The Hill’s Jeremy Jacobs on Tom Perriello vulnerability in November 2010:
Perriello’s district, warned James Madison University political scientist Bob Roberts, was gerrymandered so it would always be held by a Republican. “There is no reason they wouldn’t take back this district,” he said.
Really? No reason? He can’t summon a single reason why an incumbent congressman might win reelection? Because, unless that quote is taken out of context, that shows a pretty significant failure of imagination on the part of Roberts.
There are a couple of interesting facts in this article. One is that Del. Rob Bell “has met with the National Republican Congressional Committee” about running against Perriello, implying that he could be willing to proceed regardless of whether Virgil Goode decides to take another swing at it, which isn’t hugely unlikely since he’s filed to run again.
The other interesting bit—at least to me—is two of the names that have cropped up as potential challengers to Virginia Beach congressman Glenn Nye, Republicans Chuck Smith and Scott Rigell (owner of Freedom Automotive), each of whom were classmates of mine in Sorensen.
One of the lines of attack again George Allen, before Macaca, was that he was running for Senate while clearly more interested in running for President. Bell’s not going to be doing himself any favors in the current election if he continues to publicly maneuver towards taking on Tom in ’10.
Chuck has already launched his campaign: http://chucksmith2010.com/. I didn’t know about Scott. Very interesting.
Why are people coming out now talking about an election next year. Lets get past this one 1st . I think Virginia’s top 3 seats right now are a little more important. Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. We also have House of Delegates races too this year. Will we see changes? We will know in November.