"Republican Tom McCrystal accepted his party’s nomination Monday in the 57th House of Delegates District race and awaits the winner of the three-way Democratic Party primary in the district covering Charlottesville and eight Albemarle County precincts.

Meanwhile, three Democrats reported raising a total of $101,114 in contributions for their campaigns and one of them, Clement “Kim” Tingley, loaned his campaign an additional $46,000.

David J. Toscano leads in campaign contributions among three Democrats seeking their party’s nomination in a June 14 primary to try to succeed Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville.

Toscano, a lawyer and former mayor, reported Monday that his campaign had raised $76,692 from 348 contributors as of May 31 and had $48,179 in cash on hand.

Democrat Rich Collins, a retiring public policy professor in the University of Virginia’s architecture school, said he has raised $17,365 from 66 contributors through May 31 and had $10,410 in cash on hand.

Tingley, a homebuilder and engineer, reported that his campaign had raised $7,057 through May and the candidate loaned his own campaign $46,000 in four loans over 24 days in April. Tingley’s campaign reported having $9,092 in cash on hand as of May 31. Tingley received contributions from 34 individuals.

Tingley, 60, leads in campaign spending to date with $46,665 spent through May. Toscano’s campaign spent $22,080 in April and May and had spent $5,431 in March for a total of $27,511 to date.

Collins, whose campaign spent less than $7,000 through May, said he wondered who “is going to help [Tingley] get out of debt.”

Collins, 70, gave his own campaign $5,000.

The largest contributors to Collins were Jack and Cri Marshall, who helped found Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population and contributed [$2,000] to Collins.

Tingley said of his $46,000 in loans to his campaign, “I believe in myself. I believe the citizens of this district deserve a [progressive] voice in the General Assembly, and I believe I’m that voice.”

“I’m not a professional politician,” Tingley said. “I’m not a professional politician and I got into this very, very late, and some people had already built up a campaign warchest.”

Toscano, 54, said he was not surprised by Tingley’s large loans to his campaign, which Tingley had declined to discuss a week ago.

“It was something that we’ve expected for some time,” Toscano said. “He told people early in the campaign that he was willing to self-finance the campaign with a large sum.”

Toscano’s largest donations included $2,000 from Berkmar 29 JL Inc., the owner of a Jiffy Lube business; $1,500 from a Realtor’s Political Action Committee; and $1,000 from Dr. George A. Beller, husband of the late state Sen. Emily Couric.

McCrystal, 44, had not entered the contest until Friday, so had not filed a campaign finance report. He won a unanimous GOP nomination and said he would work to “streamline state government so we can afford to reduce the increasing burden on taxpayers.”

“I will work to protect your privacy, so identity thieves and corporate snoops will get the message: ‘Not in Virginia,’” McCrystal said.

McCrystal was nominated by Charlottesville Republican Randolph Byrd, who said when he first met the candidate 16 years ago he found him heavily bruised from having played a rough game of lacrosse.

“Right away, I knew we had a brawler,” Byrd joked.

Actually, Byrd added, “For the first time in a long while we have a candidate that a lot of people in the city know, and they like him.”" (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, June 7, 2005)

Contact Bob Gibson at (434) 978-7243 or bgibson@dailyprogress.com.

Note: See also Democratic Financial Disclosure Reports For the Period Ending June 1, 2005.