The Battle for America 2010: In Virginia 5, Tea Party Complicates GOP Challenger’s Campaign
Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, which is anchored by Charlottesville at its northern point and runs south to the North Carolina border, followed a national trend in 2008, dumping a Republican incumbent for a Democratic challenger. Now, the current incumbent, Tom Perriello, is in critical danger. But the candidate who still stands to be burned by grassroots fire is his challenger, Republican Robert Hurt.
Freshman Perriello is learning what several of his House classmates have discovered: President Obama’s coattails, once rivaling the length and breadth of a royal wedding gown, are now more closely resembling a cocktail dress. The Cook Political Report currently colors VA-5 the barest shade of pink, listing the race as a Democrat toss-up.
The reason lies in the flash-point circumstances which originally sent Perriello to his seat. While Perriello defeated six-termer Virgil Goode, the margin was less than a thousand votes. Although McCain-Palin won the district, Goode drifted between both parties and an independent status during the course of his career, then hammered on illegal immigration and ACORN during a cycle in which voters were applauding soft-focus hope and change.
Ironically, a candidate with Goode’s credentials might run quite well for the Democrats in 2010. But Goode was tone deaf at precisely the right time for Perreillo, who benefited from an energized youth vote pouring down from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Goode couldn’t close the 19,000-vote deficit he suffered in the north with a demoralized NASCAR vote in the south, and the cash-flush Perriello eked out a victory.
Thus, never really enjoying job security, Perriello glumly watched as Roll Call flagged VA-5’s seat as one of the House’s ten most vulnerable. A grimly eager conservative movement mirrors the very conditions which accounted for his victory in 2008, and Perriello is emphasizing his Catholic faith, Second Amendment support, and membership on the Veterans Affairs Committee. However, he also voted for the economic stimulus, cap and trade, and health care reform — three issues which are quickly becoming litmus tests for independents and conservatives.
Enter attorney Hurt, a member of the Virginia legislature. While Perriello is running distinctly from the center, Hurt makes no such concessions. He touts his roots in the red southern portion of the district. His campaign does not blush in touting his pro-life record, opposition to gay marriage, and support for our intelligence services.
The narrative for this bellwether race, then, is a who-hates-liberal-policies-more contest. Mentions of President Obama on Perriello’s campaign site are sparse; pictures of the very man who pushed him to election just months ago are non-existent.
Nonetheless, in June, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) stepped in on Perriello’s behalf, announcing that Hurt was tax-friendly and that “(i)t’s time for Robert Hurt to stop behaving like a career politician.” The DCCC also pointed to a 2004 blast from Americans for Tax Reform, which named Hurt a “Least Wanted” candidate — all criticisms that place the DCCC in the same camp as, of all people, tea partiers.
As a side note, in northern Virginia the Tea Party organizers have taken on a life of their own, that also closely coordinates cues from the Richmond Tea Party stewards.
It is a situation similar in nature to a cross between the old Citizens Band Radio React organization and the current local Neighborhood Watch efforts; where what was supposed to be a citizens early alert police notification system turned into a bunch of busy bodies running around sub-divisions telling everyone else how to live and run their lives. Add in a hyper-active members only social structure for the rest of the picture.
In the last two years my wife and I provided pro-bono professional photography of several of the Tea Party rallies and posted the photographs on our own business web site.
We did this until I received an e-mail message from one of the Tea Party chair persons ordering me to reword the content narrative of one of the galleries because of a complaint they received from some unidentified person. The gallery narrative simply quoted and referenced several liberal mainstream media rants about the Tea Party rallies.
Perhaps I’m out of sync with the rest of society, but when I ask someone that walks a 150 pound dog through the neighborhood not to come within a few feet of our home’s windows to pick up what he/she deems to be trash, I really mean stay off of our property. It took a few photographs and a guarantee that I would visit the local magistrate’s office to bring normal neighborhood peace and quiet back into perspective.
I’m not sure what the best way to tone the Tea Party leaders back into their roots, but I have an idea that they need to put it together soon.
Four more years of Obama is a lot to ask of a tired and beaten nation.
