ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 8, 1997 TAG: 9702100039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
MEMO: Shorter version ran in Metro edition
Mary Harkins made it official Friday, announcing at news conferences in Franklin, Pittsylvania and Floyd counties that she's going to challenge Republican Del. Allen Dudley this fall.
Harkins, Franklin County's Democratic Party chairwoman, has been actively campaigning for several months.
She has campaign signs tacked up around the district that use the same color and design as Rep. Virgil Goode's did. She went on a bus trip along with 120 other Franklin County residents to see Goode, D-Rocky Mount, on his first day in Congress.
On the trip, she was getting people to sign her petitions to be certified as a candidate.
By starting early, Harkins says she hopes to build name recognition to increase her chances of beating Dudley, a Rocky Mount banker who was elected to the House of Delegates in 1993.
Harkins, a West Virginia native, is a lawyer in Rocky Mount. She and her husband, neurosurgeon Alvin Lloyd, live on Windy Gap Mountain in the Coopers Cove area.
Harkins has been practicing law in Franklin County for about two years. Just a short time ago, she was treasurer of the county's Republican Women's Club.
She left the Republican party after Oliver North beat Jim Miller for the U.S. Senate nomination in 1994. She also said state Republicans have moved too far to the right.
Harkins was elected the county's Democratic Party chairwoman in December 1995.
Dudley's district includes Floyd County, most of Franklin County, a section of Pittsylvania County and the Moneta precinct in Bedford County.
Dudley, who lost a December special election to fill Goode's vacant state Senate seat, hasn't started putting up signs.
"I think some of my Senate campaign signs are still up," he said.
LENGTH: Short : 45 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS GENERAL ASSEMBLYby CNB