National Journal Agrees: Perriello’s a centrist.

National Journal’s annual congressional vote rankings are out, and I think it’s interesting that all of their math has simply confirmed what GovTrack.us already demonstrated: that Rep. Tom Perriello is a solidly centrist member of congress. He votes more liberally 47.2% of the time, and conservatively 52.8% of the time. In fact, as it turns …

YA5DR declares candidacy.

Scott Schultz, of Albemarle County, is seeking the Republican nomination to run against Tom Perriello. He’s a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (Shire of Isenfir, which I gather is the local chapter), where he has the rank of Knight Marshal, and prefers to be known as “Lord Philip ap Griffith.” He’s running because …

McPadden on “when the going gets tough.”

This Fifth District Republican primary is really separating the men from the boys: [Robert] Hurt is a likable person personally, [Mike] McPadden said, but “Democrats and moderates like Hurt will vote to raise taxes when the going gets tough.” That’s right—if the U.S. were (say) invaded by China, that namby-pamby Tom Perrillo or the spineless …

5CD Republicans have started their debate debate.

Feda Morton is angry because Sen. Robert Hurt has declined to participate in a pair of proposed candidate forums, and the story behind why he declined turns out to be revealing. Both are among the seven Republicans looking for the nomination to run against Rep. Tom Perriello. The race is basically Hurt vs. everybody else. …

Never mind the Republican whinging about the cost of a primary.

There’s some odd complaining going on about Fifth District Republicans’ decision to hold a primary, I see in Brian McNeill’s article in today’s Daily Progress. The logic is that primaries are expensive, with the bill footed by local registrars’ offices, and they really can’t afford it right now. With Republicans trying to claim the mantle …

Robert Hurt has signed on with the free-lunch crowd.

Sen. Robert Hurt is courting the fringe right, Olympia Meola writes in today’s Times-Dispatch: Some conservatives object to Hurt’s voting record—principally his support of a $1.4 billion tax increase pushed by former Gov. Mark R. Warner in 2004. After he cast that vote, Hurt was among 19 Republican delegates and 15 Republican state senators featured …

5CD Republicans will hold a primary.

The Fifth District Republican Committee has chosen a primary as the method of selecting their nominee against Rep. Tom Perriello, Janelle Rucker writes in the Roanoke Times. It was a 19-13 vote. That’s a significant blow for the backers of basically all of the candidates but Sen. Robert Hurt and Ken Boyd (my representative on …

Yet another 5th District Republican (YA5DR) running against Perriello.

The field of Republican candidates vying to run against Rep. Tom Perrillo is so strong that…a seventh candidate has kicked off his campaign. Jim McKelvey, a Smith Mountain Lake developer, completes our septumvirate of dwarves. McKelvey says both that he’s not satisfied with any of the other candidates and that “a couple of other good, …

A prayer for Bradley Rees.

In the name of Bradley Rees, we pray. Dear God, we thank you for your bounty of stupid. In what promises to be a lousy month for Virginia Democrats, you have been fit to deliver to us Bradley Rees. In your wisdom, you have arranged for Rep. Tom Perriello to win reelection, by creating this …

The latest in a series of random guys is running against Perriello.

Another week, another random Republican running against Perriello. The 5CD Republican Party is a mess. The candidate, Ron Ferrin, says he looked at the comically crowded field and thought “I felt I could do better.” He has a wonderfully awful website (check out that domain name) that was probably really great in 1997, has an …