Democrat Taylor shatters Henrico Republicans

Long-shot latecomer Shannon Taylor won a three-way race Tuesday to become Henrico County's next commonwealth's attorney, splitting Republican votes between her opponents in the county's western end and securing massive margins of her own in the east.

Taylor apparently is the first female commonwealth's attorney in Henrico history and will be the first Democrat to hold countywide office in generations.

"It's a great night to be a Henrico Democrat," state Sen. A. Donald McEachin, D-Henrico, told a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd at his Nine Mile Road law office, Taylor by his side.

"Eric Cantor, here's your new commonwealth's attorney," he said, singling out the House of Representatives majority leader from Henrico, who pumped thousands of dollars into the campaign of independent Bill Janis.

Janis, who had dropped out of the race for a fourth term in the House of Delegates to enter the Henrico prosecutor's contest, will be out of elective politics for the first time in 10 years.

Taylor, 43, was successful in her first run for public office and entered the race in August on the last day possible under Virginia election laws. Last night, she buoyantly thanked Henrico Democrats for their solidarity. She garnered huge margins in eastern Henrico, similar to those of President Barack Obama in 2008; Obama won Henrico with 56 percent of the vote.

Republican candidate Matthew P. Geary, who battled the county's GOP establishment and lost its backing this summer, generated most of his votes from the near West End.

Taylor benefited from uncontested races in much of Henrico and what Democrats called a rigorous, unified effort to get out their vote in the east.

Janis, 49, entered the race in August, almost two years after Geary had declared his candidacy as a Republican.

Last night, in a concession speech to supporters at the Westin Richmond Hotel on West Broad Street, Janis said: "Each and every one of you took a principled stand in support of the proposition that character still matters in public life. We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful. ... If we are faithful to our values, to our principles, at the end of the day we did what was expected of us."

Janis and Geary called Taylor to congratulate her, with Geary referring to her as "my longtime friend and law school classmate."

Taylor had promised to make the prosecutor's office in Henrico reflective of the county's 55 percent non-white population and last night said she wants to review handling of non-violent crimes and treatment of the mentally ill who are charged with crimes.

Taylor, who was born and raised in Charlottesville, said she received congratulatory calls from former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va.

"She's like someone having her first Christmas," said Taylor's campaign manager, Abbi Easter, noting that Taylor's opponents outspent her 4 to 1. Taylor garnered about $60,000 in contributions, compared with Janis' $246,400 and Geary's $209,200, according to the most recent financial reports.

Wade A. Kizer, Henrico's veteran prosecutor, backed out of the race last December, leaving Republicans with no primary-race opposition to Geary and with no significant grounds to oppose him issue-wise except the lone-wolf declaration of his candidacy. Then came word of Geary's marital infidelity and a whisper campaign about soured business relationships that never gained a solid footing. Republicans went on the attack, challenging Geary's judgment and temperament.

But Geary, 42, remained the formal Republican candidate despite the party's public withdrawal of support in August. He had been chief deputy commonwealth's attorney in Richmond but left the office for private practice in April 2009.

Janis also pointedly attacked Taylor for representing a Richmond drug dealer just days after she had ended her prosecutor's role in helping to bring charges against the man. Taylor responded by pointing to a federal judge's decision denying efforts to remove her from the case.