With more than $13.3 million in cash and help with door-knocking, campaign staff salaries and events, partisan groups and special-interest donors this summer placed their bets on the hottest House of Delegates races — including some that many never before thought competitive.

In the Shenandoah Valley’s House District 34 , made up of Harrisonburg and part of Rockingham County, Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham, won his past two elections with votes of 57% and 59%. He now faces a challenge from Democrat Andrew Payton, a Harrisonburg educator.

The House Democratic Caucus backed Payton with a donation this summer of $50,000 in cash and $6,500 in in-kind help — services, not cash. Wilt, whose $51,000 in summertime contributions came mainly from local backers, raised less than half the total Pa

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