here,” he said.

So far, no challengers on the Democratic or Republican sides have stepped forward to announce they will challenge Deeds next year.

“I can’t control that,” he said, when asked if he expects to face opposition. “It’s a free country.”