On May 17, 2008 the VA-01 Democrats nominated Dr. Keith Hummel as their candidate. Dr. Keith will face the formidable Virginia GOP machine and recently-elected Rep. Rob Wittman. In other years, it might not be of interest, but this year, everything matters.
In December 2007, there was a special election to fill the Congressional seat of the late Jo Ann Davis. It was a short campaign, barely a month after the contentious Virginia local elections. The DCCC recruited Philip Forgit to face GOP Delegate Rob Wittman. Despite promises of help and money, the DCCC left Phil Forgit to twist in the wind, and he lost, 59-41 in a solidly Red district. The one silver lining was Democrat Albert Pollard, who ran a tough but losing (51-49) race against Republican Richard Stuart in the VA SD-24, regained his House seat in the VA-HD-99.
This is a very different year in Virginia, with Mark Warner on the ballot against Jim Gilmore the climate for a Democrat in the usually hopelessly-gerrymandered 01 could be much better than usual and with Barack Obama at the top of the ticket, African-Americans in Virginia are going to be voting in huge numbers (fortunately, with Gov. Tim Kaine in office, the election machinery is controlled by Democrats, which will help counteract Republican vote-suppression attempts, of which we expect many).
Dr. Keith Hummel is a terrific candidate for VA-01, a former Navy Reserve doctor who currently works as an emergency-room physician. He is the kind of thoughtful, passionate, committed person who comes to politics because he sees a social need that just isn't being filled by the status quo. With Keith Hummel in Congress, we will have another strong voice for health care reform and universal coverage.
I doubt if this contest will register on the DCCC's radar, but here in VA-01 we are honored and excited to have Dr. Keith as our candidate, and we are going to work very hard to get him elected!
Check out his website:
http://www.virginiapopulist.com/