Jun 02, 2002
Democrat to launch race against Cantor
BY TYLER WHITLEY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Ben "Cooter" Jones, a former television actor and Georgia congressman, will kick off his campaign for Virginia's 7th Congressional District seat tonight, offering himself as a fiscally conservative, centrist Democrat.
Jones is seeking to unseat first-term Republican Eric I. Cantor, a lawyer from Henrico County. Jones is to make his formal announcement at a barbecue at a farm near his Rappahannock County home.
Known to many as "Cooter", the garage mechanic on "The Dukes of Hazzard" TV show, Jones brings a down-home style and name recognition to a race that he acknowledges will be difficult to win.
Cantor brings a healthy campaign war chest and the value of incumbency to a district that is considered one of the most Republican-leaning in the country.
But Jones noted that Democrat Timothy M. Kaine won 49.5 percent of the vote in the district last year when he ran for lieutenant governor. On the other hand, George W. Bush carried it with 60 percent in the 2000 presidential race.
The 2001 General Assembly made the district slightly less Republican when it drew up new congressional districts.
"I'm better-known than Cantor is," Jones said in a brief telephone interview.
"I have a centrist voting record," he said. "I think I can do a better job of representing the people of the 7th District."
The district stretches from the West End of Richmond to the west and north, to Page County in the Blue Ridge mountains. The population center is in the Richmond suburbs.
The campaign already has begun. Cantor has tried to link Jones to "Hollywood values." Jones has accused Cantor of raiding the Social Security trust fund.
Jones, who campaigned for Democrat Mark R. Warner in last year's gubernatorial race, said he plans to run "the last old-fashioned campaign," - without consultants, "spin doctors" or television attack ads.
Jones, 60, grew up in Portsmouth and returned to Virginia in 1998. He settled in Rappahannock and opened "Cooter's Place," selling "Dukes of Hazzard" memorabilia, in Sperryville. The TV show ran from 1979 to 1985.
He opened a second store in Gatlinburg, Tenn., this year.
Jones said Cantor is not the fiscal conservative he portrays himself to be. By voting to make President Bush's tax cuts permanent, Cantor has effectively voted to raise the national deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years, Jones said.
By supporting the tax cuts, Cantor also has effectively raided the Social Security trust fund by $1.7 trillion, Jones said, because expected budget surpluses were going to be used to put more money into the trust fund.
The Democrat also chided Cantor for voting for "the biggest boondoggle of all," the recent farm bill that increases federal subsidies for some farmers.
Cantor has said he voted for the bill reluctantly, only because he thought it would give Bush more leverage in trade negotiations with foreign nations.
Jones brings a colorful history to the campaign.
After "The Dukes of Hazzard" show, he ran for Congress in a suburban Atlanta district in Georgia. He lost his first race, in 1986, but won the second and served two terms before being defeated in a Democratic primary in 1992.
Two years later he challenged Republican Newt Gingrich and got beat, he said, "like a rented mule."
According to "Politics in America," a publication of Congressional Quarterly, Jones acknowledged during his first race that he was a reformed alcoholic. His alcoholism led to an arrest in 1974 on a simple-battery charge for shoving his second wife, the publication reported.
An opponent also dug up records of a 1967 arrest of Jones in North Carolina for a trespassing incident involving his first wife.
Jones blamed both incidents on drinking and said his successful fourth marriage is proof of his recovery.
"I've been in recovery for 25 years," Jones said. "That's always been a positive in my races."
Cantor, who will turn 39 on Thursday, easily won election in 2000 after surviving a tough primary challenge.
He is campaigning on a theme of security - security against terrorism, protecting Social Security and protecting economic security by voting for tax cuts.
Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com
So, from the article I can tell that Cooter is a carpetbagger, but other than the security blanket stuff, what is Cantor all about? I'm in the 4th and I don't know much about him.