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Chris Graham: Is Goodlatte in primary trouble?

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The short answer: no.

Killed any buzz on this column right at the start, didn’t I?

But I wouldn’t be surprised to see Karen Kwiatkowski pull some impressive percentage numbers, if nothing else, in her bid for the Sixth District Republican congressional nomination against 19-year incumbent Bob Goodlatte.

It might be semantics, though, with expected low turnout – assuming that 5 percent or less of the electorate will show up for the June 12 party primary.

Kwiatkowski, a Shenandoah County farmer and retired military officer, has a small but vocal base of supporters in the far right of the Valley GOP. She’s got some campaign signs up in yards and along roadways across the district, and has had some volunteers out knocking on doors on her behalf, including here in Waynesboro.

(Aside: They don’t seem to be working off anything resembling a voter list. I’ve heard from two local Democratic voters who reported front-porch encounters with Kwiatkowski volunteers. One told me that the volunteers left him telling him that he would “burn in hell” for voicing support of gay marriage, and that a neighbor had told him that the volunteers had left him with the message that “(President) Obama is a socialist.”)

So she’s trying, but I’m not getting any sense that the Kwiatkowski campaign is getting any traction with the general voter population.

Her best hope is low, low turnout overall that boosts her showing percentage-wise.

I’m handicapping the race at a win for Goodlatte with the congressman getting in the area of 70 percent of the vote overall.

More at www.TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.

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