Va. Candidacy Rooted in a Rustic Upbringing; Democrat R. Creigh Deeds Won NRA Endorsement

If he was not trudging with his hunting rifle through patches of teaberry or dreaming of becoming a baseball player, a young R. Creigh Deeds might have been hanging out at the polls on Election Day with his grandfather, the head of the local Democratic Party in his part of rural west-central Virginia.

Following local races got him hooked on public service, Deeds said. By high school, the future state legislator abandoned visions of a professional sports career -- he says he was never that athletic, anyway -- and decided to shoot for law school.

"The way I could make the…