And I will make sure to enact laws so that you will live the way I think you should… because, you know, I am a dean at Georgetown University, an influential and powerful inside-the-Beltway institution.

More seriously, some of us at NoVaPolitics are at times troubled by the Republican incumbent Congressman Frank Wolf’s proclivities, including his fondness for government spending. But as the saying goes, “Don’t make perfect the enemy of good.”

On the whole, I find Wolf to be far from perfect, but certainly a better choice for my district than his challenger Democrat Judy Feder by a wide margin. Let me repeat my earlier observation of her after I heard her in person — I found Feder to be “a bespectacled, nasal-sounding political commissar long on left-wing ideology and criticism of Bush, but short on credible, coherent plans to make things better.”

Had the Democrats chosen someone more “centrist” and “down-to-earth,” they might have had a better shot at Wolf given the anti-incumbent and anti-GOP mood this year. But they did not, and I expect Wolf to win the contest if by an uncomfortably close margin.

A close-run thing, as the Duke of Wellington said.

Last week, the Washington Post confirmed the obvious . . . . that drivers in Northern Virginia and the D.C. Metro area generally, have one of the worst commutes in the nation.

Washington area workers are more likely to travel to jobs outside their home counties than commuters in any other region in the nation, according to a new study.

A higher percentage of Virginia residents live and work in different counties than commuters in any other state; Marylanders ranked second, according to “Commuting in America III,” a national report on commuting patterns and trends published yesterday by the Transportation Research Board.

The Washington region is second only to New York for the percentage of workers with “extreme commutes,” which the study defined as 90 minutes or more each way. Of the 12 counties with the highest percentage of long commutes, the region had three: Prince William, Prince George’s and Montgomery.

While traffic hasn’t really emerged as a major issue in the high profile Allen Webb campaign (they’ve decided to take the low road and focus on Senator Allen’s apparent penchant for racial slurs and Jim Webb’s fondness for pedophilia) it has emerged as an issue in our local congressional campaigns and will almost certainly be the leading issue in next years state elections.

As a resident and commuter in this area for almost 10 years, I have very definite opinions on the subject, having made the commute into D.C. from the McLean/Tyson’s Corner area in nearly every way possible.

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Conservatives are supposedly returning home to the GOP, kicking, screaming and whining. Paul Weyrich captures it best:

“It’ll all come down to conservatives,” he said. “For a long time, I’ve heard nothing but ‘I’m not going to vote for these jerks.’ Now I’m hearing ‘Well, I suppose we’ll have to vote the jerks back in and see what we can do.’ “

I share the sentiment. I have always recognized that politics is frequently about the lesser of two evils. Still, “vote for us, because we are not quite as bad as our opponents” is not exactly inspiring.

Of course, experts say people are several times more motivated by fear than by prospect of gain, so maybe there is something to that strategy. Perhaps that explains why the Democrats have been critizing the Bush administration without offering any concrete, workable alternatives of their own on Iraq.

As I mentioned earlier I attended the debate among the candidates for the 10th Congressional District, sponsored by the League of Women Voters (of both Loudoun and Fairfax) on Tuesday, October 17th.

Usually, such debates are not particularly good for analyzing detailed policy positions. Candidates generally stick to talking points without specifics. However, such occasions are somewhat useful for evaluating how candidates look, sound and “feel” to audiences. Since Congressman Wolf is well-known to his constituents, the onus was on Judy Feder, the Democrat challenger, to make an impression.

First the incumbent: Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) is surely an experienced campaigner and speaker, but he struck me — visually — as seemingly defensive and somewhat stodgy. There was a palpable lack of energy on his part (with one exception — more on that below). He appeared to be almost irritated, perhaps even distressed to be at the debate.

In response to most questions, he rattled off what legislations and commissions he sponsored and how much money he brought to the district. These are surely noteworthy achievements, but I wish he had spoken more forcefully about his principles and political views and contrasted them sharply with Judy Feder, rather than sounding like a bureaucrat ticking off checklists of “have done’s.”

