Va. congressmen close on policies, but styles and outlooks contrast
Democratic Reps. Gerald Connolly and Jim Moran have a lot of common ground — the economic stimulus bill, health care reform and government contracting in Northern Virginia, among them — but the differences in their respective races and styles, the pair proved Tuesday, are stark.
Connolly is locked in a tight race against Oakton businessman Keith Fimian, a Republican, in Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, while the pugilistic Moran, first elected in 1990, is still widely considered to be a relatively safe incumbent in the 8th District right next door to Connolly’s.
In that vein, Connolly has raised almost twice as much money as Moran this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a campaign finance watchdog. Connolly also is spending much more heavily on television ads.
The difference between Moran and Connolly and their prospects were on display Tuesday at a candidates forum.
Fimian and Moran’s opponent, retired Army Col. Patrick Murray, have both portrayed the Democratic incumbents as big-spending career politicians — a label Connolly ducks but Moran embraces, bragging that his seniority helped him secure $300 million for Virginia during the Pentagon’s base-closing process.
“Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Springfield Mixing Bowl — these are things we did on a bipartisan basis — yes, they did involve the federal government, and yes, we spend a lot,” Moran said during his appearance at the Mount Vernon Country Club. “Virginia is the second highest-spending [state] behind Alaska … but we have a strong economy as a result.”
Connolly, on the other hand, said that “not all spending is the same.” He defended his vote for President Obama’s nearly $800 billion stimulus plan, which Connolly refers to as a “recovery bill” because, he said, it was needed to shore up a recession-rattled economy.
“Eight hundred teachers in my district got their jobs saved because of recovery money,” Connolly said. “The recovery bill has been a good thing for the 11th Congressional District.”
Both Moran and Connolly have been largely insulated from the Tea Party movement, which has altered the landscapes of so many other contests around the country, though Moran fared better in that regard than Connolly.
The Tea Party’s small-government message “resonates much more effectively south of the Occoquan” — the more conservative section of Connolly’s district — than in any part of Moran’s, said George Mason University’s Stephen Farnsworth. “The two districts are very different.”
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