Rep. Robert Hurt, Va-5th has decided he will not run again for his current seat as Representative for the 5th District, Virginia.
A video — another link — that does a good job explaining .
The Congressional 5th District of Virginia is a strangely shaped and huge area. At 10,181.03 square miles it is larger than New Jersey or Vermont. It stretches from southern Virginia to northern Virginia. The northern part of it has very little in common with the southern part of it in terms values and economy. One is rural and one is much more urbanized.
I have lived in the heart of this district since the waning years Virgil Goode’s representation. Goode initially ran as a Democrat, then as an Independent and finally as a Republican. His choice of party allegiance and later shift away to the Republican Party was in keeping with what happened to the two parties during desegregation of public schools in Virginia. He was a moderate Democrat and the party’s platform was getting further away from him.
The next person to have the 5th was Democrat Tom Perriello and then the current incumbent Robert Hurt. He is well known for skipping debates offered by district senior, African Americans and businesses because he did not want to debate the Independent candidate, conservative Jeff Clark:
“We appreciate the hard work that the Senior Statesmen organization does and we also appreciate its invitation,” said Hurt’s campaign manager, Sean Harrison. “With that said, the Senior Statesmen Forum organized the debate without regard for the viability of the individual candidates and without seeking our input on this critical issue.”
Independent candidates have always been offered an invitation to the Senior Statesmen debate, which has been held since 1996. Hurt is the first candidate to decline to appear”
Robert Hurt ran advertisements against Perriello, but he really ran against Obama, climate change and the Affordable Care Act. This is what Hurt’s campaign ad. said -
“They're in charge. Imposing their vision of America on us. Tom Perriello, a rubberstamp for the Obama-Pelosi agenda," says the ad's narrator, admonishing Perriello for backing Obama's health-care and climate change bills, creating "trillion dollar deficits, staggering debt and unemployment." Tom Perriello, he's their Congressman, not ours," the ad concludes.”
2010 the Democratic defeat in the US Congress was nationwide and Robert Hurt defeated Tom Perriello. Obama even went to Charlottesville to rally for Perriello. This was the height of tea party rage at Obama and Democrats for ACA. You can read more about Robert Hurt’s legislative life if you want to. He generally voted with his party.
In 2011, Robert Hurt voted “yes” to pass HR358. ProChoice Virginia characterized it as:
The bill would allow a hospital to refuse a woman life-saving, emergency abortion care even if she will die without it. On top of that, it effectively would ban insurance coverage of abortion in state health-insurance exchanges, denying abortion coverage to millions of women.
After three terms, in House of Representatives, to ensure him a nice government pension (from the very government he supposedly believed should be smaller), Robert Hurt has decided to retire from Congress. The tea party disliked him because he played badly with them and with the Republican Party of Virginia. This is how the tea party saw him:
Congressman Hurt destroyed four years of relative unity and harmony that few other congressional districts have been able to attain. It is still puzzling to understand why Hurt chose to start this civil war, when he was one of the lucky few that had Republicans and tea party members working together in elections”
Robert Hurt ran against Obama/Perriello and attempted to shut the government down repeatedly. Also, failed at overturning the ACA, something he said he would do.
The seat for Virginia’s 5th is now open. And we have challengers declared and more declaring.
Read on below the break to get a sense of the people running and what they believe in.
- Mr.Cage is from Halifax County, Virginia.
- He’s a decorated veteran of the Virginia Army National Guard.
- Has educational ties with Virginia Tech and University of Virginia.
- Erick Cage is a graduate of Rutgers University Law School and was associate editor of Women’s Right’s Law Reporter.
- He was a federal policy advisor and legislative counsel to Tom Perriello when the he was representing the 5th district.
- He was Government Affairs Director for Teach For America, 2013-2014.
- He was State Policy and Research Director for OFA-Virginia, 2012.
- This is Ericke Cage’s Twitter feed.
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A former Albemarle County Supervisor and current chair of the Board of Supervisors, representing the Scottsville District.
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She’s a certified mediation for the General District Court and the Circuit Courts.
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She announced in three different towns – Danville, Warrenton and Charlottesville.
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She was the President of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce from 1992-2000.
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Tourism Council, Founder.
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Governor’s Broadband Advisory Council, Appointed Member.
And then that happened.
