This week on The Score – We celebrate Labor Day in Buena Vista, Virginia, with U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine, Corey Stewart, and Matt Waters, plus Congressman Bob Goodlatte and congressional candidates Ben Cline and Jennifer Lewis. Also: We remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
http://bearingdrift.com/wp-content/uploads/TheScore-Sept8-2018_WINC-fullhour.mp3 [1]Opening Pitches for Political Season
“If it’s Labor Day, this must be Buena Vista [2]” – that’s something you’ll hear from political candidates year after year in Buena Vista, Virginia, which has been hosting a Labor Day festival for almost fifty years. The festival has become the annual kick-off of the political campaign season in Virginia, drawing local officials, candidates for Congress, and statewide office holders including governors and Senators.
This year’s Buena Vista Laborfest attracted all three candidates for the U.S. Senate from Virginia: incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine and his challengers, Republican Corey Stewart and Libertarian Matt Waters. Bearing Drift was there to talk to the three rivals.
To start, I asked each of them about their memories of the terrorist attacks that took place nearly seventeen years ago, hitting the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
First up is Senator Tim Kaine [3]. I also ask him and his rivals about U.S policy toward Africa and their thoughts on Brett Kavanaugh, the nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court who is enduring confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill.
Later in the show, you can hear other interviews from Buena Vista — but from in 2012, featuring then-future Senator Kaine and the man he was running against, former Governor George Allen.
Second comes Matt Waters, the Libertarian Party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate. The Score scored the first radio interview [4] with him back in March, before his formal nomination. I asked him about the same subjects I posed to Senator Kaine.
The third candidate for the U.S. Senate from Virginia this year is Republican nominee Corey Stewart. He is currently chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Prince William County and, as you’ll hear at the beginning and end of this interview, I’ve talked to him [5] several times in the past for The Score.
Running in the Sixth
In addition to those running for the U.S. Senate this year, two candidates for the Sixth Congressional District seat now held by retiring Congressman Bob Goodlatte were there.
I first talked to Delegate Ben Cline [5] of Amherst, who is the Republican Party’s nominee for the Sixth District. We started off by talking about General Assembly business, the recent special session on redistricting called by Governor Ralph Northam.
Ben Cline’s opponent in the Sixth District race is first-time candidate Jennifer Lewis. I asked her what prompted her to run for office as well as the questions I had posed to other candidates.
The Score’s final guest from this past week’s Buena Vista Labor Festival is Congressman Bob Goodlatte [5], who is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. He first came to Buena Vista on Labor Day in 1977, when he was working for his predecessor in the House of Representatives, Caldwell Butler.
Ten Years Later
As noted earlier, this week we are remembering 9/11 – the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Virginia.
At Buena Vista in 2011 [6], ten years after the attacks, I spoke to retired Air Force officer Karen Kwiatkowski, who was working at the Pentagon on that Tuesday in September 2001. She has vivid memories.
Delegate Ben Cline, who we heard from earlier in the program, was on Capitol Hill in 2001, working for Congressman Goodlatte. I spoke to him on Labor Day 2011.
I also asked Congressman Goodlatte about September 11. He was in his office on Capitol Hill that day, preparing for a committee hearing, and later went to his apartment in Arlington, near the Pentagon. This interview is also from September 2011, ten years later.
Eerie Coincidence
Northern Virginia business owner Tim Donner – who has been a contributor to Bearing Drift – tells a story about 9/11 that could easily be an episode of The Twilight Zone [7] or Alfred Hitchcock Presents [8]. He brings together two historical events in this telephone conversation we had on September 9, 2011.
We should not let a week go by without something specifically from the archives. This week The Score looks back at the 2012 U.S. Senate race between two former governors of Virginia, George Allen and Tim Kaine.
Both candidates were at Buena Vista on Labor Day 2012.
First, former Governor and Senator George Allen. He’s followed by former Governor (now Senator) Tim Kaine.
That’s it for The Score this week. We’ll be back in seven days with more news, reviews, and interviews. Come back again, and be sure to tell your friends where to listen to The Score [9].