"Rob Bell, an assistant prosecutor in Orange County and Albemarle County GOP chairman, entered the race to succeed Del. Paul C. Harris, R-Albemarle, on Saturday morning with a speech outlining his campaign.

Despite rain, about 100 supporters gathered outside Hollymead Elementary School for the announcement. Bell, 46, said he will emphasize zero-tolerance school discipline, stiffen criminal sentencing guidelines and lower taxes.

"I believe we can do a better job of helping those citizens who work hard and play by the rules," Bell told the crowd. He said he supports greater school choice for children who want to go to private or charter schools, and said there is a need for more standardized testing.

He spoke at length about crime and how his experience as a prosecutor in Orange County shaped his tough stance on issues of sentencing and alternatives to jail time.

Bell went on to criticize laws that allow prisoners to serve only part of their sentences, and said sentencing alternatives like home electronic incarceration, work release and weekend furlough should be restricted.

"If, you want to protect citizens who work hard and play by the rules, you have to treat criminals like criminals," he told the audience. "We need to let time mean time, and jail mean jail."

Bell said the rights of victims should be a higher priority than those of criminals. "The average person who is a crime victim is typically blue collar and lower income," he explained, "and you have to learn about their concerns and values if you want to be successful." .

As an assistant prosecutor, Bell has tried more than 2,400 criminal cases. He said he has seen the same people committing crimes again and again, often because they are let off too easy.

Bell told the audience that he, supports zero-tolerance school discipline programs that bring stiff penalties to students who bully others. As an example, he talked about a case he helped prosecute where a high school student stabbed another student repeatedly in the chest.

"It turns out that the boy who did the stabbing - the defendant - I had been having trouble -with a group of, young thugs," Bell explained. "What. I found really frustrating about this. case was that it never would have happened except for the horrible--and let me say criminal--harrassment that led up to it."

Bell said his parents always told him to play by the rules and work hard. "I'm running for office because I believe in those values that I learned from my parents."

Harris, 37, said last week that he will leave his state House of Delegates seat "in the very near future to oversee the torts litigation section of the Justice Department.

Bell will compete with Michael Brown, a former Virginia Senate GOP aide who works with a computer security firm, and Albemarle Supervisor Charles S. Martin, the only Democrat to have declared his candidacy" (Jerry Meyerle, Charlottesville Daily Progress, May 20, 2001).