Morris unseats Barlow with 55 percent of vote
Published 11:35 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Republican challenger Rick Morris defeated 10-term State Delegate William Barlow, a Democrat from Smithfield, for the 64th House District seat.
In other election news from Tuesday, Democrat incumbent Roslyn Tyler beat Republican challenger Al Peschke 12,557 to 6,429 for the 75th District seat.
Morris, 43, a Carrollton resident and Virginia Beach military lawyer, had 55 percent of the vote to Barlow’s 44 percent. Morris led 12,951 to 10,469.
Barlow served 20 years in the district that includes parts of Isle of Wight and
Southampton counties and Franklin.
“I take full responsibility for the defeat,” said the 75-year-old lawyer. “I thought we had a very good campaign.”
Barlow carried Franklin with 578 votes to Morris’ 520. Morris took Isle of Wight County with 5,898 votes to Barlow’s 4,956. Morris also took Southampton County with 972 votes to Barlow’s 817.
He listed new district lines and the difference in the amount of money spent by both campaigns among the factors that cost him the election. Morris spent more than $400,000 and Barlow, $168,000 as of Oct. 31.
Barlow said he plans to continue practicing law and wants to spend more time with his family. He doesn’t plan on running for office again.
Morris could not be reached for comment.
In Southampton County, voters chose Tyler over Peschke, 1,960 to 1,157. In Franklin, Tyler garnered 664 votes to Peschke’s 119, and in Isle of Wight County, Tyler led 172 to 62.
“It was exciting and a lot of hard work paid off,” said Tyler, 50. “We did a lot of door-to-door campaigning and getting out to let people know who we are.”
Peschke, 61, said he was happy with the results, given it was the first time the Wakefield tree farmer ran for office.
“I would absolutely recommend it (running for office) to every citizen to put it on their bucket list,” Peschke said.