Boucher likely unopposed for 15th term
By JR Hoeft | Sunday, January 10th, 2010 | PoliticsLooks like Rep. Rick Boucher (D-9) can rest a little easier and enjoy his last term in congress by running unopposed.
Boucher, whose district voted heavily in favor of Gov-elect McDonnell this past election, was thought to be vulnerable because of his long incumbency (“throw the bums out” mentality amongst the electorate) and his votes in favor of the Obama stimulus and cap-and-tax.
But his most likely opponent, Del. Terry Kilgore, has told Virginia Politics that his seniority in Richmond and family is more important to him right now than running for Congress. And Kilgore also attempted put the stops on rumors of State Sen. William Wampler joining the fray by hinting that if the Senate does switch parties sometime in the next two years, Wampler has a good shot of becoming the next Finance Committee Chair, which Kilgore says Wampler couldn’t walk away from.
However, if you look towards 2012 – it will be a presidential campaign, Senator Jim Webb will have to face all sorts of scrutiny for his votes, and Boucher will likely have retired – the conditions look a lot better for a GOP pick-up in the 9th.
That all being said…who knows what the next month might turn up? There still could be a surprise challenger.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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9 Responses to "Boucher likely unopposed for 15th term"
if cap ‘n trade doesn’t defeat this guy, nothing will. maybe some others will announce. after all, we have how many running for the Republican nomination in the 5th?
The numbers in the 9th are not that great for Boucher. He’s counting on his constituent service to save his bacon. So, this race is certainly winnable.
If a candidate announces, it will be soon. If it doesn’t happen this month, my source tells me it’s not happening at all.
Whenever I see one of these supposedly unopposed races, I wonder where the heck is the Constitution Party, the Libertarians, or even the Green Party?
I have begun to conclude that these smaller parties are run by self-serving frauds who are only out to serve their own pocketbooks; just like the two main parties, only they don’t actually run candidates, most of the time.
It would be great to see the supposed head of the Constitution or Libertarian Party brought up on fraud charges. It would be amusing to see him try to prove that he wasn’t just taking people’s money under false pretenses.
As with the Republicans in the 9th, these other parties should either put up a candidate for every election, or be charged with fraud. The citizens give them money so that the people will have a choice in elections, instead we get a bunch of talk, and often a gentleman’s agreement within the main parties where certain elections are deemed to be “safe” and uncontested.
The law in Virginia should require that these political parties mount candidates for every race or lose certification as statewide parties.
He isnt going to get away so easy… this will be a race to watch.
Just because Terry Kilgore isn’t going to run, doesn’t mean Rick Boucher will be unopposed. People in the 9th are talking about Buchanan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tamara Neo. She spoke at the 2008 GOP convention. It would be nice to have an articulate conservative ideologue run against Boucher, instead of getting someone with just name I.D.
I should have written, “Boucher unopposed…for now.” The next month, as I wrote above, is crucial to whether we have a race in the 9th or not.
Tamara is a strong candidate with a record tough on crime. She’d put a whipping on Boucher the likes of which he’d never seen.
Lee:
People have been talking about putting a whipping on Boucher for a long time. Never seems to happen. GOP always underestimates him for some reason.
Paul Garber, I’d like to explain to you a few of the difficulties that 3rd parties have. Given your post, you must be unaware of many of the obstacles.
“Whenever I see one of these supposedly unopposed races, I wonder where the heck is the Constitution Party, the Libertarians, or even the Green Party?” – Paul Garber
A lot of these seats are unopposed for a reason. Competition is gerrymandered out. If a major party sees the race as being unwinnable, what do you expect from a weaker third party. That said, we do try to target unopposed races when possible. In the southeastern part of Virginia, we also support candidates of other parties that are fiscally conservative and otherwise Libertarian friendly. Due to the many obstacles, we sometimes have to find other constructive efforts besides running our own candidates.
In Chesapeake, we did run Dr. Donald Tabor against a champion of HRTA, Republican State Senator Harry Blevins. Blevins also had a less than disirable record on the 2nd amendment, but somehow got the NRA endorsement. Dr. Tabor, a 2nd amendment defender that will open carry or conceal carry(with permit), got the VCDL endorsement. The goal of the NRA is to win. The goal of the VCDL is to protect your 2nd amendment. Blevins was unopposed. Usually Libertarians get 2-4% of the vote. Dr. Tabor got 28.82%
In 2004, Robert Dean ran for Virginia Beach Mayor against incumbent Democrat Meyera Oberndorf, and Republican Al Wallace. Dean lost that race to Oberndorf but, collected a significant percentage of the vote. Robert Dean got 43.08%, Oberndorf(winner)50.76%, Wallace 6.08%, write-in .08%.
There are many obstacles for third parties.
1)Finding a decent candidate that hasn’t gone to a major party and is willing to go against major parties in elections.
2)MONEY! You speak of all this money that 3rd parties get. Just where does that come from? Really, I’d like to know.
3)Organization – A lack of money and people working for the major parties dilutes available staff that have campaign experience.
4)If the unopposed seat holder is a good representative, I and others just don’t see a need to support an opponent. Some people root for their “team”, I support principle and Virginia.
5)There is a decent amount of support for Libertarians in southeastern Virginia in comparison to many parts of Virginia. Your part of Virginia may be far less organized and therefore at an even larger disadvantage.
There are rumblings that a Libertarian may be running against an unopposed Democrat for congress. With the issues of healthcare/Cap & Trade up in the air, I would hope so. We’ll have to see.
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