You Wonder Why Virginia Democrats are Discouraged? Look at Health Care

by: Ron

Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 14:15:38 PM EDT

As we all know, the House Energy and Commerce Committee successfully marked up and voted out of committee H.R. 3200, the House version of health care financing reform. Despite a 36-23 partisan advantage on the committee, the bill was barely voted out of committee, by a margin of 31-28. And guess which Virginia Democrat voted against the measure? Rick Boucher.

So, let's review. Rick Boucher? Against meaningful reform. Jim Moran? As I documented, non-committal-to-downright-Blue-Doggy on the issue. Mark Warner? Non-committall-to-downright-Blue-Doggy (see, e.g., here). Gerry Connolly also falls into this camp (see, e.g., here).

That is four of the eight Democrats in Virginia's Congressional delegation that are either outright hostile or mealy-mouthed in this debate. Jim Webb has been quiet on this issue to date, as have Tom Perriello and Bobby Scott, although I would suspect the latter two will be reliable votes for a strong public option on this issue. Glenn Nye I believe we can suspect to be with Rick Boucher and the 'fiscally conservative' (hogwash, incidentally) Blue Dogs.

So, at a time when the economy has never been worse in nearly everyone's lifetime, Virginia Democrats in Congress are at best going to provide a few votes for reform, but apparently none of them are going to provide any strong leadership on this issue.

So when I try and convince folks to hit the pavement to canvass or make calls for our slate of candidates this fall, all three of whom generally fall into the more conservative side of the ledger for Virginia Democrats, I can't fault folks for not seeing the point.

Maybe if some of these electeds stood up and did more than come around and ask for our volunteer hours, our money, or our sweat; maybe if, from time to time, they worked and led on issues that motivate us as Democrats, we'd be seeing a base more energized for the fall.  

Blown Off by your Congressman -- Or, Why We Won't Get a Public Option

by: Ron

Sun Jul 26, 2009 at 13:20:17 PM EDT

To wit, health care (or health insurance) reform. Blue Dog Democrats and, sadly, freshmen Democratic Senators (including Mark Warner) are just the latest groups to care more about the corporate powers that be than the welfare of the citizenry writ large.

But we will not get the change we need until we have folks with fire in their bellies on Capitol Hill from the bluest of blue districts -- men and women that can forcefully advocate for progressive solutions and can marshall their skills to pull together coalitions that can achieve that change.

VA-08 should be one such district. It went for Barack Obama by a margin of 69-30; at D+16 in the Cook PVI, it is the 372nd least Republican district in the country (or, there are only 63 districts in the country that are more Democratic than VA-08). More importantly, it is the most educated congressional district in the country -- the capacity of the citizens in VA-08 is probably unmatched in this country. Such a district ought to be represented by a leader for progressive change.