First things first.
Colorado,
Indiana,
Nevada,
North Carolina,
Iowa,
New Mexico,
West Virginia,
Kansas,
Connecticut,
Illinois,
Missouri,
North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming,
Wisconsin,
Kentucky,
Oregon,
Minnesota and
Washington.
And before we take the jump, I just wanted to remind you again that you can contribute to candidates on this project by hitting this ActBlue page
And, because I get grief about not pimping my other series, here are the stories in The Basics Series...
New Republican Sales Pitch
DLC Democrats Sales Pitch
City on a Hill
The Napoleonic Strategies of the GOP
The Danger Called Howard Dean
JUMP!
Virginia has 11 Congressional Districts of which 8 are held by Republicans and 3 are held by Democrats.
VA-1 Eastern part of the state including Newport News and Fredrickson. The red incumbent, JoAnn Davis won this seat with 79% of the vote. Our guy, Shawn O'Donnell, is a strong progressive who believes that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are living documents of INCLUSION rather than EXCLUSION. He's a good candidate with very few dollars and not a lot of name recognition, so this is going to be a race on whether the district is happy with its representative. According to WaPo,
Incumbent Jo Ann Davis, who has taken a strongly conservative stance on cultural issues, is not expected to face a significant challenge this year. With a large military population drawn from across the country (and with heavily black precincts placed in the adjoining 3d District), the 1st District is now reliably Republican in most elections.
VA-1: Solid Red
VA-2 Southeast seaboard including Virginia Beach. The reddie incumbent, Thelma Drake, took this seat with 55% of the vote, or 3% less in the district than Bush got. Our guy is Phil Kellam has raised money well and has husbanded his resources while the incumbent has not been quite so careful, so, where she once had a 2:1 advantage, Phil now has about 3/4 of Thelma's COH. Kellam is holding onto a lead in various polls and momentum is going his way.
VA-2: Blue Pickup
VA-3 The urban areas of the eastern portion of the state including parts of Newport News, Richmond and Norfolk. The blue parts. Really, more accurately, the black parts. This is the most Democratic district in the state, and the only district with a non-white majority. Our incumbent, Bobby Scott, won this district with 69% of the vote. It looks like he'll be doing even better this time as I think he is running unopposed.
VA-3: Safe Blue
VA-4 The Southeast portion of the state including Chesapeake. The reddie incumbent won this district with 64%, and it sure looks like we're not contesting the seat.
VA-4: Safe Red
VA-5 The South Central portion of the state including Danville. The reddie incumbent, Virgil Goode, won this district with 64% of the vote. Our guy, Al Weed, was a Green Beret Medical Sergeant in Viet Nam and stayed in the reserves some 42 years attaining the rank of Command Sergeant Major, with a Legion of Merit and a Bronze Star to his name. He's also a vintner with a nice grape farm. There's something weird going on in this race though. Weed's tanking in the polls, but "generic Democrat" is doing very well. Maybe this is just the wrong guy, or the right guy in the wrong district. But, in the end, this is a Red seat this time through. Sorry.
VA-5: Staying Red
VA-6 The Northwest portion of the state including Roanoke and Lynchburg. The reddie, Goodlatte, ran unopposed last time, but Bush get 63%, making this a solidly red district. I don't think it's red enough to give the guy a free ride, but, then, I'm not in charge of the DCCC.
VA-6: It's always gonna be safe red if we don't run anyone against the guy!
VA-7 Suburbs of Richmond. The reddie, Eric Cantor, ran unopposed last time, but Bush got 61%. Our guy is Jim Nachman, is an attorney, a master mason, and a Democratic activist. I hope he runs this hard. It would be nice to see Cantor have to spend some of his money in-district.
VA-7: If Allen withdraws and if Cantor is slated to run for Senate against Webb, this becomes a possible pickup. Otherwise, thanks, Jim, for running!
VA-8 Suburbs of DC including Alexandria and snaking its way out to Reston. Our guy, Jim Moran, has served seven terms and, while I can't get percentages from 2004 for the guy, it looks like he's been pretty safe for quite a while. There are a lot of Dems saying he's not liberal enough, which is probably to his benefit in that particular area of Virginia. Still, he holds a 100% approval rating from NARAL and the Brady gang, so he's more liberal than he has to be being a Southern Dem. The district has been redistricted to get as many Democrats out of adjacent districts as possible to let the reddies keep their solid majority in the Congressional Delegation, resulting in a safe blue district. Moran's opponent is trying to make a race of it, but with $297 COH, I just don't see how he's going to unseat a popular incumbent.
VA-8: Safe Blue
VA-9 Southwestern corner of the state including Bristol. Our guy, Rick Boucher, carried this district with 59% of the vote - the same percentage as Bush did. You'd figure in this dark red district, the reddies would be salivating to take this district. Nope. In fact, it seems that the Virginia Dems are positively giddy about this race. Maybe they should be. Boucher is 37 points up and a 1000:1 COH advantage.
VA-9: Safe Blue
VA-10 The part of Fairfax County that's not in VA-8. As alluded to earlier, VA-8 was redrawn to get as many Democrats as possible out of VA-10. The result is that the red incumbent, Frank Wolf, won this district with 64%, though Kerry did take 44%. Nevertheless, our gal, Judy Feder is the Dean of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, and one of the nation's leading experts on health policy, while her husband has spent over 20 years in the Intelligence community, which, in that part of Virginia, is a strong plus. She has done an impressive job of fundraising and is currently sitting on about 2/3 the COH of the incumbent. In the meantime, the incumbent's polling numbers suck, with only 40% expressing a desire to reelect. If she can get her name out, and I think she can, and if Webb can kick butt in NOVA, and I think he will, this one will be a race to watch.
VA-10: Keep your fingers crossed!
VA-11 DC affluent suburbs. The reddie incumbent won this one with 60%, but perhaps a more accurate reflection of the district itself is that Bush carried it with 50% to Kerry's 49%. Our candidate is Andy Hurst, a bright young attorney who is already a partner in one of the fifty largest law firms in the world. Among "informed voters" this is a 47-47 race. The trick is informing the voters. And with Andy's COH, I don't see it happening. The only chance I see for Hurst is if George Allen keeps imploding and reddies just stay home.
VA-11: I just don't think so.