RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Oh, did we mention there are other races in battleground Virginia this year besides the presidential and Senate campaigns?
All 11 of the state’s U.S. House seats are up for renewal this fall, and for the first time since 2006, none of the incumbents — eight Republicans and three Democrats — faces any clear and present danger of defeat.
But two in particular are likely to generate more headlines than the rest: Democratic efforts to unseat Republican Reps. Scott Rigell in the 2nd District and, in the 7th District, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Paul Hirschbiel, a pro-business protege of centrist Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner, is challenging Rigell in the Hampton Roads 2nd District. Democrats feel they have a legitimate shot at Rigell, who has close ties to another Virginia political giant, Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Jesse Ferguson, communications director at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Hirschbiel’s race is the organization’s top priority in Virginia.
“We’re committed to the race,” said Ferguson, who has extensive knowledge of the state from his days as the founding director of Virginia21, a successful legislative lobbying and advocacy group for college-age Virginians.
The DCCC has already reserved $415,000 worth of television advertising time in the Norfolk and Virginia Beach media markets for Hirschbiel.
A wealthy businessman whose early investments in companies such as computer maker Dell paid off well, Hirschbiel can not only write generous checks to his own campaign, he can hold his own against Rigell in fundraising.
As of June 30, Rigell reported raising $1.7 million to Hirschbiel’s $1.1 million. But Hirschbiel trailed Rigell by less than $50,000 in individual itemized donations — $979,717 to Rigell’s $1.02 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. Rigell accepted three times the cash from political action committees as Hirschbiel and has given his own campaign $175,000, compared with $36,000 Hirschbiel has staked to his own campaign.
Rigell, a wealthy Hampton Roads automobile dealer and former Marine, won his first term in the House in the Republican rebound election of 2010, ousting one-term Democrat Glenn Nye. Nye was elected in Barack Obama’s sweep of Virginia in 2008, the first by a Democrat in a presidential race since 1964.
But the race in the 2nd District between Rigell and Hirschbiel isn’t just about those two candidates. The district and the Hampton Roads media market is one of the most politically competitive in Virginia. Obama’s improbable victory in the district rich in active-duty service members and military households — including the world’s largest U.S. Navy base — was a key in 2008 to winning Virginia and, with it, clenching the presidency.
Whether Hirschbiel wins or not, it’s important for Democrats to maximize their footprint in Hampton Roads to fuel a robust turnout for the presidential and U.S. Senate races.
Rigell’s political adviser, longtime Republican strategist Christopher J. LaCivita, knows Democrats will throw everything they have at Rigell.
“They’ve got to have the 2nd. If Virginia is the spear for them in the presidential race, then the 2nd District is the tip of the spear,” LaCivita said. “Obama’s got to have a competitive race in Virginia’s 2nd. He doesn’t have to win the House race in the 2nd, but it has to be competitive.”
In the 7th District, Eric Cantor has had a colorful succession of Democratic challengers over his six terms in the House. Among them was Ben Jones, an actor who played the character Cooter in the 1980s hillbilly sitcom “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
This year, Cantor faces a retired, decorated 30-year Army officer and attorney who is going to aggressively call Cantor out on any number of issues because his adviser is one of the most colorful Democratic strategists in Virginia.
“This is going to be an uphill fight, and Cantor’s going to be rolling some big rocks down the hill at us,” said David “Mudcat” Saunders, a pro-gun, country-fried Roanoke-based Democratic operative. His first big break was advising Warner’s “rural strategy” that was a major factor in winning the governor’s race in 2001.
It was Saunders who came up with the idea of a plucky bluegrass theme song for Warner, marrying the melody to the Dillards’ classic “Dooley” with lyrics of his own proclaiming the Connecticut-raised Alexandria resident “a good ol’ boy from up in Novaville (who) understands our people, the folks up in the hills.”
Already, Saunders is on the attack. A piece he penned last week for the Huffington Post suggests Cantor buried in legislation cracking down on insider stock trading by members of Congress a provision exempting members’ spouses and dependent children. It questions whether Cantor’s wife, Diana Cantor, a partner in an investment firm, benefited from the loophole.
In an email last week, Cantor’s political adviser, Ray Allen, denied the assertion and said Saunders is full of bovine excrement.
“Eric Cantor says he’s a fiscal conservative. No he’s not. If he’s a fiscal conservative, I’m a monarch butterfly,” Saunders said. “We’re going to make this race national. We’ve got to increase the loathing for Eric Cantor.”
Cantor, though, has a prohibitive financial advantage, having raised $6.3 million by the end of June to just shy of $260,000 for Powell. And as the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House, plenty more is available to him.
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Bob Lewis has covered Virginia government and politics for The Associated Press since 2000.