Let me get this straight–
the republican primary is over, a winner is now the republican general candidate, and a conservative candidate who lost in the primary is still in the race as an independent? Is that what this article says?
If so, will somebody there PLEASE tell the Clark guy to get OFF the ballot so the vote isn’t split? We have to WIN, and a pyrrhic victory isn’t the kind that helps. We will do our best in the primaries to field the best candidates, but when they’re over, we have to get behind whoever is AGAINST the democrats! We can hold feet to fires and what have you, but we cannot improve our lot in this country if DEMOCRATS GET ELECTED again.
Win the primaries, win the generals. Don’t split votes in the generals because you didn’t win the primaries. That is THEIR strategy against US! Why would we do it to OURSELVES?
I think Clark should stay on the ballot. The Republican Party has bee trading spit with the Democrats for far to long and I think it is time for beliefs to override party regardless of the outcome. If Clark believes his in his vision for America he is right to stay in the race.
So Clark gets 25%, the official Repub gets 35%, and the Dem gets 40% and wins.
Never mind, at least Clark got to talk about his vision for America.
I don’t know what the result will be. Maybe the Repub. should drop off the ballet and leave Clark.Maybe the people in this district ate socialists or conservatives, I don’t know. Just sending someone to Congress because of the D pr R doesn’t work for me. I would rather an honest loss that a compromise. John McCain was and is a compromise and you see where that went.
No. The time to battle over conservative, tea party, establishment R candidates is during the primary. That is when this occurs. But AFTER the primary, stick with the primary winner against the Demonrat.
The Democrat needs to get beaten, especially since he voted for cap-and-trade and Obamacare.
It is time for all good men and women to pull together and do whatever it takes to take this congress out of the hands of the Democrats, whether they are Blue Dogs or otherwise. As a pack, as in a wild pack of rabid animals, the Democrats have been ushering in Communism in the Guise of Liberalism at an alarming Rate. This Democrat Party is not your Grand Father’s Democrat Party, and this current Regime is the Most Radical Ever in this great republics history. You TEA Party and Other Conservative, Independent, RINO and other Banners of “Anything Except a Democrat”, had better pull together in Virginia and in every other District and State and Defeat All Democrats and Replace Them With Anything But a D (Democrat) or we will be getting 2 more Years of this Runaway Train That Is Destroying Our Economy, Our Rights, and is Consolidating all Power in the Out of Control Federal Government run by Criminals, Subversives, Communists, Perverts, Marxists and other Power Hungry and Money Hungry Politicians who Represent The Highest Bids From Lobbyists and Have Zero Concern for this Nation and For We, The People.
Stop the infighting folks. We have to pull together. When we argue and fight amongst ourselves, the Enemy Is Winning. The MSM and the DC establishment are using Divide and Conquer Strategies and all too many folks are Falling Into That Trap which is evidenced by this Infighting. Talk to the folks who are sore losers who lose primaries and then say, “I am going to run as an Independent.” If they do this, neither or our candidates will win, and the Dems Win Again. Wake up and Stop Infighting, or we lose. We cannot allow our petty differences usher in 2 more years of a Democrat Controlled Congress because that means 2 more Years of Obama having his way with his Destruction of Constitutional Law and the Free Market which is what fuels the American Way of Life of Freedom, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and Prosperity for all. Under Obama’s Schemes, we will all equally suffer as third rate citizens of a Banana Republic. Look at Obama’s heroes!!! They are all Communists or Radical Muslims who hate the USA and that also means that he and his cronies Hate You and Me, the people who stand between his unfettered power and freedom.
I guess it will take more than one election cycle for the GOP to pull it’s collective head out and listen to the people. . . too bad.
The only solution is to have tax-and-spend demopublican Hunt withdraw.
I understand the feelings of the Tea party but it is important to first destroy the Democrat party. Then we can weed out the Rino’s.