State Senator Bill Stanley has since said that he will not run for the 5th.
political columnist and republican Charlie Hurt –
brother of Robert Hurt, is said to be thinking of putting his hat in the ring. He’s a political columnist for the Washington Times. Here’s a small sample of what he gets up to, when he takes to his key boards. He has not yet ,officially, declared.
He has affiliations with Fox News, is listed as an author at Brietbart and even made some statements, while in Australia. About guns.
Republican Tom Garrett (R. Buckingham):
Currently the State Senator for the 22nd District. In declaring his intention for seeking the opening seat in the Congressional 5th, Garrett said:
These are dangerous times. My background as a combat arms veteran, prosecutor, and pro liberty legislator make me the best candidate to protect America from Islamic extremism abroad and fiscal imprudence at home. Link
And -
The last seven years President Obama has systemically sought to reduce America’s presence in the world while simultaneously engaging in a reckless pattern of deficit spending at home. I will be a tireless warrior in the fight for a balanced federal budget, a government limited by constitutional parameters, and restoring America to her role as a shining beacon of freedom to the world. Link
Clearly, he’s running on foreign policy. More talk on deficits. He will balance the budget and make America a beacon of freedom. Word salad because freedom and deficit. More:
- Here’s all the committees he serves with, in the Virginia Senate.
- He served as Assistant Attorney General under Attorney General Bob McDonald.
- You can view his voting record from 2012-2016.
- In 2013, he tried to change the term limit of Virginia’s office of Governor from one to two terms.
From the website of the NRA-ILA (Institute of Legislative Action):
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Senate Bill 1132: Sponsored by pro-gun Senator Tom Garrett (R-22), SB 1132 would allow a person with a valid concealed handgun permit to carry on school grounds after hours, or store a concealed handgun in a motor vehicle in the parking lot.
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Senate Bill 1137: Sponsored by pro-gun Senator Tom Garrett (R-22), SB 1137 would prohibit local ordinances that ban concealed carry permit holders from transporting a loaded rifle or shotgun, eliminating a patchwork of inconsistent laws that are unnecessarily confusing for law-abiding citizens.
State Senator Tom Garrett's — twitter feed.
Bedford County real estate developer and resident of Smith Mountain Lake, has jumped in and declared his candidacy.
- He ran against Robert Hurt in 2010 and lost.
- This will be his third try at running for public office.
- Some remarks from his declaration:
“The GOP in Washington has completely let down the American people by merging with liberal democrats and insuring (sic) the liberal agenda becomes law of the land. We see the destruction all around us,” McKelvey said in his written campaign announcement.
“If we don’t stop this, we will not have a country. Ever-expanding regulations, completely irresponsible spending, insane immigration policies, no coherent foreign policy, and no plan to correct these problems, has endangered the futures of our children and grandchildren. For these reasons I am declaring my candidacy to represent the citizens of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional district,” the statement said. Link.
That tells us a lot — more about spending, foreign policy, immigration and too much regulation.
Here is a video of him declaring his candidacy in downtown Charlottesville.
- Del Rosso is a technology executive and national security analyst declared yesterday.
- He is research fellow at the Center for Security Policy and the Claremont Institute.
- He will be facing off with Tom Garrett and Jim McKelvey.
- He is running to challenge the status quo within the Republican Party.
- He says that the Republican Party serves the interests of big business and not their constituents.
Some more remarks by him:
Other issues Del Rosso said he takes exception to include the federal budget deficit, the Affordable Care Act, certain Environmental Protection Agency regulations, gun control, illegal immigration and the resettlement of Syrian refugees.
“I’m an outsider who knows what’s going on in the inside,” he said. “As this campaign will uncover what’s really going on, we’re going to have more people in jail when we find out how bad things are inside our government.”
If one Google's Del Rosso with the Claremont Inst., Center for Security Policy, it becomes evident that he is linked to a book called Shariah: The Threat to America. Apparently Del Rosso is somehow affiliated with this project. I won’t link to it. Also, Frank Gaffney is affiliated with the same institution on their website.
Here’s more on him and his tech background.
I wrote this diary a while back about LuAnn Bennett running against Barbara Comstock in the U.S. Congressional 10th District. Evidently, LuAnn Bennett has joined 90for90.org , as has Kathleen Sebelius.
More can be found at Blue Virginia.
One more map because there can never be enough maps!