Virginia 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 =check in :)

[Catchawave]

Who's your Congressional District Rep, and should we pursue a challenger ?

Not all GOP reps are assholes, I loved Schrock, until his little foray into questionable "dating" websites. I really MISS him since Thelma Drake (VA-02)swiftboated her way into my neighborhood (see sig line). Still not sure if she gave back Tom Delay's "laundered" campaign donation :(

So I do understand ethical reps, Thelma isn't one of them :(

[VaYallaDawg]

1. 7th District here (Eric Cantor)

I don't think I'd classify him as the full-blown asshole type - just slightly obnoxious - haven't heard anything to make me question his ethics so far. He has a lot of strength with the GOP, esp. right now, since he's the deputy whip, raises lots of $$ to help bolster their numbers, etc. He is the fair-haired child of old Tom Bliley who retired from that seat. Knowing the demographics of the gerrymandered district (affluent Richmond/Henrico suburbs all the way out to the Albemarle/Charlottesville area), it's going to be an uphill battle for any Democrat to unseat him. Probably better to devote the energies to a district that isn't quite so one-sided - e.g., Randy Forbes holds a seat that was held for many years by a Democrat (met him once but can't remember his name) - very good man, so I wonder if that area might not be a little more flexible.

[abluelady]

3. He is also Tom DeLay's fair haired child!

There is an independent running against Cantor. It would be nice if the Democrats would TRY to win this seat. With all that is going on and with Kilgore's loss, I'm not sure this isn't the time to run a Dem and see some progress.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

4. 7th District here, too. Will vote for the Independent (or better yet,

a Dem if one runs) against Cantor.

[VaYallaDawg]

8. I'd definitely vote for ANYBODY instead of Cantor - happily!!!

[DaveinMD]

11. He's related to a client of mine

a great Dem legislator in Maryland. They are cousins. Its amazing they come from the same family.

[Eurobabe]

16. Cantor is a dick

eom

[AlecBGreen]

2. 10th District

Northwestern VA - This is Frank Wolfs home turf. He is a pretty decent guy, and he doesnt have a snowballs chance of getting knocked off. Short of some seedy crack deals or porn rings surfacing he aint gonna lose til he retires. I believe he is 70+ so Im not sure he will stay much longer. Even so, our neck of the woods is pretty red. Any Dem would have a tough time picking up this district.

-Alec

[VADem11]

5. Virginia 10 here too

I live in a blue part of fairfax which is included in the district. I agree that Wolf isn't going anytime soon. He's more decent than the average republican but of course he's still too conservative. If he retires soon, we could have a slim chance of picking it up. Fairfax is already pretty blue and Loudoun is slowly on its way. Maybe in a few cycles, we'll be able to win it.

[mastein]

10. 10th is more in play than you think

Wolf has if not the most conservative voting record of any member of congress then he is damned close. He was with Bush 99% of the time over the first 4 years of the admin. I think he is beatable by a moderate who can get support from the immigrant populations in western Fairfax and the eastern half of Loudoun. Granted courting the immigrant vote there means that Winchester and parts west will go heavily Wolf, but hey you know what, they would anyway. If someone is bold enough to run a traditional Democratic "big tent" style campaign, Wolf can be beaten especially given the large increase in population in the eastern part of the district.

Wolf and his now deposed henchman Black gerrymandered the district for him and Davis to the east, leaving Moran in the 8th the larger blue vote in Reston added to eastern regional NoVA region including Mother Alexandria and the People's Republic of Arlington.

With the move west of more moderates, the 10th is now much more in play.

[captain disgruntled]

12. I worked on the campaign of the last guy who challenged Wolf

--sadly, Wolf mopped the floor with his ass. (I like to believe it wasn't all my fault...:blush:)
Two points of contention that stood out for me--Wolf made a big deal of the fact that none of James Socas' three children attended public schools, yes, the same public schools James Socas professed to support!! Oh the hypocrisy! It was absolutely true--but, um, the eldest was, like, four years old.
Also Frank Wolf made a big stinkin' deal out of his stellar efforts at traffic amelioration: he had personally been responsible for synchronising the traffic lights on Route 7!
ANYBODY who has EVER set tire on Route 7 knew that was a steamin' pile of crap, and last month the papers were full of Wolf's outraged demands that heads roll over this appalling failure of his fabbo plan--the same one he claimed was going gangbusters a year ago...
whatever.

He is good at responding to constituent's individual petitions, though, apparently, and yeah, that's taken him far.

[AlecBGreen]

13. I can vouch for this...

"He is good at responding to constituent's individual petitions..."

I am living in China and I just recently got married. His Head of Constituent Operations (Im not sure of her real title) has been bending over backwards to get me help. She has been very, very helpful. Thank you JUDY if you're reading this.

On another note, my father is a member of the Winchester City Council and helped develop a clean-air initiative for the Shenandoah Vally. Its called the ShenAir project. THey went to Wolf to get some federal money and he came through big time, giving us 50% more than what we asked for. I like to believe that he recognizes the seriousness of the problem, and not that he was just putting some more pork in the barrel.

I think we have more important races to focus on. We should be ready, though, we there is a vacancy in the 10th. We CAN pick it up, but not from Wolf while he's still in office.

-Alec

[FSogol]

14. Not to bust on Socas (I'm in the neighboring district)

but didn't he try to bring ethics charges against Wolf and then run ads saying Wolf was under investigation for ethics violations?

[mastein]

15. I worked for Socas too

And even met him at a pancake breakfast at the Ashburn Fire House. He believed in what he was doing, but had an uphill battle. Also, he was probably the strongest candidate we put up against Wolf in a long long time. Socas was getting close until the R- smear machine went to work in the final days of the campaign and outspent him by a ton in the last couple of weeks, buying ads on DC TV and radio stations.

I agree that Wolf's staff is good about taking care of people a la the old Chicago Machine, but...

Look at the 04 returns and compare them to the statewide returns and I see a pattern of demographic shift toward our side. If we are good on the ground in the eastern part of the district and have a very strong candidate, that person has a puncher's chance. That is more than I can say for Socas 2 years ago. Not that Socas didn't run a good campaign, but the climate was much more unfavorable.

[WMliberal]

6. 4th. Forbes (R- Bible Thumper)

I'd love a challenger, but Forbes has one hell of a war chest. He'd go negative so hard and so fast that it'd take one hell of a candidate or scandal to oust him. That and the way we were redrawn to make the district be mostly white, rural or suburban. Maybe we can get Lucas to move a few blocks down so she's back in the district.

[abluelady]

7. Maybe Someone With a Thick Skin

Jerry Kilgore's negative ads hurt him badly in his campaign for Governor. Maybe VA is getting fed up with it. We have to have a Dem run in every district just to make people aware of what the Republicans are doing and who they really are. The Democratic party is very, very weak in Virginia. Maybe we could do a letter writing campaign to Howard Dean to infuse some resources into VA.

[MacGregor]

9. A fellow 4th detainee here.

Relocated with my folks from the 1st three years ago, basically just trading one Repub Kool-Aid connoisseur for another. Huzzah. :eyes:

As for scandal, the best I can do is that Forbes was a high school classmate of my dad's; according to him, Forbes was decidedly a BMOC type, and an asshat even then.

And fun fact, since you brought her up: IIRC, Louise Lucas did some sort of student teaching under my grandfather (mother's side). Small-ass world, huh?