I don’t think there can be party unity if the RINOS aren’t rooted out first. If the Republican Party can’t do that then is is time for someone to replace them. It may be a Tea Party of another group. but currently in Washington we seem to Have Democrats ( socialists) and Republican ( socialists lite) and win or loose I choose neither.
true true
One thing you can always count on: another article at Pajamas Media warning us of the dangers posed by Tea Party true believers. Communists? Ho-hum. The Tea Party? Sound the alarm!
I’ve seen this kind of thing happen in other political movements and it doesn’t surprise me it’s happening with the Tea Party movement.
On the one hand, the Tea Party movement claims it does not belong to any political party. On the other hand, it more or less endorses one party, the Republicans, over the other.
So when you get into a situation where Tea Partiers disapprove of a Republican candidate you have those who say the Tea Party should just shut up and vote Republican. But if the Tea Party is not the property of the Republican Party, it’s very hard to appeal to party unity.
The end result is either nominating candidates who appeal to the Tea Party folk no matter how unpopular those candidates are with moderate independents, or nominate candidates who have a better chance of winning and cut the Tea Party loose.
If you ask me (although nobody has), you can’t be both an indpendent political movement and a part of an established political party at the same time. Democrats don’t have an automatic right to far-left voters just because it’s more to the left than the GOP. Neither does the Republican Party have a monopoly on the far-right just because it’s to the right of the Democrats. If the Tea Party does not want to play ball with RINOs that is their right. If the GOP wants to whine and moan about the Tea Party not automatically falling in line on election day they should just declare the Tea Party as a GOP owned and operated political movement.
Of course at least some Tea Partiers would strongly object to being officially taken over by the Republicans.
The Tea Party Movement will continue to evolve. Whether it follows the Ross Perot supporters into the mists of history or morphs into a viable political party remains to be seen.
As an amorphous organization it is nearly impossible for the Tea Party to form an organized front for much of anything. That takes leaders, platforms, rank and file support, and money. All four elements are there for the Tea Party but it has yet to coalesce around either a central figure or platform. Does the Tea Party support the pro-life position? Is it anti-gay and anti gay marriage? Is it a purely Christian organization? Would it support/promote, say, fundamental Baptists over Unitarians or Mormons? Is it really for smaller government, less government spending, freedom for the individual, or what? Note well that freedom for the individual may not be compatible with pro-life, pro-Christian, and/or anti-gay messages. Time to begin to decide and declare.
I am hoping for a Constitutionalist platform. Get the feds back to enumerated functions *only*, and let the states experiment with socialism. I have no problem with California and their socialist regime (other than also voting for federal socialists) – it is their right as a state. And their bankruptcy occurs sooner and serves as a lesson. It would be great if another state were to create a financially stable socialist setup – like Sweden or Denmark.
As to Christian moral issues, I note that Paul instructs Christians to *tolerate* immorality in non-Christians (I Cor 5). It is the persistently and flagrantly immoral Christian brother who is to be disfellowshipped (not beheaded as in a certain other major religion). While this was once a Christian nation, it is now thoroughly secular, and Christians need to start acting like it, and treating the average citizen as a pagan. This could be a rebirth for Christianity in America, since the early Christians were in the same situation with pagan Rome. (I hope we can skip the arenas, but I’m not so sure given the rhetoric of todays radical atheists.)
Regardless of tolerating sexual immorality, “gay marriage” is a disaster, because it tries to make “gay marriage” the same thing as “traditional marriage”. They are not the same. Civil unions are the proper secular way to tolerate gay sexuality, since it preserves the distinction. Furthermore, civil unions are good for non-sexual life partnerships as well.
Northern Light – Interesting message.
I believe upon reading your post is precisely why many voters wear the ‘Independent’ cap nowadays.
I’m an Independent voter with Conservative values. Something truly lacking in the Republican Party due to abundance of RINO’s, fairweather Republicans.
When John McCain tried to sell himself as a ‘Conservative’ during the ’08 election, it was a joke. The guy is so removed from Conservative values. As well as the Republican brand.. enough said.
I believe it’s the same dilemma for Blue Dog Democratic voters who look at today’s Democratic Party. Extremely disappointing I’m sure.
