I admittedly don’t pay too much attention to the 5th District nonsense that’s been festering so far this year. While a resident of the 3rd District, I’m left to suffer beneath Bobby Scott; with affiliations in the 2nd District I can poke, stoke and prod candidates to assist people who can actually cast a vote in their favor. The 5th, however, is the opposite side of the state, and given the hubbub that persists from that direction, I’ve steered clear.
Then a facebook friend of mine posted a link to an article from the WaPo.
By all rights, Tom Perriello should have almost no chance to win reelection to Congress. He’s a stimulus-backing, health-care-reform-loving, cap-and-trade-supporting liberal Democrat who represents a conservative central Virginia district where antipathy to the president and all things Washington runs high.
Perhaps too high. Perriello’s opponents are so divided about who is the best conservative to replace him that they are transforming what should be a gimme for Republicans into a national emblem of GOP strife, potentially setting up a replay of the special election in Upstate New York in November that handed the Democrats a seat in a region they hadn’t represented in more than 100 years.
Now, to compare the race to the NY23 fiasco would be a stretch; there’s no smoke-filled room anointing a candidate, the front-runner, State Sen. Robert Hurt is not a pro-choice, pro-union, pro-big government, pro-card check, pro-gay rights candidate (by the way typing all those in a row again brings to mind what the hell was NY thinking?) However, with five or six other candidates vying for the nomination, with Virgil Goode making innuendo about an independent run, there could be a few similarities, but a comparison is still a stretch.
But, the Tea Partiers in the 5th have found themselves a platform from which to shout from the rooftops. With the 2nd District having no true easily backed Tea Party candidate (despite some people’s attempts to mantel Scott Rigell ‘establishment’ and ‘moderate’) the Tea Party looks to have the most impact in the 5th District. Party leaders voted for a primary, despite all candidates besides Hurt wanting a convention. Now, with the odds stacked higher than ever before, tea partiers vent to the press.
Verga:
“We want a conservative, not a situational Republican,” said Laurence Verga, a business owner from the Charlottesville area and one of five Tea Party candidates in the Republican primary. “I really believe the 5th District congressional election is about the soul of American politics.”
I must have missed where Robert Hurt, an elected Republican since 2001, was a ‘situational’ Republican. Did he switch parties?
Tea Party Leaders
“The fact of the matter is that Robert Hurt is the establishment candidate, and it appears that the GOP is doing everything it can to make sure he is the nominee,” said Bill Hay, who leads the Jefferson Area Tea Party organization in the Charlottesville area. “That’s causing a whole lot of bad blood right now between some of the Tea Party people.”
In case you miss the Tea Party mantra, establishment = BAD. Yeah, we got it Bill. So despite Hurt’s best efforts to appeal to the Tea Partiers, meetings, no-tax pledge, renouncing his vote for Mark Warner’s senseless tax increase, the Tea Party has virtually declared Robert Hurt, not Tom Perriello, public enemy #1. But at the end of the day, wouldn’t defeating Tom Perriello be the principle target? (and I’ll warn you, here’s where the train REALLY goes off the rails)
Bradley Rees
“If Robert Hurt wins, then we have an ideologically inconsistent congressman for a couple of decades,” said Bradley S. Rees, a conservative blogger and talk-radio host in Bedford. “I would rather we had an ideologically consistent Democrat who we can hammer on their records. We’ll get Perriello in 2012 — with a stronger, more consistent candidate.”
That’s right folks, former laughingstock candidate Bradley Rees has declared on behalf of the Tea Party that it’s better to have a Democrat in office. And not only that, but he thinks a swing district that carried Perriello to victory SOLELY on Obama’s coattails will be more attainable in 2012 than in 2010. 2010 being our best shot, if we had a better candidate lurking in the shadows, wouldn’t we have found him or her by now and be running them this year? Oh wait, we did. Robert Hurt.
Give me a break. This 5th District nomination fight is getting out of control. If the Tea Party says Hurt shouldn’t be the nominee, fine. Hurt has reached out to the Tea Parties, and they’re smacking the hand away like a petulant child. He jumps through their hoops, and they try storming his offices and plotting against him, in the tactic of ‘anyone but him.’ And why? Because he’s ‘establishment’ and based on ONE vote from six years ago?! COME ON!
Please, anyone from the 5th District give me a real reason you think Hurt shouldn’t be the nominee. I get you don’t like the NRCC tabbing or assisting candidates, got it loud and clear. I get that you didn’t like his 2004 vote, got that too. What else ya got? Because having Tom Perriello represent the great Commonwealth of Virginia is not on my agenda for November 2010 and why is it going to be on yours? You fight the fight and let the chips fall where they may. You want a candidate to back? PICK ONE. Play pin-the-tail on the Perri, spin the bottle, Uno, or paintball, just pick something to end this crap. Make the rest fall in line. McPadden had the right idea, let’s unite to fight Hurt. He just tried violating the party plan to do it. There’s SIX of them to choose from, you’re telling me that we can’t whittle out the nut-jobs and also-rans into a viable selection?
And then, when the dust settles, you have ___ and Hurt. And if so so loses, which he almost inevitably will, you tried, you gave it your best and you lost. Now you back Hurt, Hurt wins handily, and you have a Republican representing your district once again. Why are we making this any more difficult then it has to be? Oh, right. Establishment = BAD.
