8th District: Tom O’Donoghue
He’s a decorated combat veteran who questions the president’s handling of the Iraq war and says the U.S. must focus its efforts on bringing American troops home. No, it’s not Senate candidate Jim Webb, but Republican Tom O’Donoghue, now running against Democrat Rep. Jim Moran in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District.
Moran, an eight-term incumbent and former mayor of Alexandria, has easily coasted to re-election in the past despite a long history of conduct unbecoming a public official. O’Donoghue is a political novice; judging from the lack of financial support, even his own party has concluded he cannot win. But Moran doesn’t deserve to.
So don’t count out the only veteran of both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns now running for Congress. Even with an MBA from Yale and a law degree from Georgetown, this courageous West Point graduate stood up and volunteered for active duty right after the Sept. 11 attacks. If 8th District Webb voters are principled instead of merely partisan, they’ll split the ticket this time.
10th District: Frank Wolf
After sending in a wealthy carpetbagger to challenge Rep. Frank Wolf in the 10th last time, the Democrats wised up and nominated a formidable challenger who’s giving the 13–term incumbent the race of his political career. Judy Feder, dean of Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute and architect of Hillary Clinton’s failed health care policy, is an engaging and energetic campaigner. But she stumbled badly when she tried to portray Wolf as nothing more than an ethically challenged party hack.
The hard-working, self-effacing Wolf is, in fact, anything but. Unlike Moran, there’s never been even a whiff of scandal about him. He challenged his own GOP leadership over gambling long before the Jack Abramoff scandal, was the first member of Congress to warn about Osama bin Laden during the Clinton administration, and finally convinced the White House last year that “fresh eyes” were needed to re-evaluate the situation in Iraq; the Baker-Hamilton Commission is the direct result of his efforts. And Wolf’s idea for a BRAC-like commission to deal with the looming entitlement crisis is still the best one on the table.
Although Wolf has brought millions of federal transportation and gang-busting dollars to Northern Virginia and is legendary for his superb constituent services, his long record of championing human rights in such hellholes as Darfur — again, long before anybody else in Congress or the media was paying attention — is unsurpassed. Congress needs more representatives like Wolf, not fewer.
11th District: Tom Davis
One of the savviest political tacticians in the county, 11th District Rep. Tom Davis is a moderate Republican who worked his way up from Mason District supervisor and chairman of the Fairfax County Board to become one of the most powerful members of Congress. He chairs the Government Reform Committee, which, earlier this year, released a scathing indictment of the federal government’s performance during Hurricane Katrina. So much for being the Bush rubber-stamp Democratic challenger Andrew Hurst claims he is.
Davis’ mostly moderate positions have cost him support on the fringes of both parties, but over the years, he has proven himself capable of working productively with liberal Democrats like Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Henry Waxman, D-Calif., aswell as conservative Republicans — making him one of a vanishing breed in an increasingly polarized Washington. The Davis Compromise that, if passed, will give D.C. residents a vote in the House of Representatives is a good example of bipartisan leadership at its best.
Hurst, a Springfield attorney and former member of John Edwards’ finance team, missed his best opportunity to wound the six-term incumbent on the politically explosive issue of earmarks. But after Davis admitted using earmarks to bring federal transportation dollars to the 11th District, Hurst declared, “Some earmarks are a good idea, but the problem is that Congress has abused the system.”
No, the problem is the system itself. Despite promises to “radically change” the way things are done in Congress, Hurst seems more inclined to merely change the recipients of congressional pork, not the secretive, corruption-prone process itself. Which, come to think of it, wouldn’t really be much of a change at all.
Part of the Washington DC Examiner’s 2006 election coverage.
