» June 12, 2006 |

In the state's mountainous southwestern tip, Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher seeks his a 13th consecutive term against Republican Charles W. "Bill" Carrico, a former state trooper and a three-term member of the state House of Delegates.

While this region, bounded to the west by Kentucky and to the south by Tennessee, favors Republicans on such issues as opposition to abortion, gay rights and gun control, it is also a coal mining and textile milling area far more tolerant of organized labor than the rest of Virginia.

Since he first won the seat in 1982, Boucher, 59, has managed a difficult balancing act in the region long known as the "Fightin' 9th." He consistently secures the support of both the National Rifle Association and labor unions, helping him dispatch one Republican challenger after another in recent years.

Carrico, 44, now in his fifth year as a delegate from Grayson, has a modest legislative portfolio dominated by law-enforcement measures and issues dear to religious conservatives. His most high-profile legislation was a proposed state constitutional amendment he sponsored in 2005 that would have expanded the right to pray, preach and proselytize in government-owned venues, including public school classrooms. The measure passed the House but died in a Senate committee. He has not reprised the measure this year.