There are FEW and far between true Republicans in this day and age. You’d mentioned there are ‘Moderate’ Republicans, as well as ‘Conservative’ Republicans, ‘Constitutionalist’ Republicans (Tea Party-type folks) etc.,
Though touting yourself as a ‘Moderate’ Republican, I’ve noticed that agenda tends to sway often to Liberal policies, having strong repercussions.
Maine’s Snowe and Collins are excellent examples of the ‘Moderate’ Republican. Though I consider these women more so the Blue Dog Democrat variety. Or RINO.
Snowe, Collins and McCain for example pound their chests in their ‘bipartisanship’ tendencies. For me in many instances it’s surrendering the very reason why they’re Republicans with ideals that are supposed to represent the majority of their constituents. Limited Government, low(er) taxes, encouraging free enterprise and market stability with little/no Government intervention. Or we get the ever-so effective ‘Regulation’ bills.
The aforementioned Republican ideals is being sold today as ‘Tea Party’ values, when in all honesty WAS the Republican brand.
The time to debate and select the “best” candidate, that would be the one with a platform closest to the Tea Party “ideal,” is in the Primaries. After that selection process is the time for ALL conservatives to get behind the choice of the majority and get him or her elected.
Striving for “perfection,” always a subjective adjective, is laudable on an idealistic level but a foolish conceit when it results in a petulant shift to a third party candidate that always results in a Democrat victory because Democrats, despite the mounting evidence of their total ineptitude at governing, know that internal squabbles over ideology don’t win elections.
“Third party” candidates, that is parties other than the two major parties, don’t often make that much difference in the final outcome (McCain/Obama garnered 98.6% of the vote nationally) but in 1992 Bill Clinton garnered 43.01% of the national vote George Bush 37.45% and Ross Perot 18.9%. Simple arithmetic explains what the 3rd party candidacy of Perot likely did to George Bush’s quest for a 2nd term; not conclusive, some of those votes could have gone for Clinton, but likely. Proof, for me, that popular, well known, 3rd party candidates often result in nothing more than bragging rights for the Republicans. “Yeah, we lost but we stood on principle and strongly expressed our discontent” and we’ll be left with what could be the demise of the Conservative movement.
The Tea Party folks must recognize that they “can’t win them all” and this election and the equally important one in 2012 will not end their involvement in the movement they’ve so enthusiastically started. The American dream will perhaps never be fully realized but can only be approached if Americans, as a group, stay actively involved.
In the run up to 2008 complacency and ignorance were correctly perceived as a weakness to be exploited and Obama is the successful result of that exploitation, a process that continues and will achieve more success if Americans continue to ignore what to many of us is evident. We the people need to stand together or it will be we the intellectual elite, strong in academic acuity but hapless in the rough and tumble world we happily struggle with every day as long as we have the freedom to pursue that unique and precious American dream. At the risk of sounding like Glenn Beck, it is individual freedom that has made America Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill.”
Stay together……stand strong or go down in the history books as a political curiosity, a footnote in American history.
It is the GOP that is becoming the third party. If they can not lead, they need to step aside.
JustAl:
Right you are.
Divide and conquor, the One will endure.
CHRISTY, PERRY, ROMNEY, PETRAEUS, JEB BUSH, SCHWARZENEGGER (DON’T SHOW BIRTH CERTIFICATE), SANTORUM, GINGRICH, GIULIANI, PAWLENTY, CHARLIE CRIST, PALIN, THOMPSON, DANIELS, HUCKABEE, MCCAIN, JINDAL, BARBOUR, KASICH, etc, etc, etc.
Fox News will do the heavy lifting. All will be well when we reach Utopia.
Juan Williams said it would be so, and Bill O’Reilly agreed, how could it not be true?
The only “pyrrhic victory” is if the RHINO wins. Let the GOP leave the ballot if they don’t want the vote split. This isn’t a football game about cheering for the home team. Parties are vendors who supply candidates as their product. If the GOP can not deliver, let them pay the price.
