Virginia Tomorrow

1. Cantor the Big Winner?

That’s what people close to the House Minority Whip have been saying about Tuesday’s GOP primaries. This is one instance where the spinmeisters are right. Cantor endorsed Hurt, Fimian, Wittman and Rigell, winners all.  He also, I might add, helped to recruit Morgan Griffith to taken on Rick Boucher. More than that, Cantor’s capacity to raise dollars and distribute resources is unparalleled on the GOP side in Virginia today. Cantor will be a major player in supporting GOP candidates this fall, in Virginia and across the nation. Am I the only person who thinks that his ambitions for the next four years go beyond the Congress?

2. How Many

Congressional seats change hands in Virginia this year? This’ll be the matter on everyone’s mind the next few months. The GOP will have to take at least two and probably three in the Commonwealth if they expect to have a chance at winning the House.  The outcome will be related to how the following questions are answered. Will the Tea Party wind up dividing conservatives in the 2nd and the 5th? Can Obama’s unpopularity really be attached to Boucher? And is there such a wave sweeping the nation that Gerry Connolly is truly vulnerable in the 11th? At the moment, the conventional wisdom would probably answer all these questions in the negative. But let’s remember that politics has been anything but conventional lately.

3. GOP Women

One of the biggest stories of Tuesday night was the success of high profile women in the GOP primaries, led by Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman in California and Nikki Haley in South Carolina. Virginia hasn’t quite caught up with the rest of the country here. It’s been 20 years since a woman has been elected to statewide office in the Commonwealth. But with a public eager to reject “politics as usual,” it may be just the right moment to see women emerge more prominently on Virginia’s political stage.

4. Bitter Tea

The Tea Party’s impact in Virginia turned out to be far less than its been in other states. The inability of its supporters to coalesce behind a single person in multi-candidate primaries along with the determined effort by Eric Cantor to choose the “most electable” Republican in the 2nd and 5th districts left Tea Partiers asking themselves what went wrong and where they go next.

5.  Scott Named to the Hardest Working 25

Democrat Bobby Scott was named as one of Congress’ hardest working 25 in a story written for The Hill newspaper. The ranking comes as no surprise to anyone who knows him. When he was a member of the Virginia General Assembly, Scott devoted a remarkable number of hours to a part-time job. He’s a bit older now, but his work ethic hasn’t changed. His seat is one of the Democrats’ safest, but he never takes anything for granted. He spends more time with constituents than some members of Congress whose seat is in dire jeopardy.

6. McEachin v. Saslaw

Donald McEachin has never shied away from taking on other Democrats. Over the years, he contested Frank Hall, Bob Ball and Benny Lambert in primaries. Now he’s taking on Dick Saslaw over Fred Malek. Saslaw, the Senate Majority Leader, is upset with Democrats who continue to criticize Malek, the head of Governor McDonnell’s reform commission, for his role in compiling for President Nixon lists of Jews in the administration. Saslaw says that the man has apologized and led an exemplary life since the events of the 1970’s. Yet McEachin has been unrelenting in his criticism and suggested that if he had been asked to serve on the Commission, he would have declined. McEachin is positioning himself to become the spokesperson for the activist wing of the Democratic Party and has let it be known that he won’t be taking orders from the Majority Leader.

7. “Smooches for Cooch”

Anita Kumar reports that the Capital Pride Festival will feature cardboard cutouts of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and that activists are being encouraged to have their picture taken “Kisisng the Cooch.” The photos will be sent to the AG with a reminder that Virginia is for all lovers.  You can bet that gay activist groups will be using pictures of the contrived smooches in Cuccinelli’s next camapign.