Free Republic

If the election was held today who would you vote for in 9th District U. S. House of Representatives race? Rick Boucher (D) H. Morgan Griffith (R) Jeremiah Heaton (I) Undecided

OK, I've had a dose of ibuprofin, my nap, more ibuprofin, a light supper, more ibuprofin, a peaceful night's sleep dreaming of a restored constititional republic where public offices are filled only by people who refuse to take pay for their service, refuse to spend a penny of taxes unless there is a constitutional authority to do so that does not devolve back to the Commerce Clause, and get no medical care coverage or pension they did not purchase/invest in out of their personal funds. And more ibuprofin. Both Friday & Saturday started off with breakfast at the 3rd Street...

The political arms of the National Rifle Association and Veterans of Foreign Wars have weighed in on the hotly-contested congressional race in northern Virginia’s 11th District, splitting their support between Republican Keith Fimian and Democratic incumbent Gerald Connolly. The VFW Political Action Committee, which represents roughly 2.2 million VFW members, auxiliaries and military families, recently endorsed Connolly, while the NRA’s Political Victory Fund has thrown its support behind Fimian.

The incumbent Democrat's lead has grown to 15-points, according to the lastest News7 SurveyUSA poll...

GOP will unveil new 'Contract' on Thursday in Va. By Michael O'Brien - 09/20/10 11:06 AM ET Republicans will lay out their list of election-year agenda to voters on Thursday in Virginia. Republicans will gather in northern Virginia to unveil their highly-anticipated list of promises to voters, culled from months of work in the GOP's "America Speaking Out" program, a spokesman for that project confirmed. GOP leaders in the House and Senate have hinted for weeks that the documented agenda, in the mold of the 1994 "Contract with America," would be coming in mid- to late September. Republican candidates won't...

The National Republican Congressional Committee is set to go up with new ads this week against a pair of incumbents who had previously been considered lower tier targets this fall, providing further proof the House playing field still very fluid with 49 days to go before the elections. According to a GOP strategist who tracks ad buys, the NRCC has placed an $82,000 buy against Rep. Rick Boucher (D) in Virginia's 9th district as well as a $45,000 buy against Rep. Mike McIntyre (D) in North Carolina's 7th district. The ad buys are for the week of Sept. 17-23. Neither...

This weeks news:It was a YET ANOTHER BIG WEEK for our "Experts" with a total of 37 upgrades to the races on the KHR Master List. It was a 37 to ZERO shutout - none of the upgrades favored the Dems. There were major changes from Sabato and Cook, and a few from EP and RCP. CQ Politics and Rothenberg were silent.BUT THE REALLY BIG NEWS THIS WEEK was: Larry Sabato predicting a 47 seat pickup for the Republicans. Election Projection  followed a day later with a projection of a 41 seat pickup. We need 39 seats to retake the...

Rep. Rick Boucher (D) leads state House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith (R) by 10 points with two months remaining until Election Day, according to a new independent poll of the 9th district. The SurveyUSA poll, conducted for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, shows Boucher ahead among likely voters, 50 percent to 40 percent. Independent candidate Jeremiah Heaton drew 5 percent. That result is a slight improvement for Griffith over a mid-July poll by the same firm, which showed the Republican trailing by 13 points in the Southwest Virginia district.

Whit Ayres, Jon McHenry, and Dan Judy just completed a series of polls in twelve key congressional districts on the East Coast. (Another two batches of polls in the near future will look at key races in the heartland and West Coast.) Their polls, conducted for American Action Forum on July 28, 29, 31, and August 1, with 4,800 likely general-election voters — 400 each in Connecticut’s 4th and 5th districts, Florida’s 24th district, New York’s 20th, 23rd and 25th districts; Pennsylvania’s 3rd, 10th, 11th, and 12th districts; Virginia’s 5th district; and West Virginia’s 3rd district — show competitive races...

After facing criticism that he was stifling free speech, U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello will now allow political signs at his 10 remaining town hall meetings across the district. Perriello’s office had banned signs at his 20 scheduled town hall forums during Congress’ recess after a number of constituents told them that the abundance of signs at last year’s town hall forums contributed to an overly charged and politicized atmosphere. The Rutherford Institute, an Albemarle County-based civil liberties organization, chastised the freshman Democrat over the sign ban policy Wednesday. “Your sign ban amounts to an act of outright censorship that raises...

VA-09: Women Propel Democrat Boucher to 15th Term in Congress: In an election for US House of Representatives in Virginia's 9th Congressional District today, 07/21/10, incumbent Democrat Rick Boucher defeats Republican State House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith 52% to 39%, according to this latest exclusive WDBJ-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA. Among men, the contest is tied; among women, Boucher leads by 25 points. 1 in 4 Republicans cross over to vote for the Democrat. Independents split. Those with favorable opinions of the Tea Party movement back Griffith 3:1; those with unfavorable opinions of the Tea Party back Boucher 14:1.

