State Sen. Robert Hurt: Clearly the favorite, but other than his vote for Mark Warner’s tax increase, I don’t know much about him. His online presence is awful and there is no way of contacting him other than picking up the phone and calling. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of calling because I have a day job and email or Facebook works best for me. I did sign up for his emails earlier this week, but have yet to receive one. So, Hurt does have the advantage of name recognition, an active fund-raising base, and the benefit of being an elected official and having a record to run on, but that record, as you can tell, can also be scrutinized. He has since come out with a mea culpa for his vote as a Delegate on the tax increase, but will that be acceptable to Republican voters?
Albamarle County Supervisor Ken Boyd: From what I understand, he is attempting the strategy of being a party loyalist and elected official, but more conservative than Hurt. He also has a record to run on, which, to my knowledge, does not include voting for a very large tax hike. I have sent the campaign an email to which they have not responded. So, can’t tell you much more about him either. He has been able to raise some money in the district.
Former Fluvanna County School Board Member Feda Morton: Trying to be Ken Boyd, only with more limited local government experience. Her claim to fame is also being a party chair, which puts her in good standing with other city committees. However, that hasn’t translated to dollars raised. She was not able to hire both a campaign manager and a communication director because they were too expensive. She also has a team of free advisers, which bog down her decision making ability. On a positive, she did receive an “A” rating from the Virginia Gun Owners and has been poignant in her criticisms of Hurt for limiting debates to being held only at GOP committees, and minimizing the number to five:
“The facts are very clear. Hurt has a voting record he does not want to talk about in public, especially Hurt’s vote for the Warner budget of 2004 which led to the largest tax increase in the history of our Commonwealth. It is apparent that he would rather debate in friendly, controlled environments with handpicked moderators,” Morton said.
Businessman Laurence Verga: A self-funded candidate who is struggling to raise money in the district, but has plenty of money to run his campaign (96% of his funds are self-funded). He also is an inspired and determined candidate that is bringing ideas to the race and generating enthusiasm amongst national conservatives by appearing with personalities such as Laura Ingraham and Joe Wurzelbacher – as well as penning op-eds for Human Events and Red State. However, he has generated some controversy in comparing this district to NY-23 and hinting that he may step-forward with an independent run for congress, should he not receive the party’s nomination. Verga’s activism stems from moving his family and business to Virginia because he thought Charlottesville would be a great place to raise his family, and he appreciated the state’s low taxes; however, he has been seeing a trend of higher taxes in the state and federal government and thought he should get involved. His campaign frequently reaches out to new media (unfortunately, none of what we write or do makes it to his campaign material).
Mike McPadden: A very genuine person who I have met and held conversations with – and the only candidate in the 5th who I have. His supporters love him, but I have very little information on any traction he’s getting in the district. He is the only candidate that I am aware of who is talking about the gold standard – a favorite topic of the Ron Paul campaign – and the concept of “sound money”.
Ferrin and McKelvey? Don’t know ’em.
Regarding some news this week from this race, McPadden called for a Conservative’s Convention, as all of the candidates, except Hurt, earlier wanted one. His thought is that by narrowing the field to one “conservative” candidate against Hurt, that candidate stands a better chance of winning the primary.
“The grass roots of the Republican Party will have their voices heard and their votes counted. Second, deliberately narrowing the Fifth District field to two candidates will increase the odds that a conservative will win the nomination. And third, it could turn the tide of moderate leanings from within the Republican Party and restore the ‘Big Tent’ party of Reagan to its conservative moorings,” said McPadden.
Verga, however, does not concur, which pretty much already torpedoes the idea:
“I obviously disagreed with the establishment’s decision for a primary, but I believe we must respect the rules of the game because only the winners can make history. I am the only candidate prepared and equipped to beat them at their own game, which will only make our efforts to beat the establishment and lead a conservative movement to reform the Republican party more likely to succeed.”
As a final observation – Congressman Perriello from his September report had over $600K cash on hand. So McPadden does have a point: Republicans in the 5th better figure out pretty quickly who their candidate will be – otherwise it’s going to be a long decade or two or three with Congressman Perriello as your representative.
