Category: Congress

VA-9: On the Campaign Trail With Republican Challenger Morgan Griffith

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ABINGDON, Va. — As I pointed out Friday in my American Spectator column, the 9th District of Virginia went 58% for John McCain two years ago and you might think it would be easy for a Republican to defeat a Democrat incumbent here — especially when the Democrat voted for the cap-and-trade bill that would devastate the region’s coal industry.

Well, if you think it’s easy, you’re wrong. There’s a reason this race is still rated a “toss-up.” Democrat Rep. Rick Boucher has been getting re-elected here for 28 years, he’s got an enomous fund-raising advantage over his Republican challenger Morgan Griffith and so Griffith has to do a lot of grassroots campaigning if he wants to have a chance to win on Election Day. Early Friday morning, I caught up with Griffith as he campaigned in Scott County and Lee County.

Griffith talks to Tommy Quillin, owner of Quillin Hardware in Gate City, near the Tennessee border. The Quillin family has owned the store on West Jackson Street since 1903, and he’s the third generation of his family to run the store.

Lee County courthouse in Jonesville. Located at the far southwest tip of Virginia, Lee County is nearer to the capitals of four other states than it is to the Virginia state capital in Richmond. For that reason, Lee County doesn’t usually get much attention from Virginia politicians. Yet as one local Republican official remarked Friday, Griffith has campaign here early and often.

A historic marker notes that Jonesville is on the historic trail pioneered by Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap, which is 35 miles to the west of Jonesville.

Griffith shakes hands with a local supporter after a get-out-the-vote rally at the Lee County Courthouse. The man in the middle is Jonesville mayor Greg Smith. (I wonder if there a Smithville with a Mayor Jones?)

Griffith is interviewed by the TV station WCYB following his rally in Jonesville.

At that rally, Griffith said, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are on the cusp of a historic election,” and said that if the 9th District goes Republican — ending 28 years of Democrat control — it will signal a “tsunami.” And he urged his listeners to talk to their friends and neighbors, to work the phones, and do everything they can to get every last vote on Tuesday.

MORGAN GRIFFITH for U.S. CONGRESS

Greetings from Bristol, Va.

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Please excuse the 24-hour absence of bl0gging, and thanks to Smitty and Wombat for producing excellent content in my absence. Yesterday I drove from Hagerstown to Christiansburg, Va., and then on to Abingdon, where I filed 950 words last night The American Spectator:

ABINGDON, Va. — Rick Boucher voted for the “Job-Killing Cap & Trade Energy Tax,” says a voter guide distributed in Virginia’s 9th District and that may well be the obituary on the Democrat’s 28-year career in Congress.
Southwest Virginia is coal country and, according to an estimate by the National Association of Manufacturers, the Waxman-Markey bill for which Boucher voted — formally known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act — would eliminate 56,000 jobs in Virginia. The unemployment rate in many counties in Boucher’s district has been above 10 percent for months, and it is hard to see why anyone concerned about this region’s economy would vote for the man who voted for legislation so inimical to their own interests.
President Obama didn’t exactly help the Democrat incumbent’s re-election chances last year when he declared, “I love Rick Boucher,” a statement that has now been replayed thousands of times in Republican campaign ads in a district that John McCain carried with 58 percent of the vote in 2008.
Improbable as it may seem, however, VA-9 is still a rated a “toss-up.” For months, polls showed Boucher with a double-digit lead over Republican challenger Morgan Griffith. It was not until this week, in the wake of a televised debate on a Lynchburg station, that a poll by Survey USA showed Griffith pulling ahead by a single point, 47 to 46 percent.
That Boucher could get 46 percent of the vote here — indeed, the incumbent may actually win re-election Tuesday — demonstrates the power of Democrat party attack ads, which have been pouring into airwaves and mailboxes in the 9th District, as in so many other key congressional districts nationwide. . . .

Please read the whole thing. I didn’t get to bed until 3 a.m., then had to be up at 7:30 a.m. to go cover the Morgan Griffith campaign. Walked with the candidate shaking hands along the streets of Gate City and then traveled to Jonesville — way off in the southwest corner of Virginia — for a get-out-the-vote rally for Griffith.

Southwest Virginia blogger Jay Furhman notes that Boucher has put out another attack ad against Griffith. Meanwhile, Griffith’s up with his closing-argument TV ad:

Will have photos, etc., from last night and today in a little while, but I just wanted to get something online to let readers know I’m alive and well and disgusted by Gawker.

Seriously: That Philly punk complained that “the waxing trend had completely passed her by,” which he says caused him to lose interest. Is this porn-inspired trend toward the deforestation of the pubic delta now so ubiquitous that young guys no longer find normal women attractive? Well, never mind Dustin Dominiak — although a Kentucky-style stomping would probably do him good, and I sincerely hope the backlash will result in Chris Coons getting stomped Tuesday. (New Christine O’Donnell slogan: “Vote for bush!”) 

