Hanger, Sayre talk to Staunton Republicans

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Emmett Hanger and Scott Sayre were in the same room – briefly. The candidates for the 24th Senate District Republican Party nomination passed like ships in the night at their joint appearance at a Staunton Republican Committee meeting Tuesday – with Hanger, the three-term incumbent state senator under fire from local…

Sayre gets VCAP endorsement

Chris Graham

Column by Chris Graham Scott Sayre will need to get the backing of grassroots conservatives for his bid to unseat 24th District state senator Emmett Hanger to be successful. He picked up the endorsement of the cash- and member-rich Virginia Conservative Action PAC today – leading to the obvious question. Should Sen. Hanger be worried?

The battle for the heart and soul of the GOP

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   For a brief moment or two after the 2006 midterm elections, it had seemed that the Republican Party was perhaps going off its ideological moorings. The talk was reaching the level of near-clamor regarding how the GOP was going to have to consider retreating from the right-wing conservative…

Right to left? In what direction will Dems take national politics?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   It hasn’t been that long since some in the punditry and the blogosphere were speculating aloud about how Republican victories in the race for the White House and in Congress in 2004 might be signaling the dawn of a GOP century. And it seems that now, instead of…

What the heck just happened?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   You listen to Bob Goodlatte, Republican congressman from the Sixth District of Red State Virginia, heading into his eighth term, finishing out his second two-year term as chairman of the powerful House Agriculture Committee, talk about life on Capitol Hill, and you realize pretty quickly that a sea…

Can we all just get along?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   The Shenandoah Valley is usually pretty tame as far as its politics goes – but even the solid Republican Mountain Valley has seen its share of contentiousness this political season. To wit … – One of the highlights of the Augusta County Fair this summer was an episode…

Warner rallies Dems in Staunton

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Mark Warner has been down this road before – lending his name and expending his political capital to aid political protege Tim Kaine’s run at the governor’s job last fall. The businessman-turned-Virginia political favorite son knows that there is risk involved to engaging in such efforts. “If you feel like you…