(Eric Cantor concedes in Richmond. Photo Steve Helber/Associated Press).
I did not vote yesterday. I used to live in the wrong congressional district, and my registration is still in Arlington, though the primary residence is down toward Richmond at the Farm. The Democratic primary was yesterday, and I was concentrating on other matters. I thought briefly about walking over to the Senior Assisted Living Facility across the street and casting a vote anyway, but it seemed like it was going to be a done deal despite a crowded field seeking the nomination to run for the certain win for the seat to replace that marvelous long-term public servant, Jim Moran.
It is hard to concentrate. I have gophers under my porch. Extremist Sunni Rebels have seized the oil-rich town of Mosul. The Bluesmobile needs an oil change. The EPA is going to shut down a third of the electrical generation capability of the nation. Is my hair too long? Five Green Berets were killed in Afghanistan by “close air support” delivered from a B-1 Lancer bomber at 25,000 feet. Should I walk over and vote for someone loony in the Democratic primary?
The campaign here featured the candidates running to the left. The strongest candidate, a Volvo Dealer, former Lt. Governor and Ambassador, announced he was a proud Progressive, and questioned gun rights and some other hot button issues. He is what passes for a ‘moderate’ in Northern Virginia. Some of the other candidates were way out there on the fringes, including some impressive War on Women candidates running against a non-existent Tea Party opposition in NoVA and come remarkable Greenie candidates who advocated an immediate program of de-industrialization.
We don’t have any industry up there except the production of CO2 by the (unfortunate) continued respiration of the political classes, so I figured the outcome was whatever the Arlington Democratic Party decided it was going to be. I doubted if they needed my input, and glancing at the “to do” list of things that never seem to get done, decided to do something else.
Imagine my surprise when the word began to spread that there was another primary, and it was happening at Refuge Farm. I kicked myself. The way the politicos have Gerrymandered the state into reliably safe districts for the people who did the ‘Mandering, the 7th Congressional District is as predictably Red as the 10th in Arlington is Blue.
On the “to do” list was changing my voter registration to the farm. I was thinking I could get around to that before the general election in November. The candidate down there was a heavyweight, not just in the quiet rural country north and west from Richmond, but up on Capitol Hill. Rep. Eric Cantor was- is, actually for another few months- the Farm’s congressman, and the number two Republican in the House leadership after the Speaker.
He was fairly confident that he would sail to victory in the primary and yet he didn’t. Reports started to come in last night that he had been beaten handily by a Tea Party candidate named David A. Brat, a college professor who spent a grand total of $200,000 on his campaign. Cantor spent forty times that amount.
(Dave Brat, who was the blunt instrument that took out Majority Leader Cantor last night. Photo Getty Images).
I was just back from Willow and some birthday drinks, and decided to mix myself
A stiff one in sympathy, since there was a mini-riot between Cantor supporters and pro-immigration forces at the venue of what was supposed to be the Cantor victory party last night.
Wine was thrown, which is, in my mind, alcohol abuse. The conventional wisdom around town is that the immigration issue is what dragged Cantor under the bus. He had been making noise that something needed to be done- maybe enforce the law, for example, but also recognize that there is a problem and maybe even provide a path to citizenship for the people that are already here.
There is a certain imperative to the changing demographics, after all, and providing a punching bag to the Progressives must be getting tiresome.
One of my progressive buddies crowed that this meant three things: immigration reform had just turned into Kryptonite for the GOP and was dead. The House might actually still be in play in November, and that the Republicans have seen their last White House for a generation.
That might be true, I don’t know. I do know that the stark difference between country people and city people starts around Manassas and gets really severe. It is positively disorienting driving back and forth from the farm.
The primary was definitely a blunt force trauma to the body politic. It upends all sorts of things, and I have always been a pragmatist in the world of politics. That is not the case with the Tea Party folks, who have an absolute conviction that ideological purity (and losing) is preferable to compromise and victory. I am old enough to remember the Goldwater conservatives and their determination that ideology was number one, and everything else secondary. But that evolved into something else that won them the Reagan White House.
My Left Coast attorney chimed in and said he hoped that Cantor would run as an independent, split the Republican vote and deliver District 7 to the Democrats.
I find his scenario plausible, if Cantor chooses to do that. While the District is registered at least 60% GOP, there are all sorts of branches and sequels possible with a third party candidate.
(John Trammel, who will face the Tea Party in November. He ran unopposed for the nomination. Photo eeiriedigest.com)
It is interesting. Even the Dems down there run a little different than they do up north. On the other side of the aisle, John Kent Trammel is the nominee. He is another professor at Randolf-Macon University (so is David Brat, the surprise GOP nominee) and escaped the primary since no one else bothered to register.
District 7 Dems nominated him for the General Election without competition. A Kentucky native, Trammell lives on a small farm in Louisa County with his wife and seven children. I assume that means he is pro-life. Other hot button issues for him are student loan forgiveness and better access to higher education so there can be more loans to forgive. No conflict of interest there, of course.
So there is all was. Interesting. I dropped a note to the registrar down in Culpeper, and asked if I could change my voter registration to my primary residence. Michele wrote back and told me how to do it. It was a snap, and in the process, I discovered the State of Virginia has tracked the number of times I have voted, and how I did it, either in person or absentee. Cool. I am a pretty good citizen in at least that regard.
It was painless, just a few clicks of a mouse and I was done. I am a now a proud District 7 voter. In November, I am going to vote someplace where it might actually matter.
Copyright 2014 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com
Twitter: @jayare303