Is Wolf retiring? If Trautz runs in the 10th, I think you can expect James Socas to run again. Because he can self-fund and can play the moderate Democrat, he’d have a chance to turn the seat to a D. While I would like to see as many conservatives in office as possible, in a district like the 10th, a conservative could flip the district.
Wolf is no RINO. His ACU ratings are not stellar, but on the issues, he comes down as a solid Right Conservative: “Frank Wolf is a Hard-Core Conservative.” He is strongly pro-life, even voting against embryonic stem cell research funding.
He has a “compassionate” streak so he sometimes votes wrong on money issues. This gets him dinged on ACU ratings (he voted for SCHIP, for parental leave, against a conservative budget proposal (he opposed a liberal version as well), for the legal services corporation, and against certain spending cuts).
But he was right on health care, the stimulus, cap and trade, and on ending TARP.
His problem is that he actually votes each issue as he sees it. Ratings like the ACU ratings give high marks to people who on many issues, just vote the “correct” way to get good ratings. I don’t think anybody would say the 5 things Wolf got hit for are as important as someone voting for TARP, cap-and-trade, and the stimulus, but a person who just did those three could have a higher rating.
Wolf isn’t my congressman, I’m just outside his district and stuck with Connally, and before that Davis who was more liberal. If I were in Wolf’s district, I’d vote for him in this primary.