WashPo Senate Endorsements

The WashPo has out its state senate endorsements this morning.

There are three key races in which the WashPo has now given a boost to the GOP:

Jill Holtzman Vogel

District 27 : In this open-seat race, we support Republican Jill Holtzman Vogel, a lawyer who made her name as counsel to the Bush-Cheney campaign during the Florida recount of 2000, as chief counsel to the Republican National Committee and as a political appointee in the federal Energy Department. She’s also been heavily involved in state and local affairs, which has given her a solid grounding in the issues facing her largely rural district, comprising parts of Loudoun and Fauquier counties and points west. Articulate, fast on her feet and pragmatic, she is the sort of moderate Republican that has become scarce in Richmond. Her opponent, Democrat Karen Schultz, is a respected, hardworking educator, school board member and community leader but lacks Mrs. Vogel’s spark and command of state issues.

 

Jill Holtzman-Vogel
27th Senate District

  

Jeannemarie Devolites Davis

District 34 : Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis , first elected to the legislature as a conservative Republican, has scrambled to reposition herself as this Fairfa x County district has turned solidly Democratic. Her transformation has prompted knowing smiles from politicos, but it’s certainly been energetic: This year she pushed hard to persuade hard-liners in her own party to accept a $400 million transportation funding plan for Northern Virginia. Breaking again with GOP orthodoxy, she’s also backed more extensive background checks for gun buyers. In the year’s most closely watched and expensive Senate contest, she faces Democrat Chap Petersen, a tough-minded, intelligent former state delegate whom we’ve backed in past races for other offices. In this campaign, though, Ms. Devolites Davis, a competent, hardworking legislator, has the edge and deserves reelection.

 

Jeannemarie Devolites Davis
34th Senate District

 

and Ken Cuccinelli

District 37 : There’s not much to choose from here. Incumbent Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II is a highly intelligent and capable Republican whose doctrinaire, at times obstructionist, views on taxes and social issues have alienated his own party’s more moderate leadership in the Senate. While he finally did vote this year for a bill to provide new roads for Northern Virginia, it was only after repeatedly helping to block better ones. Democrat Janet Oleszek is a Fairfax County School Board member who has run a lackluster campaign, at times embarrassingly short on substance. The district, in Fairfax County, deserves better choices; we make no endorsement.

In this race, no endorsement is essentially an endorsement for Cooch.  Plus, he can use the following in mail pieces:  The Washington Post calls Ken Cucinelli “highly intelligent and capable” while it calls Janet Oleszek “lackluster” and “embarrassingly short on substance.”  Thanks, WashPo!

Ken Cuccinelli
37th Senate District

   

Their silliest endorsement comes in the 28th:

District 28 : Two smart, substantive centrists face each other here in an open-seat race to replace the retiring Sen. John H. Chichester, the revered chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in a sprawling district that includes booming Stafford County and Virginia‘s Northern Neck. Our pick is Democrat Albert C. Pollard Jr., who distinguished himself in three terms in the House of Delegates as a thoughtful and independent-minded lawmaker committed to transparency and ethics in government. His opponent, Republican Richard Stuart, is a lawyer and part-time prosecutor who is well respected and able but whose attempts to outflank Mr. Pollard on illegal immigration have fallen short.

“attempts to outflank Mr. Pollard on illegal immigration have fallen short” Huh?

NEWSFLASH!!!  ALBERT POLLARD IS A LIAR AND A PHONY.  HIS RECORD IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS ABYSMAL.

Richard Stuart is the real deal, not a poser like Albert “Trashman” Pollard. Chichester better get off his campaign warchest and start pumping that cash into Stuart’s race to combat Albert Pollard’s lies and smears.

Richard Stuart
28th Senate District

 

Out of five competitive GOP-held seats in NOVA, the WashPo is only advocating change in two of them.  VA Dems can’t be happy with that.  They’d have to win both of those seats, pick up two seats elsewhere, and not lose any of their own vulnerable incumbents (like Chuck Colgan who seems to be campaigning in the wrong district based upon the placement of his signs) in order to get the majority.

In the meantime, please be sure to do what you can over the next 3 weeks to support our GOP team and donate as generously as you can to them. It all comes down to this.  While you’re at it, please be sure to also support these fine candidates in races that the WashPo also covered this morning:

Bob FitzSimmonds
29th Senate District

 

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Jay O’Brien
39th Senate District

 

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Patricia Phillips
33rd Senate District