Thanks for writing this, I live in VA-5. This phenomenon of having Hurt as the candidate is a peculiarity. While there are several Tea Parties here in VA-5 that have tried to promote their candidates, we had a primary of ~7-8 candidates, some of them very good. VA-5 is a large district cutting a large swath down from central VA down to NC and Hurt has a lot of supporters from down south, I live in the north and had never heard of the guy.
Despite “good” Tea Party candidates (and plenty) none really could accelerate to the head of the pack and were too indistinguishable up until the primary. So we have Hurt, who’s a popular legislator.
Perriello won his election by the skinniest of margins and has acted as if had won by a 7-10 pt mandate. No lefty agenda item went unsupported by Tom Perriello. Tom’s a likable guy, has thick skin, and can talk his way out of anything and has a pretty agile mind on the issues. He’s hard to corner in debates and comes off as pretty pragmatic. But, the truth is that Tom Perriello has been Nancy’s stooge for the last two years–green “jobs”, stupid and expensive weatherization projects for houses, health”care” and cap n’ tax–Tommy P has voted for them all. He’s a well-heeled Ivy Leaguer from a family of physicians (sister at least) in Ivy, VA. IMO, he has misrepresented this district from Day 1 and I look forward to throwing him out of office. A Tea Party loss to Hurt here in VA-5 speaks more to the uniqueness of this district than it does the strength of the Tea Partiers here. We are vocal and strong and numerous. Bob McDonnell won this district handily and I see Tommy P in the unemployment line in a scant few months.
TC – I’m a VA-5 resident too and your description is great. I’m also a Yale alum (as is TP) and two issues ago the Yale Alum mag ran a lengthy article on TP – crowning him “the good politician”. In the most recent mag several Yale alums took the editors to task for a blatantly campaigning for TP. Not that they were trying to reach people in the 5th but accusing the editors of informing deep pocketed liberal Yale alums that one of their own was possibly in trouble – hence ‘send money’. TP must go and Clark needs to drop out of this election. He doesn’t have what it takes to beat TP. And all of you RINOs-must-go-first folks need to wake up and smell our Tax dollars swirling down the drain…..
AT I hope you don’t give any money or support to Yale do you? I am a lowly Rutgers grad and won’t support them due to their sobbing support of every failed Third World Government and every failed social program. All of these people think the solution is more money( read taxes). But you have to ask yourself after 60 years of foreign aid with no results and forty + years of ” social programs” starting with LBJ’s “Great Society” that maybe, just maybe money and empathy aren’t the answer. Virginia #5 is one place at the center if this fight, not debate, but fight and I hope you all can turn this into a win, not a compromise of a loss. Good luck!
This is our worst nightmare. America has a severe problem that threatens its very existence; The Democratic Party. It doesnt matter which Republican won the primary that person needs to be supported because Perriello will go to DC and vote to make Pelosi Speaker and Hurt will vote for John Boehner. Being ideologically pure is beside the point. If we dont stop the Obamunist agenda now this country is finished. There wont be any Tea Party and the Republican party will be an empty shell allowed to exist to maintain the fiction of Democracy. Whatever your issue is, taxes, abortion, immigration, debt, spending; none of it will ever have a chance to get any better if we dont beat these guys and take control of at least one house of Congress in this election. The leftists left unchecked until 2012 will so further erode our system that opposition will become futile or impossible. Just this one time we all have to stand together. If I lived in Maine I would be happy to vote for either of those too extremely liberal Senators because its an ‘R’ in our column and we need every ‘R’ we can get or this country is over.
This “any Republican is a good Republican” idea is what helped get us in the current fix in the first place. How do y’all like McCain/Feingold? How about Lindsey Graham? Denny Hastert? We’re not going to get out of this hole until our principles are dominant in DC. The only way for the Tea Party et al to have influence is for the Republican apparatchiks to take us seriously. Which means driving home the message where necessary that we WILL NOT stand for business as usual, even if it hands a seat to the Democrats.
We are in for a long, tough slog. To disarm before the battles have been fought is to lose.