Virginia’s Eleventh Congressional District has dramatically changed over the last few decades. Just outside Washington, D.C., this district has quickly become a fast-growing hub of high-tech, defense and federal government contracting jobs and is one of the most affluent and well-educated districts in the country. Riding the Democratic wave of 2008, Gerry Connolly was elected by a double-digit margin to his freshman term – though he underperformed Obama. However, he quickly forgot who elected him and has instead sided with his big-spending liberal leadership every step of the way. Republican nominee and NRCC Young Gun Keith Fimian is seeking to...

The two candidates running for the 9th Congressional district seat in Virginia have found something they can agree on: the controversial Arizona law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, the Democrat incumbent, and state Del. Morgan Griffith, the Republican challenger, both oppose the federal government’s decision to file a lawsuit against the state to prevent the law from taking effect. In a recent letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Boucher expressed his “strong opposition to file suit in United States District Court against the State of Arizona challenging the validity of the Arizona state...

VA-05: Democrat Perriello in Peril, One More House Seat Poised for Republican Take-Away: In an election for US House of Representatives in Virginia's 5th Congressional District today, 07/20/10, Republican State Senator Robert Hurt defeats incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello 58% to 35%, according to this latest exclusive WDBJ-TV poll conducted by SurveyUSA. The seat is one of many Republicans hope to capture in November 2010. 39 "take-aways" are needed for Republicans to capture control of the US House of Representatives. Perriello, who defeated 6-term Republican Virgil Goode by 727 votes in 2008, today trails among most demographic groups. Among men, Hurt...

Not a typo. I've been harping on my 1994-is-roughly-the-median-result for Republicans this cycle theme for most of the year. The latest SurveyUSA poll of Virginia's Fifth Congressional is more than consistent with this theory. SurveyUSA shows Republican Rob Hurt leading Freshman Democrat Tom Perriello by an astonishing 58%-35% margin. Now, Perriello was something of a surprise winner in 2008, and it was assumed that he'd have a tough race. But his district is "only" R+5, Obama almost carried it, and it is much more heavily Democratic at the local level. There are 41 Democrats in districts with more Republican PVIs....

An unusual number of Democratic candidates running this cycle are basing their victory scenarios on the existence of Independent or third-party candidates in their races. Are their hopes reasonable or are they merely grasping at straws? Certainly there are examples of third-party candidates who had no chance of winning siphoning off enough votes from one major-party nominee to alter the outcome of an election. Last cycle, in Ohio’s 15th district, anti-abortion conservative Don Eckhart drew almost 13,000 votes, the majority of which might well have gone to GOP nominee Steve Stivers. That almost certainly cost the Republican the election, as...

If you're a Republican running for Congress, you want to be on the National Republican Congressional Committee's "Young Guns" list of promising candidates. Getting on the list shows donors that Washington takes your campaign seriously, and that you've built what political professionals see as a potentially winning campaign infrastructure. Here are the names the NRCC is adding today: Andy Barr in Kentucky's 6th district; Rick Crawford in Arkansas' 1st district; Robert Dold in Illinois' 10th district; Keith Fimian in Virginia's 11th district; Stephen Fincher in Tennessee's 8th district; Mike Fitzpatrick in Pennsylvania's 8th district; David Harmer in California's 11th district;...

Virginia’s Second Congressional District is home to one of our country’s most vital national defense centers and the state’s biggest city, and is one of our best opportunities to elect a Republican to Congress in November. This coastal district encompasses Virginia’s Eastern Shore along with all of Virginia Beach and parts of Hampton and Norfolk, where the largest naval base in the world is located. The historically Republican-leaning district, where George W. Bush won easily during both of his campaigns, went narrowly for Obama in the 2008 election, handing him 51% of the vote. However, in 2009, the citizens of...

The economy has recovered from the recession, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said last night. It's a case that many Democrats would likely be scared to embrace, given the still-high unemployment rate. "In the last six months, more jobs were created than Bush was able to generate in eight years," Moran said on MSNBC's Hardball. "People don't understand that. The economy has recovered."

National Environment Puts Boucher, Chandler at Greater Risk By John McArdle, CQ-Roll Call As the national political environment continues to tilt toward Republicans, a growing number of Democrats are likely to face tough re-election fights this fall. Two of the latest examples are Democratic Reps. Rick Boucher (Va.) and Ben Chandler (Ky.), who are being targeted by national Republicans and face credible challengers in their respective conservative-leaning, coal country districts. To reflect the competitive nature of the battles both Democrats are expected to have this fall, CQPolitics is changing the race ratings in both Virginia’s 9th district and Kentucky’s 6th...