Independents face uphill battle against Goodlatte
The Sixth District is a safe one politically, so safe that Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte does not have a Democratic Party opponent on the ballot in the November elections, though there are two independent candidates vying for the seat.
The challenge ahead for Stuart Bain, a Libertarian, and Jeff Vanke, a self-described “Independent-Centrist,” is pretty substantial.
“This would be a difficult race even for a Democrat,” said Isaac Wood, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “Bob Goodlatte has never gotten under 60 percent of the vote. He’s been elected nine times. This is a district that goes heavily Republican at all levels. But when you’re an independent candidate, those challenges are even greater.”
Major-party candidates have built-in access to campaign donors and volunteers, Wood points out, something that independents like Bain and Vanke have to build for themselves.
Link to story on TheNewDominion.com.
What does early Perriello money lead mean for November?
You look at the money race in the Fifth District, and it’s no race at all, really. Democrat Tom Perriello has $1.7 million in cash on hand while his Republican opponent, Robert Hurt, has $212,000, according to reports filed by the respective campaigns with the Federal Election Commission.
Those numbers are bound to change between now and November, sure, but it’s not hard to see Hurt, a state senator from Danville, facing down a huge disadvantage in resources for the duration.
The idea that Democrats are floating around now is interesting, if nothing else – that maybe national Republicans who have been talking up the race in the Fifth as one of their targeted races in the 2010 midterms will be inclined to look elsewhere with the Hurt campaign sputtering out of the gate. Continue reading “What does early Perriello money lead mean for November?” »
The AFP Show: Health-care reform, Congress, emotional balance
The AFP Show
freepress2@ntelos.net
Items for The AFP Show for Thursday, Feb. 25, include:
- Remarks from New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner on the ongoing health-care reform debate in Congress.
- An interview with Isaac Wood from the University of Virginia Center for Politics to discuss a recent report from UVa. political-science professor Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball suggesting that the GOP could gain 37 seats in the House of Representatives and push Democrats for majority control.
- A talk with Staunton-based author Jolly Stickley on her new book, Energy Restructure: Set Yourself Free Using the 9 Layers of the Emotional Body.
- A Special Comment from AFP editor Chris Graham on the move by the Augusta County Board of Supervisors to end further study of conducting future real-estate assessments using county-government staff. Continue reading “The AFP Show: Health-care reform, Congress, emotional balance” »
Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing
Howard Dean, Tim Kaine, Vince Lombardi, and a guy named Phil Bengston
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
When the football team starts losing games, the fan base tends to start getting antsy, and when the losses compound into a losing season, you can start hearing calls for the coach’s head.
Politics isn’t unlike football in that respect, which brings us to the curious case of Tim Kaine, the former Virginia governor who was tapped by Barack Obama in January 2009 to head up the Democratic National Committee, a playoff team at the time, to borrow from the football analogy.
The coach that Kaine was replacing was former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who pulled himself up from having been the frontrunner who couldn’t in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nomination race to basically being the man responsible for rebuilding the DNC from the ashes of two stinging White House defeats on the wings of his controversial 50-state strategy. In the process Dean established himself as a sort of Vince Lombardi of the Democratic Party, the party’s triumphs in the 2006 midterms and the 2008 Obama win in the presidential race being his back-to-back Super Bowls. Continue reading “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” »
