Early voting continues through Saturday. To see how the candidates answered our questionnaire, see the Montgomery County page on our Voter Guide.
In his 12 years as the District D member of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, Todd King says he is the same person now as he was when he was first elected to a seat he says he is “privileged to be in.”
“I just ask people to look at my record,” he said. “I’ve kept my word to them.”
King said this means to him that he has kept his promises on each of his platform issues, all of which he believes focus on doing what he thinks is most important to the families of his district and Montgomery County in general.
“Politicians call people ‘constituents,'” he said. “I call them neighbors because I see them every day. And when I am out of office, I don’t want anybody to say ‘that guy lied to me.’ I’m upfront and honest with everyone.”
King announced earlier this year that he hopes to remain in office for at least one more term. To do that, the Riner Republican is facing a primary challenge from Dale Buckner of Pilot. The primary election is June 17, but early voting has been underway since May 2. The winner will go into the November general election unopposed on the ballot.
Buckner, like King, has lived in the district for decades and has entered the race for the second time. He ran in the 2021 firehouse primary, which King won. But the longtime commercial and residential building contractor has thrown his hat in for a second time after being encouraged by many friends and colleagues to try again.
Because of his occupation, Bucker said he has to work closely with multiple county officials in order to keep his building projects and other endeavors moving along. The result is that he believes he has developed a good understanding of how the county government functions and how the body could become more efficient.
“The main thing is they want good representation,” Buckner said. “I have a reputation of getting things done.”
Naturally, two men who are part of the same political party and have lived in the same district for many years will have similarities. That is the case here, and it starts with favoring low taxes and opposing tax increases.
In his campaign material, King, who refers to himself as the race’s “true conservative,” said the evidence is in his voting record during his time on the board.
King says that while he will continue to support all first responders, small businesses and quality education for Montgomery County Public School students, he believes all of this can be done without increasing taxes.
“I’m just the type of person that I was raised to be honest with people,” King said. “So the only promise I’ve made to anybody — and everybody will tell you this — is that I will not pay for a tax increase. And I can keep that promise.”
Buckner said as a business owner, he understands that spending money needs to be done wisely, something he believes the county could be better at doing. He said if he is elected, he would encourage the board to take a closer look at each division’s finances.
“I own a farm in Pilot, I don’t like high taxes and am against any kind of tax increases,” he said. “But, with that being said, it takes money to run the county and I understand that.
“So, I oppose any kind of unnecessary spending, and I think there is a lot of unnecessary spending.”
King was one of two no votes against the board’s consideration of raising Montgomery’s real estate tax by one cent to 76 cents in 2025 and voted against the 2024 increase from 70 cents to 75. He also voted against the board’s decision to authorize a $925,000 purchase of a vacant 7,500-square-foot building in Christiansburg that the county plans to use for administrative offices for fire and rescue services.
“I couldn’t vote for that because I just thought it was just too much,” said King, who has been a volunteer firefighter for more than 20 years. “And we don’t know yet what it’s going to cost to remodel it.”
While he opposes additional taxes, King said the county does have the financial ability to support the other issues he is endorsing on the campaign trail — small business and public education.
On small business, King believes the county needs to provide more incentives for residents hoping to start their own smaller operations and put less focus on large industrial-type operations.
“I go out and talk to small businesses, and I would like to have a group put together and see how we can benefit small businesses and get more small businesses in,’ he said.
When it comes to education, King said that it does not take tax increases to provide a quality public school system to the county.
“If you check the last 12 years, we have always added funding to the schools,” King said. “Some may say we have cut the budget, but we didn’t. We just didn’t give them everything they asked for.”
King added that he has encouraged the school district to diversify the educational opportunities, which he believes focuses too much on traditional college preparation when there should be more attention given to vocational programs for students who want to pursue professions such as masonry, electrical, cosmetology and automotive services.
“I would like us to put out a poll and see what the students in Montgomery County would like us to do,” he said. “And if we come out and talk to businesses, what would they tell us what they need more of? Masonry workers? Concrete workers? Electricians. Then we can build on that.”
Buckner, who said he also looks forward to being a champion for first responders and maintaining a strong school system, ramped up his campaign by hosting a town hall event in Pilot in early May and said what he heard from those in attendance reaffirmed what he believed to be the most important planks of his campaign: Affordable housing and the condition of the roads.
Being in the building business, Buckner said there are ways to keep prices down for lower-income families, but that is not being done.
“There’s some projects going on in different places and they’re ‘supposedly’ affordable housing,” he said. “But those are starting in the high $300,000’s and going into the $400,000. That’s not affordable for folks on a tight budget.”
“The [new homes] are too big and there’s too much high-end stuff being put in them,” he said. “You can’t put all the bells and whistles into a home and then call it affordable. … Instead of having granite, you have Formica countertops. Instead of tile floors, you have carpet or linoleum. Everywhere you can cut saves money.”
As for the county’s streets and highways: “Everybody complains about the roads,” said Buckner, who said he believes he could be someone who could be a voice to work with the Virginia Department of Transportation when it is prioritizing its upcoming projects.
“Safety issues on the roads is the No. 1 priority,” he said. “I’ve had friends and I’ve had family say there is a certain place in our county that joins [Christiansburg] where people have busted their tires from the potholes that are so bad. And then all they do is fill it up with a patch — it is never fixed.”
As they near the homestretch of the election, both Buckner and King said they have been encouraged when speaking to constituents. Buckner said many of his supporters have allowed him to put campaign signs in their front yards — so many that he even had to get more printed in early June.
“I’ve had a very good, positive week speaking to people and to those who have already voted,” he said.
King said his final word to his neighbors as he asks for their vote is that he keeps them in mind with every issue that comes to the board.
“When I am done, I want to leave District D in better shape than what it was — and that’s not to say that it was in bad shape — but everyone wants to make things better,” he said.
