during the four-year term prior to tarrant's candidacy for the house of delegates, two of the delegates, howard "pete" rawlings and tony fulton, died while in office. marshall goodwin and catherine pugh were appointed to finish their terms. rawlings and fulton were democrats, as are goodwin and pugh. prior to the 2006 democratic primary, the only incumbent delegate in the district, salima marriott, decided to run for the senate seat being vacated by the district's senator. catherine pugh also decided to run for the same seat leaving the newly appointed goodwin as the only incumbent in the race. the vacancies drew a large crowd of contenders; including tarrant, barbara robinson and frank m. conaway, jr., who all finished ahead of goodwin. the general election in november, therefore, featured all newcomers for the three open seats.