My plan is still to head south all the way to Florida for Election Day, so if you feel an overpowering urge to hit the tip jar, don’t fight the feeling.

On the Road Again

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My wife has packed my bag, I’ve rented a car ($75 a day) and am now about to leave for Virginia’s 9th District, where Morgan Griffith is just one point ahead of Democrat Rick Boucher.

After VA-9? Well, I don’t know how far I’ll go. Depends on time and money. Please hit the tip jar, and thanks to everyone who’s already helped out with the Shoe Leather Fund.

Five more days until Nov. 2.

EXPECT UPDATES . . .

The Evidently Obligatory ‘How Many House Seats Will the GOP Win?’ Post

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Short answer: A lot fewer than they could have, if the NRCC had a freaking clue.

Really. Ace of Spades interrogates Jay Cost about the likelihood of Republican gains on the high side of 60, which I consider insanely optimistic, given the face-palming incompetence of the NRCC. But first the good news from Jay Cost:

Ohio is all but gone for the Democrats, including the swingiest of swing districts in Columbus. Michigan is a lost cause. So is liberal icon Russ Feingold in Wisconsin. Pennsylvania looks like it will go maybe +4-6 for Toomey and Corbett. All of these places voted for Obama, and all of them are basically gone.

And as Ace points in his inimitable way, there’s a poll showing Sean Bielat in a dead heat with Barney Frank. Yeah, it’s an internal Beilat campaign poll, but still: There’s a chance a Republican could beat Barney Frank, a possibility nobody dared dream of two years ago. There was also good news a couple days ago from The Hill:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is making a last ditch effort to survive a GOP wave by blanketing the airwaves in more than 60 districts in the final week of the campaign.
According to FEC filings late Tuesday, the DCCC purchased $21.6 million worth of air time in 66 districts.
The ad buys represent the breadth of the GOP ‘s momentum. Among those 66 districts, many were once considered safe Democratic seats, including those held by Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) and Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). Only three of the seats in which Democrats are advertising are held by Republicans.

Good news, yes, but also bad news: That’s $21.6 million of brutal ads accusing Republicans of rape, murder, arson and wanting to give tax cuts to greedy corporations that ship jobs to China.

And the National Republican Congressional Committee? They can’t do shit to reply. The NRCC’s got nothing. The DCCC out-raised the NRCC by $14 million this cycle, because the NRCC is run by clueless dingleberries under the chairmanship of Rep. Pete Sessions.

Pete Sessions should have been stripped of his chairmanship the day after Dede Scozzafava endorsed Bill Owens. If there were still any old-fashioned justice in the world, Pete Sessions would have been horsewhipped and stomped to death by the House Republican Caucus, his head carried through the streets atop a pike, and his mutilated headless corpse fed to dogs.

(Rarest sentence in the English language: “Gee, Stacy, why don’t you tell us how you really feel?”)

Because Pete Sessions was not fired, etc., conservatives with good sense stopped giving to the NRCC, which is staffed by half-wits who got their jobs because their Daddy was good friends with some GOP bigwig. Consider that, in Florida’s 24th District — a key pickup Republican opportunity against an extremely vulnerable Democrat — the primary was complicated by a candidate whose fundraising consultant was the wife of NRCC executive director Guy Harrison. Thankfully, that candidate lost the primary, but not before raising and spending more than $600,000 — Republican money wasted on an “insider” candidate who, had she won the primary, would have been unelectable.

Such stories could be told in district after district across the country. If Republicans gain 5o or 60 House seats on Tuesday, I’ll be happy. But they could have easily won 70 or 80, had the NRCC been run by intelligent and competent people instead of well-connected subnormals.

And please keep in mind the unthinkable: Despite all the encouraging poll numbers, the GOP may yet fall short on Election Day. If so, the public horsewhipping and death-stomping of Pete Sessions and the NRCC staff . . . well, that would make a heck of a story.

Meanwhile, my shot-in-the-dark gut-hunch guess of how many House seats the GOP will win is . . . . consulting the crystal ball here . . . let’s go with 49.

I’m lowballing it, because I figure there will be at least 10 races where it’s close enough for Democrats to steal.

Poll: Sean Bielat 63%, Barney Frank 31%

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OK, it’s merely an unscientific online poll at the Web site of the New Bedford Standard-Times, but that won’t reduce the shock factor for Democratic Party operatives when they see the headline via their Google alerts. Sometimes you just want to mess with their minds, for the pure outrageous hell of it.

In more serious news, Fleming and Hayes have photos of Barney Frank’s latest full-color mailer, the sentiment of which they sum up: “Vote for Barney Frank, he picks the nation’s pocket and brings it back to Massachusetts.”