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I was at the debate among Congressman Wolf (R-VA), his Democrat challenger, Judy Feder, and two other less known candidates last night. I’ll write my impressions of the debate and of the contestants a little later. Please stay tuned.

One view of the Allen-Webb contest has it that perceived racial or sexual insensitivities won’t matter, but Bush’s standing in Virginia and the Allen-Webb fundraising gap will (h/t RCP):

Far more telling in the end, I’d wager, will be two other factors: President Bush’s popularity on Election Day and whether or not Allen maintains his current, enormous fundraising advantage over challenger Jim Webb. That’s where the numbers come in.

If Bush’s popularity and that of the war in Iraq are tanking on Nov. 7, then the combination offers Webb, a former Navy secretary and highly decorated Marine, his best - perhaps only - hope of an upset victory. [Snip]

Webb’s prospects shrink dramatically if Allen maintains anything close to his summer fundraising advantage. At the last accounting a couple of months back, Allen had $6 million in the bank, compared to Webb’s $424,000.

While I agree that these two factors matter a great deal, I disagree that these are the two most important factors in the contest.

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I must confess I don’t understand the hooplah about whether Senator George Allen is Jewish or not. According to Washington Jewish Week:

In addition to having a Jewish mother or father, “personal observance” of Judaism is a factor, and one must identify with the religion.

Since George Allen was raised a Christian and did not observe Judaism, she said he would not be considered Jewish.

Who cares? What’s the difference? Faith is a profoundly private matter. We live, after all, in the land of religious freedom. I just can’t see how the Jewish heritage or lack thereof is a really a “gotcha” moment against Allen.

Indeed, I am of the view that identity in America is mostly self-constructed. Senator Allen decided to be a conservative, Christian American. Then that is what he is, regardless of who his maternal grandfather was. That’s the kind of country in which we live, where the past does not dictate the present or the future.

I wrote of this from a personal experience of being a naturalized American of Asian descent and origin a while back in the Seattle Times. I reproduce it below:

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Some Democrats are apparently hopeful that Northern Virginia is becoming more “creative class,” which supposedly translates to more votes for the political Left:

But there is a third, critical factor working against the Republicans that is unique to Northern Virginia, and that is the marked demographic shift in the region credited with providing Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine with almost his entire margin of victory in his statewide gubernatorial race last November.

Not only did Kaine carry all areas of the region, including the more outlying Loudoun and Prince William counties, but Democrats

The results were, in part, attributed to the rise of the high tech, government contracts industry in the region, creating the fastest-growing job creation numbers in the nation in the last three years. While the boom is the result of the Bush administration’s war on terror and related initiatives, it is ironically adding to a voter base in the region that overall is anything but supportive of Bush and especially conservative GOP politicians.

This “new demographic” corresponds to what George Mason University’s Dr. Richard Florida calls the “Creative Class,” composed of well-educated, pragmatic, younger scientifically-based folk ranging from engineers to artisans who are critical thinkers and, above all, believe in fairness and equal justice.

Gee, apparently “better looking,” “taller,” “thinner,” “healthier,” “more stylish” and “affluent” were left out. This is a set of ridiculously subjective (or dare I say, unscientific) descriptives smashed together to make the Left’s ideal vision of itself look hip and noble at the same time.

Nonetheless, I will go along with at least this much: Northern Virginia’s demographics have changed substantially in the last several years, as can be expected given the enormous population and job growth, particularly in the exurban (as opposed to closer-in D.C. suburban) parts of the region. And, indeed, this shift will pose challenges to both Republican and Democrat incumbents and their entrenched powerbrokers.

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“Women can’t fight” vs. “Macaca,” courtesy of RCP Blog.

Or is it cowboy boots vs. combat boots? This much the NY Times is right about:

Some Republicans worry that the growth of Northern Virginia, with its increasingly urban voters and what some pollsters say is discontent with the status quo in Washington, poses a real challenge to their party. Mr. Webb’s allies, for their part, worry he will not have enough money to hold his own against Mr. Allen on television. 

 

The anxieties on both sides point to a central truth: Virginia, at the moment, is a very competitive race.