Local VA Races heating up!

Hey everyone! Thought that I would give everyone an update on VA-11 and VA-8.

VA-11

Republican Keith Fimian is out with a new ad that calls Gerry Connolly "too corrupt...even for Congress." With local taxes increasing, it will be interesting to see how effective this ad is. Watch below.

VA-8

Republican Mark Ellmore has been busy, trying to unseat Jim Moran. Ellmore has recently received the endorsement of Esquire Magazine, and is in the talks to receive an endorsement from the Washington Post. Below is what Esquire had to say about him:

Any half-decent opponent would get our nod over crude, pro-pork bully Jim Moran. ELLMORE IS MORE THAN HALF DECENT. And his goal to supplant the region's jammed highways with mass transit is positively progressive.

Check out the most recent Moran-Ellmore debate:

Should be interesting. I'll provide updates on the two campaigns in the coming days. Also, I'll update you on VA's Senate campaign.

VA 8th may get interesting...

After a four-to-one victory against Matthew Famiglietti in the June Primary, Jim Moran has another challenger to his Congressional seat. This time, its from the left. Running on the Independent Green ticket is Ret. Navy Capt. Ron Fisher, who previously worked on John McCain's campaign in 2000.

Both Moran and Fisher, as well as Mark Ellmore, the GOP nominee recently participated in a debate hosted by the Arlington Civic Federation.

Fisher strongly opposed Moran's record, citing Moran's support for free-trade, saying, "The so-called free-trade agreements Moran has supported over the years are hurting our economy, and they should be repealed."

At the debate, Ellmore noted Moran's disapproval towards drilling, saying, "We need to get off foreign oil within ten years," said Ellmore. "If we can get a man on the moon within ten years, we can do this." Ellmore supports drilling off the coast, as well as exploring nuclear, solar, wind, clean coal, natural gas options.

At the debate, Fisher also accused Moran of failing to support the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, criticizing the Democratic Congress for not using its appropriations authority to end the war in Iraq.

This could be what steals votes away from Moran. On just about every block in Arlington and Alexandria, you see "Impeach him" or "Impeach them both" signs. Ellmore could possibly catch up if Fisher steals these votes away from Moran.

Ellmore also stated that Moran " hasn’t done enough [for the district.]" He was referring to the Dulles Rail project, which is years behind schedule, and which Moran is a part of. During the debate, as well as in previous statements, Ellmore laid out his strong support for the military, by supporting the surge, as well as being against any timetable for withdrawal in Iraq.

NOVA Primary Results

Hey Everyone.

Here are the final results from yesterday's GOP primary.

8th district: (99% reporting in)

Mark W. Ellmore: 3,240; 55.88%

Amit K. Singh: 2,558; 44.11%

Since this is a Republican blog, I am supposed to support Ellmore in here. Although I am not happy. Ellmore won through lying, and making the district feel sorry for him. For once in my life we have a candidate who actually has a slim chance of beating Democrat James Moran, and the Republican Party of Virginia decided to elect the biggest idiot in politics instead. Just goes to show you that politics is full of crooks, liars, and idiots. At the moment I cannot endorse Ellmore, and I need to reflect on it to see if I can.

10th district: (99% reporting in)

Frank R Wolf: 16,559; 91.26%

Vern P. McKinley: 1,585;8.73%

This is not much of a surprise. Wolf has held on to this district for a while, and will probably win in the general election. 

It was raining in NOVA for a reason yesterday. It was one of the saddest days in politics.

Virginia GOP picks Senate nominee, Congressional races about to start

Hello everyone!

Before I begin, let me do a quick introduction. I'm a sophomore student at George Mason University in Fairfax majoring in Government. I serve on the Executive Board of the GMU College Republicans. In addition to my writings here, I also write for GMU CR's blog, and the VA CR Blog. 

I hope you enjoy my writings.

Now that the introduction is out of the way, let's get to work shall we?

Last weekend The Virginia GOP elected a new Chairman and picked the Republican nominee to face Democrat Mark Warner this fall. They narrowly elected Former Governor Jim Gilmore in a close race between him and Delegate Bob Marshall. They also elected Jeff Frederick over current Chairman John Hager (father of Henry Hager). It is understandable that Frederick beat Hager. After all, after three years of failed elections, the higher ups normally get blamed. In my own opinion, Gilmore's name recognition helped him out some, yet the election was a lot closer than some would have liked.

It has been a tough few years for Virginia. (For more info on Virginia as a new "battle ground" state, check out the blog Battle Ground States '08 to see my upcoming posts on Virginia.) Just to give you an idea of how bad its been for Virginia, let me go over the last three election in VA. In 2005, the GOP lost the Governor's mansion for for a second term again. In 2006, Jim Webb defeated first term Senator George Allen in a hard fought election. Democrats are getting smart in VA in nominating moderate and conservative Democrats in order to win. In 2007, the GOP lost control of the State Senate, while only narrowly holding on to the House of Delegates.

The vote total was 5,222 for Gilmore and 5,156 for Marshall. Gilmore, a popular Governor has a lot of work to do, starting with holding on to his base. Strong pro-lifers are slightly dissatisfied with him, as he does agree with abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. As Governor, he successfully passed legislation that banned partial birth abortion.

In current polls, Gilmore is loosing heavily to Warner. However, there is some good news. In every campaign that Gilmore won, he was an underdog by a wide margin and did a quick turn-around to win. Also, Warner's broken promises, tax hikes, and failed transportation bills promise to be good campaign material.  For more on Warner's broken promises, click here.

While I will talk about all of VA's upcoming races in this blog, I will probably focus the majority of my time on VA's Senate race and the Congressional Races of Northern Virginia, which consist of the 8th, 10th, and 11th districts. 

On Tuesday, the the 8th district of VA will hold its GOP primary. Two candidates are running: Amit Singh and Mark Ellmore. Whoever wins will face Democratic incumbent Jim Moran. I'll post the results here Tuesday night. This could also be interesting for Moran. He is being challenged in a primary- a sign that Democrats are starting to get tired of him. This could help the GOP this fall.