Fred Hutchins, Jr., an aide to Sen. Jim Webb -- and described as a "rising star" in Virginia Democratic politics -- was found shot dead on Tuesday beside a Botetourt County road. A gun was found beneath his body but the medical examiner has not ruled it suicide or murder yet. He was 26 and a longtime political activist.
Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle said Hutchins' body was found outside his SUV-type vehicle, on an embankment along U.S. 220 north of the town of Fincastle. He had a single gunshot wound in the head.
Hutchins had worked in Webb's Roanoke office since the day it opened, Webb spokeswoman Jessica Smith said, and had become its chief. Last year the John Edwards' campaign attempted to woo him away to become a chief strategist in Virginia but he remained loyal to Webb.
Webb issued a written statement: "Freddie was one of the most honorable and friendly individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing. He was a mainstay in the Roanoke community and a friend to all who knew him. My condolences go out to his mother, Karen, and the rest of his family and friends. He will be greatly missed."
A Webb spokeswoman said that Hutchins was a rising star "and such a great kid, so full of life, so sweet and so well loved."
A state lawmaker for whom Hutchins worked told a local TV station, "At 13-years-old, Fred had political cards, and it said Fred W. Hutchins Jr., Political Consultant ... at 13. " Onzlee Ware, according to WDBJ7.com, said, "So then he announced to me that one day he knew I was going to run for public office and when that day came he was going to be my campaign manager."
Hutchins later helped get Ware elected as the first black to gain the nod for that body in western Virginia. Ware said yesterday that Hutchins, who was white, was probably "called a n----- lover" many times.
"It's hard to believe, but Freddie Hutchins at age 26 was a grizzled veteran of politics," said Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a Roanoke political consultant. Saunders told the Roanoke Times that last year he offered Hutchins a higher-profile job as the deputy senior strategist for rural affairs for presidential candidate John Edwards of North Carolina.
"A deputy senior strategist at age 25? That's stuff Harvard kids dream about," Saunders said. "But he had absolute loyalty to Jim Webb."
Articles in the past described Hutchins as a "NASCAR-loving country boy" who loved to hunt and had a permit for a concealed weapon. He said that he considered Webb a role model because of his support for the poor and working-class.
UPDATE: Webb paid tribute to Hutchens on the floor of the Senate today, noting among other things that he would have surely run for office some day.
UPDATE on Thursday: Still no ruling on his death and police have now entered his home and taken computer etc.
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Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. He is editor of Editor & Publisher.