The avenue to victory is for the Tea Partiers to take over the Republican Party at the grass roots (see Utah), and then work our tails off for several years. Here in Oklahoma the Republicans are already aligned with conservative principles, but other states less so. Victory also means promoting, explaining and in general proselytising for our principles.
Another 5th District resident here.
Robert Hurt is not a RINO, he is a young bright conservative with great potential.
One vote he took in the state legislature to raise taxes does not define him.
The Tea Party candidate Clark is just a tool of the Democrats, whether he realizes it or not.
I must concur with JustAl in post #4 & #11 in both cases…
It is not the Tea Party that is the problem. The GOP needs to understand that we the people are pissed at them as well.
Business as usual is not an option imo.
TP’s problem is that he really believes that everything he voted for is good for America, he believes his own spiel. And that the answer to why it is not working is more Gov spending and taxation.(plus Bush..(to TP’s supporters Bush is kind of like a zombie.. although he is gone he can rise up to be beaten back again at their convenience)).
As a member of the Lynchburg Area Tea Party (about an hour South of Charlottesville), I am qualified to give first-hand commentary on the VA-05 race, as well as the local Tea Party atmosphere. I do not officially speak for my local Tea Party, but I attend every meeting, and I personally see the differing points of view expressed at those meetings.
First, it is important to understand that the VA-05 GOP primary was a contest between seven contenders. Mr. Hurt is a current state Senator, and had the endorsement and blessings of the RNC. For many in the Tea Party, being the RNC “golden boy” was two strikes against him out of the gate. I cannot speak for other VA-05 Tea Party groups, but most in my group were split between 2 other newcomer candidates in the primary. The strongest of the two gave Mr. Hurt a surprising run for his money. Mr. Hurt’s strong ties to his base in the Central and Southside areas, plus his RNC support were enough to win the primary. Tea Party members were forced to re-evaluate the day after the primary.
Mr. Hurt, to his credit, realized the growing power and influence of the Tea Party in local GOP party participation, and attended the next meeting of our local Tea Party. He met members before the meeting, and answered spontaneous questions during the meeting. My personal impression is that he was reasonably honest and listened to our concerns. There was still a certain amount of skepticism among the SRO meeting, as many members are wary of any NRC endorsed candidate. Mr. hurt left the meeting with the message that most members viewed the ouster of Perriello to be the primary objective, but that we would hold his feet to the fire if he is elected. If he does not perform as advertised in the next two years, we will strongly challenge him in the 2012 primary with one candidate, and throw all of our support behind that candidate. He got the message, loud and clear.
This Thursday’s monthly meeting should be quite interesting and entertaining. So much so, that we had to find a larger venue. The last two or three meetings have been SRO, but Tom Perriello is scheduled to attend for a Q&A. Since Mr. Perriello has agreed to voluntarily walk into “the mouth of the beast” as it were, questions are being solicited on the Lynchburg Tea Party website to avoid any possibility of angry derision by upset constituents. This is a wise move by our Chairman Mark Lloyd, and leadership. We are not a lynch mob, but frustrations could become un-toward otherwise.
If Ms. Niemeyer would like an on-scene correspondent for this story, I will be there, and will be taking notes and video. My email is samual.adams25@yahoo.com I will ignore crank emails from “progressive” haters of the Constitution and fundamental values of our Founding Fathers.
The VA-05 Congressional race will definitely be interesting. I’m seeing it from the inside.
Sam Adams- Living in a neighboring district, you are correct in citing the Republican national committees, particularly the Cantor Young Guns program, as being mostly responsible for the Hurt primary election. They made sure his war chest was much larger than the other candidates. There were one or two other much better conservative candidates, but, it all came down to the Cantor endorsement, the money available for Hurt ads, that played continuously for weeks before the primary. The conservative vote was very split between candidates, some who should have dropped out months before. This is happening all over the nation. When there are too many choices, all claiming to be the best conservative, it almost always winds up with the most moderate winning the primary. I can attest that Hurts run, wound up being anybody but Hurt.
Since he’s the candidate, he will be a major improvement over the Pelosi/Soros funded, and backed, Periello. The 5th can work very hard to get it right in 2012.