Once the smoke cleared from this month’s midterm elections, analysts declared “Fire Pelosi” to be the most effective slogan of the 2010 campaign, and rightly so: Nancy Pelosi, and the apologetically liberal agenda she pushed through the U.S. House of Representatives, was so unpopular that her party lost 62 seats in the chamber. One would think that such an electoral rebuke would prompt introspection on the part of national Democrats; one, however, would be wrong; House Democrats voted overwhelmingly to make Pelosi their caucus’ leader in the 112th Congress. If national Democrats are unable—or unwilling—to acknowledge the reasons they lost control of the House, who will learn the lessons of November 2nd? The answer might be found in southern and western Virginia.
The election of Robert Hurt and Morgan Griffith to the U.S. House of Representatives opened two seats in Virginia’s General Assembly that will be filled by a special election on January 11. Republicans have nominated exceptionally strong candidates in both races, Bill Stanley and Greg Habeeb, respectively. Yet while the 19th state Senate district and the 8th House of Delegates district are reliably Republican, local Democrats have nominated candidates for each seat that are portraying themselves as polar opposites of Nancy Pelosi. In Morgan Griffith’s Salem-based 8th House District, Democrats nominated well-known Roanoke entrepreneur Ginger Mumpower. Until 2007, Mumpower owned a successful chain of jewelry stores throughout the Roanoke Valley, frequently appearing in television commercials for her stores. In an interview with Roanoke’s conservative talk radio station AM 960 WFIR, Mumpower, touting her experiences as a small-business owner and former local government official, pledged to promote a pro-growth, anti-regulation agenda in Richmond. Meanwhile on the Southside, Democrats nominated Pittsylvania County Supervisor Hank Davis to run for the Senate seat vacated by Robert Hurt., Davis, who has represented the county’s overwhelmingly Republican Chatham-Blairs District for over a decade, describes himself as a “pro-life, pro-gun, pro-business” Democrat.
So in two special elections to be held in two red districts, Democrats have nominated candidates significantly to the right of their national party’s leadership and who claim positions strikingly similar to those of their Republican opponents. While I do not yet know enough about Ginger Mumpower or Hank Davis to question the sincerity of their supposed conservatism, I must question the motives of Virginia Democrats. By nominating “conservative Democrats” Mumpower and Davis, have Virginia’s Democrats truly repudiated the Obama-Pelosi agenda that cost them Representatives Nye, Perriello and Boucher, or are they merely attempting to pull a bait-and-switch on western Virginia voters? Furthermore, if voters in the 8th House and 19th Senate Districts want conservative representation in Richmond, why would they cast a faith-based vote for “Republican-lite” candidates—who happen to be members of Nancy Pelosi’s Democratic Party—when they could elect known conservatives, like Greg Habeeb and Bill Stanley?
