In a year of rampant political mudslinging and close races, one candidate could rest easy the night before election day.
Running for his 20th year as state delegate for Virginia's 57th district, Democrat Mitch Van Yahres has enjoyed a less stressful election this year, as he ran uncontested.
Van Yahres has served in the Virginia House of Delegates since 1981. He served on the Charlottesville City Council from 1968 to 1976, and ran for the House of Delegates seat when the former occupant moved to the Virginia Senate.
Running uncontested has given Van Yahres many liberties this fall.
"You don't have to refine your arguments as much," Van Yahres said. Instead, he invested his energy to aid the campaign of fellow Democrat Charles Martin, who ran for the neighboring 58th district delegate seat against Republican candidate Rob Bell.
In past years, some have speculated that Republicans have chosen not to run against Van Yahres in hopes of keeping some Charlottesville Democratic voters away from the polls.
Van Yahres said he believes this was not the case for this election.
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"There's enough interest in the state-wide race for that to be less of an issue," he said. "Plus, it costs money to run against me."
Van Yahres said the decision to run for another term was very difficult for him. He is 75 years old.
"I'm not getting any younger," he said.
But when asked what motivated him to stay in politics for so long, Van Yahres was quick to answer that the position is it's own reward.
"You enjoy seeing some accomplishment," he said. "I'm proud of voting against capital punishment and voting for a woman's right to choose."
More recently, Van Yahres has championed several other issues on the House floor. As chair of the agricultural committee since 1993, he has supported allowing tobacco farmers to grow industrial hemp as a replacement product.With cigarette consumption steadily dropping, many believe Virginia's influential tobacco industry needs an alternative crop.
"The tobacco farmers are in trouble," Van Yahres said. "We've looked at a variety of alternatives for them, including hog farming. Industrial hemp is one option."
As of now, any crop with even slight traces of tetrahydrocannabinol - a Marijuana component - is considered a controlled substance by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Van Yahres also has made education a top priority throughout his political career. For the last few years, he has tried to implement intervention and mediation services for students who score poorly on the Standard of Learning tests.
The SOLs are a system of statewide standardized tests that are meant to regiment the material students cover from year to year.
Van Yahres also fought for several years to establish a public defenders office in Charlottesville. Former Virginia Gov. George Allen vetoed the bill every time, but it finally came into fruition under Gov. James S. Gilmore III.
With two decades of experience in the house, Van Yahres says he has seen partisan fighting rise dramatically.
"When I arrived [in 1981], the Democrats controlled the legislature," Van Yahres said. Shortly thereafter, Chuck Robb was elected governor and the Democrats controlled the state.
The election of Allen in 1993 marked a shift of power to the Republicans, which Van Yahres said led to an increase in partisan disagreement.
But "we still work a lot faster than [U.S] House of Representatives," Van Yahres said.
Van Yahres added that an increasing workload has made being a delegate less of a part-time job. This in turn tends to decrease the average number of terms a delegate is willing to serve.
Before entering politics, Van Yahres, a Long Island, N.Y. native, served in the United States Army Air Corps from 1944 to 1945.
Besides the military, Van Yahres worked briefly with plants. He received a degree in botany from Cornell University and made a living for many years as a tree surgeon.
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