That might actually be a winning argument, if only it were true. But the fact is that rich “blue” states like Massachusetts are net losers in the D.C. pork game, paying more in taxes than they receive in federal benefits. In 2005, Massachusetts got 82 cents in federal spending for every dollar in federal taxes, but Barney’s only interested in what’s good for Barney:

GOP challenger Sean Bielat slammed U.S. Rep. Barney Frank yesterday for grabbing more than $40,000 in campaign cash from banks that received federal bailouts — despite the congressman’s own pledge to refuse that dough.
“The rules never apply to Barney — even Barney’s own rules,” said Bielat, whose surging campaign prompted Frank to pump $200,000 of his own cash into his run.
The Herald reported yesterday that Frank accepted $40,000 from bank executives and other special interests that cashed in on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Read the whole thing. Barney complains to ABC News that he’s the victim of a “flood of right-wing money“:

If Bielat can beat Barney, there are no safe seats for Democrats.

BYE-BYE, BARNEY!

Sheila Jackson-Lee Is a Corrupt Democrat. But I Repeat Myself . . .

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It is one of pet conceits of liberal Democrats that the long-established practice of having poll-watchers — party volunteers who are assigned to polling places to ensure that no vote fraud occurs — amounts to “voter intimidation” intended to “suppress” minority voting.

Vote fraud is a crime that Democrats practice habitually, routinely, as a matter of historic tradition, and which is made possible by the overwhelming dominance of the Democratic Party in urban districts. It is in such precincts that the electoral franchise is customarily extended to tombstones and vacant lots.

This has been the practice of the Democratic Party since the 19th century — the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman” would have been true, had it not been for blatant vote fraud in Chicago — but in recent years Democrats have sought to divert attention from their electoral corruption by crying “voter intimidation” when GOP poll-watchers attempt to prevent such crimes.

You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) is a co-sponsor of H.R. 97, The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2009. And you will also not be surprised to learn that Sheila Jackson-Lee is a lying two-faced hypocrite. Melissa Clouthier reports at Liberty Pundits:

Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Houston) violated election laws when, on Monday, October 18, she entered into Acres Home Multiservice Community Center, walked to where the voting booths were looking for the poll watchers, greeted voters there, and then found and confronted the poll watchers before being directed to, and then asked by, the presiding judge Bernard Gurski to leave the area.
A source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that she heard people say that Sheila Jackson Lee was in the voting area. The lobby of the building was chaotic because some people were in line to vote and some people were in line for the food bank.
So the source, a poll watcher, went into the room housing the voting booths and there stood Congresswoman Lee shaking hands with voters and greeting others–clearly electioneering. The poll watcher then went to one of the clerks and asked the presiding judge to take care of it.
While this occurred, the poll watcher heard Lee loudly say to the crowd in the voting area,”I’ve heard a lot of complaints about voter intimidation by poll watchers. I am not going to allow voter intimidation.”The poll watcher started writing the incident down.
Lee then went to the poll watcher and asked, ”What’s your name? Who do you represent?” . . .

Read the whole thing. Here you have Jackson-Lee campaigning inside a polling place and accusing poll-watchers of “intimidation” in a precinct where violations of election code are reported to be “systemic.”

Sheila Jackson-Lee is arrogant. She talks on her cell phone during town-hall meetings. She has been accused of violating FEC law and failing to remit payroll taxes.

Sheila Jackson-Lee obviously doesn’t think she can be defeated.

Her Republican opponent is John Faulk.

The maximum legal contribution is $2,400 per person (click to donate online). If you would prefer to send a check, the mailing address is:

Faulk for Congress Campaign
c/o John Faulk
1701 Hermann Dr # 2206
Houston, TX 77004

Latest Polls Show Republicans Now Leading Key House Races in MD-1, FL-22

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In Maryland’s 1st District, Republican Andy Harris leads freshman Democrat Rep. Frank Kratovil by 11 points, according to a new poll by Monmouth University, even though the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent more than $1 million to help Kratovil.

Meanwhile, in Florida’s 22nd District, Republican Allen West appears to have gained the upper hand against second-term incumbent Democrat Rep. Ron Klein. West leads 47-44 among likely voters, and “West’s 3-point lead grows to 5 points among respondents who say their chances of voting are ‘excellent’ (49-44).”

Here’s a look at some of the TV ads running in these districts. First, an Allen West ad addressing economic issues:

Next, a Ron Klein ad depicting West as an extremist:

Reckless from Ron Klein for Congress on Vimeo.

Next, from Maryland, an ad highlighting Andy Harris’ military service:

And a DCCC ad depicting Harris as a tool of Big Business lobbyists:

These kinds of ads are now running in saturation intensity in every key House district — as many as 100 out of 435 are currently considered “competitive” — as candidates, party campaign committees and outside groups seek to shape voters’ perceptions. It currently appears that Republicans are winning despite the blizzard of Democrat attack ads. A new survey by Pew reports “Republicans hold a 12-point edge among likely voters in the most competitive districts in the nation,” but Moe Lane thinks there is something devilish about that poll.