I've noted before that I've known 4th District Congressman Randy Forbes for 37 years and I don't know what became of the young law student I once knew. Forbes has become increasingly a willing prostitute for far right religious extremists and compared to other members of Congress, including other members from Virginia, has little in the way of legislation to show for his years in Congress. Crazy Christofascist backed bills and obstruction are about all he has to show for his years drawing a nice congressional salary. A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at Forbes' dismal record and how he stays in office thanks to districts that are racially gerrymandered. Here are excerpts:
Randy Forbes has not been a consequential member of Congress.
By almost every measure of effectiveness, he trails his peers in the House of Representatives, not just among the 435 members of Congress, but among the 11-member Virginia delegation.
In Forbes' 13 years in office, only one piece of his legislation has been signed by a president, according to Congress's database. It was a bill, in 2002, to "designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 3131 South Crater Road in Petersburg, Virginia, as the 'Norman Sisisky Post Office Building.' "
In the current Congress, Forbes has sponsored legislation:
-- "Affirming the vital role that prayer has played throughout the more than 200-year history of our Nation..."
-- Expressing "the sense of the House of Representatives that the funds made available for the cost of the President's trip to Africa instead be used to compensate those who have been placed on an administrative furlough as a result of sequestration."
He's also introduced bills that would bar the use of embryonic stem cells and rein in the IRS (the "Prevent IRS Overreach Act of 2013").
Late last year, Politico reported that Forbes was creating "friction" within the House leadership by pushing to have campaign funds denied to gay GOP candidates.
The bills a member of Congress sponsors say something about his priorities. The legislative success of a member of Congress says something about his influence among his peers.
The fact that none of Forbes' legislation since 2002 has made it to the president's desk argues that he's not representing the residents of the 4th Congressional District as they deserve and have every right to expect.
Forbes has instead wasted his time in Congress on inconsequential and unnecessarily divisive issues (does Congress need to inform Americans about the role of prayer?) that appeal to a narrow band of the electorate.
Which is all he needs to get re-elected.
This is what happens when elected officials get to tailor their own electoral districts. By packing Democrats into Scott's district, the General Assembly has made the 4th Congressional District so reliably Republican that, not only is Forbes in no danger of losing next month's election, but the Democratic Party has consistently failed to find or support a credible candidate to oppose him.
Forbes, instead, seems content to keep his head down and run for the finish line in his sharply tailored district, confident that he won't be held accountable for his stunning lack of influence and legislative success.
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