Focus | Verga makes case for GOP nomination in Fifth

Chris Graham

   Story by Chris Graham [email protected] What’s wrong with America, if you ask Laurence Verga, isn’t just with the direction that the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress is taking, but what their Republican predecessors did, or rather didn’t do, ahead of them. “One of the reasons our country is in the challenged position it…

The Pulse | The politics of health care

AFP

Column by Chris Graham Health-care reform opponents speak as if it’s a given that the passage of reform including a public option and new mandates for private insurers will be an act of political suicide by Democrats. Take comments from Bill Wilson, the president of the advocacy group Americans for Limited Government, released today on…

Focus | Perriello ’10: A safe bet? Hardly

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham We’re about a year away from the November 2010 elections, though you wouldn’t know that by watching local TV and seeing the wall-to-wall commercials telling you about what Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello has been doing up in Washington. First it was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with an ad in…

So, what happened?

Chris Graham

Column by David Cox No question about it, Virginia Republicans had a field day. Congratulations rightly go to Mssrs. McDonnell, Bolling, Cuccinelli, and Cline and, in the nonpartisan local elections, to re-elected Supervisors Ford and Lewis. No question about it, too, they all face huge problems, both in Richmond and, as a result, locally. But…

Focus | Cranwell to Dems: ‘Keep plugging’

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham The word from Dick Cranwell: “caution.” “This time last year everybody was saying the Republicans were bordering on extinction, they’re almost irrelevant, we’re in for 15 or 20 years of Democratic rule. When people were telling me that a year ago, I was saying, Hey, not so fast, I’ve been around…

The politics of brain injuries

Chris Graham

Column by Chris DeWald I considered myself “a Republican” and have issues with both political main parties. I want to tell you what changed my thinking of politics along “Full Republican” lines. In May 2006, I found myself lying in a bed and could not move due to having a bilateral brain-stem stroke. My current…

Focus | Broad-based, bipartisan support for school choice

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham With AFP Video Majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents support school-choice policies including legislative initiatives that would create tax-credit scholarships and school vouchers, according to a new poll released by a coalition of groups that back school choice. The poll, commissioned by The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by…

Focus | Tensions over social policy take center stage

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Bob McDonnell led the GOP sweep in the 2009 state races and a six-seat Republican Party pickup in the House of Delegates with his move early in the ’09 election cycle to stake his campaign and by extension the campaigns of Republican candidates across Virginia on the economy and jobs to…

The spin stops here

AFP

Column by David Lampo The headline from the Washington Times the morning after that state’s historic election said it all: “Independents fuel GOP victories.” Because the campaign of Bob McDonnell methodically ran an inclusive campaign that discussed almost exclusively the economic issues that most people care about instead of focusing on divisive hot button social…