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. Continue reading “Poll: Voters not exactly kind to GOP, either” »
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. Continue reading “McKelvey files as Republican in Fifth” »
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. Continue reading “Poll: Dems damned if they do, damned if they don’t on health-care reform” »
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. Continue reading “Verga: ‘There is a better way’” »
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. Continue reading “Morton: The strength in our union” »
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.” Continue reading “Democrats: Where do you go from here?” »
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. Continue reading “McKelvey: Rage against the machines” »
Focus | Morton: A ‘principled conservative’
Fifth District GOP candidate builds support toward run for party nod
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The Fifth District is a living laboratory to Fluvanna County biology teacher Feda Morton, a veteran Republican Party activist seeking the GOP nomination to run for Congress in the Fifth. All Morton has to do over the course of the next 11 months is dissect a seven-candidate field in a June primary and then get to the heart of the Tom Perriello phenomenon that turned the Fifth blue in ’08.
“I’m very concerned about the economy, about states’ rights, about the people’s rights. I feel that our constitutional rights are being run roughshod over, and that we need to have principled conservative leadership in Washington to get back to what the founders meant for this country to be, and for the free-market and free-enterprise system to be stabilized so we can prosper. And Tom Perriello is not a match for the Fifth District, and is not voting the will of the people of this district,” said Morton, who has been working to build a campaign strong both at the grassroots and at the top, picking up the endorsements of Republican National Committee members Morton Blackwell and Kathy Hayden Terry. Continue reading “Focus | Morton: A ‘principled conservative’” »
The Pulse | Politics beyond health care
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
It can be easy to get myopic in our Who won today? scoreboard-focused political world, and in so doing assume that what’s majorly important today, like the months-old health-care debate, will be important tomorrow, next month and forever.
Even recent history suggests to us that politics is as much about the Janet Jackson 1980s song “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” as what happened even a couple of weeks ago.
It’s in that context that I bring up how I was talking recently with my friend Quentin Kidd, a political scientist at Christopher Newport University, about the political ramifications of the health-care debate on upcoming congressional elections in 2010.
Kidd’s first observation: “Once a bill passes, I think Republican opposition, which has been centered around fighting a bill from being passed, is going to dissipate.” Continue reading “The Pulse | Politics beyond health care” »
Austin Gisriel | Let’s form a big circle
It is time to stop talking about the “political spectrum” in this country and instead, talk about the political circle. If I head to the left or right on a spectrum, I will continue to travel further from my starting point. On a circle, however, if I start to my right and go far enough, I will end up to the left of where I started. This is the best imagery I can use to explain that I am so conservative on some issues that I become a liberal. Continue reading “Austin Gisriel | Let’s form a big circle” »
A ‘different’ Bob McDonnell
I wouldn’t say I’m bothered by what Bob McDonnell wrote two decades ago in his now-infamous master’s degree thesis.
OK, I am bothered by it, personally.
“While the proliferation in the day care industry was created in part by the financial hardships of women fostered by no-fault divorce, it was also stimulated by the private choices of individuals to increase their family income, or for some women, to break their perceived stereotypical role bonds and seek workplace equality and individual self-actualization. Must government subsidize the choices of a generation with an increased appetite for the materialistic components of the American Dream?” is the one that stands out the most to me, when I think back to where I was when he wrote those words in 1989. Continue reading “A ‘different’ Bob McDonnell” »
Landes to host town halls
State Del. Steve Landes, R-Augusta, will hold three town-hall meetings in the 25th District on Saturday. Continue reading “Landes to host town halls” »
