Poll: Voters not exactly kind to GOP, either
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The conventional wisdom is that the 2010 elections will be the Republicans to lose, but poll numbers from Public Policy Polling released today suggest that the GOP may still have some work to do between now and November. Read more
McKelvey files as Republican in Fifth
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Jim McKelvey announced on Thursday that he will run for the Fifth District Republican Party congressional nomination – after flirting with the idea of running as an independent. Read more
Poll: Dems damned if they do, damned if they don’t on health-care reform
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
A new Public Policy Polling survey seems to buttress the case that Democrats might be well-advised to go ahead and pass a health-care reform package – because the majority party seems destined to at least lose seats and possibly its upper hand in Congress whether they pass a reform bill or not.
Republicans lead 43 percent-to-40 percent on the most recent PPP generic congressional ballot. The pollster then tested voter preferences in the event that health-care reform was passed and in the event that a reform is not passed. The margins were similar in both cases – 45 percent-to-41 percent in favor of Republicans in the event of passage, and 43 percent-to-38 percent for the GOP in the event that reform legislation was not passed.
The slight move downward for Democrats came from self-identifed Democratic voters, who will be slightly less likely to support Democratic candidates in the fall if the party isn’t able to follow through on its 2008 campaign promise to enact health-care reform. Read more
Verga: ‘There is a better way’
Column by Laurence Verga
www.vergaforcongress.com
Wednesday night, President Obama tried to press the reset button on his disastrous presidency and once again fell short. After driving up record deficits and wasting $800 billion on a failed stimulus bill that has only stimulated our debt, Obama’s disingenuous proposals to create jobs and reduce our debt are far too little and much too late.
The small business tax credits and exemptions he proposed, while important, pale in comparison to the tax cuts needed to get Virginians back to work. The $15 billion spending cut he proposed for next year also pales in comparison to a projected $3.5 trillion budget.
There is a better way. Read more
Morton: The strength in our union
Column by Feda Morton
www.fedaforcongress.com
Wednesday night in President Obama’s lengthy State of the Union address he declared our union to be “strong”. I take issue with that. I do believe the resolve of hard working Americans is strong. I believe in the strength of the voices of the voters of Massachusetts in last week’s election. And, I believe in the faith and willingness of our hardworking middle-class to persevere despite Mr. Obama’s job killing policies.
Mr. Obama, the only “strength” in our union comes from our people and their faith in God. The American spirit cannot thrive under the policies you propose. Growing government doesn’t help Americans who are struggling to find employment or small business owners who want to hire more workers. Policies like cap and trade and government-run healthcare stifle, not stimulate, job creation because they place an undue burden on entrepreneurs. Read more
Democrats: Where do you go from here?
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
You talk to one Democrat, and the party definitely, no question, needs to restrategize toward the middle. The blowback from voters in Massachusetts is an obvious clear signal. The nation isn’t comfortable with the direction things had been headed on health care and the stimulus. Time to pull things back in for a while.
Talk to another Democrat, and that first Democrat is either an idiot or worse, a sellout. Exit polls in Massachusetts indicate that a strong majority of voters there like their state-level version of universal health care. The blowback was local, aimed at a poorly-run campaign on the part of the Democratic nominee, Martha Coakley.
Changing the course now will bring about a repeat of 1994, when Democrats threw in the towel on health-care reform and suffered at the polls in a historic GOP takeover of the House that November.
“There’s no profit in moving to the center,” said Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Washington, D.C.,-based Campaign for America’s Future, which bills itself as the “strategy center for the progressive movement.” Read more
McKelvey: Rage against the machines
Candidate for GOP nomination pushes power to the people
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
That the political winds are shifting, as evidenced by the upset win in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown in the race for the late liberal scion Teddy Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat, is not a surprise to Jim McKelvey.
“The problems are the politicians in D.C. They’re elitist. They think they know more than we do. Since getting involved with the Republican Party, I realize it’s not just the politicians. It’s the political machines. They’re all hellbent on power,” said McKelvey, who despite his concerns about party machinery is running for the Republican Party congressional nomination in the Fifth District.
The Moneta-based real-estate developer went into “defense mode” with his business interests after the 2008 election. “I made a conscious decision back then that until the 2010 election in Congress, I’m not doing a thing, because my take is, that’s where the problems originate,” said McKelvey, who announced his candidacy for the nomination in November on the radio talk show of former Charlottesville City Councilor Rob Schilling. Read more
