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| Elaine Luria and Tim Kaine - the best choices on November 6, 2018 |
While be too soft on why Scott Taylor is not acceptable for re-election to the House of Delegates for the 2nd Congressional District, the Virginia Pilot nonetheless went on to endorse Tim Kaine, Elaine Luria and Donald McEachin for the U.S. Senate, 2nd congressional district, and 4th congressional district, respectively. In the case of the Republican candidates for Senate seat and the 4th congressional district, the Pilot properly notes that the GOP candidates are right wing whack jobs who would not properly represent the interests of Virginia and the 4th district. In the case of the 2nd district, the Pilot correctly notes that Luria is the better candidate, particularly in light of Taylor's staff's involvement in felony level fraud in seeking to keep Shaun Brown on the ballot to split the non-Republican vote. Taylor's blatant dishonesty on his voting history and his unbelievable claims of ignorance about the effort to put Shaun Brown on the ballot in my view, disqualify him from re-election. The following are excerpts from the Pilot editorial endorsements:
2nd Congressional District:
Taylor's opponent, [Elaine] Luria, also is a Navy veteran of 20 years, and a small business owner in Norfolk. She has never held elected office, but she seems to have a good sense of the district’s concerns, particularly when it comes to health care, the protection of social safety net programs, and the needs of veterans.
Taylor has tried through advertising to paint her as an acolyte of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Luria projects as a centrist Democrat, which is keeping in line with the moderate electorate in the 2nd District. And her insistence on improving the way Washington works — improving the process by which Congress governs — is an issue with particular resonance in a place that depends so much on federal budgeting and spending.
Both Taylor and Luria are capable candidates, and both could represent the district well. But Taylor’s involvement in the cynical effort to place Brown on the ballot, his inability to account fully for the behavior of his staff and his lack of understanding of how his decisions raise legitimate questions about judgment and trust is a disqualifying offense.
Voters can be confident that by replacing him with Luria, they will be in good hands for the next two years.
4th Congressional District:
Democratic incumbent Rep. Don McEachin . . . . remains the best candidate, as his opponents cannot make a compelling case to replace him.
Libertarian Pete Wells is a well meaning and earnest candidate, but he lacks detailed knowledge of the issues facing the district.
And Republican Ryan McAdams might have enjoyed a turn in the spotlight when Vice President Mike Pence came to campaign for him recently, but his refusal to endorse the science of climate change — along with his endorsement of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris accord and his belief that carbon might not be the cause of global warming, in opposition to countless scientific studies over decades — is unacceptable in a district where sea-level rise is an existential threat.
The 4th District needs McEachin to be a more familiar face in Hampton Roads — but it needs him to be the representative, above all.
U.S. Senate:
Finally, for U.S. Senate, incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine faces Republican challenger Corey Stewart and Libertarian Matt Waters in what should be a straightforward choice for Virginians.
Voters might not know Waters, who is running a lightly funded, almost Republican-lite campaign on his party’s ticket. But they are probably by now familiar with the bombastic Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.
He came to statewide attention in 2016 as the chairman, for a time, of the Donald Trump campaign in Virginia before last year mounting an unsuccessful campaign for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
His time in the spotlight has done little to make him a palatable option to represent Virginia. The Minnesota native seized on the issue of preserving Confederate statues as a path to political relevance and has worked in the year since to distance himself from Jason Kessler, organizer of the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, with whom Stewart appeared at a different 2017 rally.
In contrast with his GOP opponent, Kaine has conducted himself as a senator with the type of affable, common-sense professionalism that distinguished his four years as governor and his time as mayor of Richmond before that.
The 2016 Democratic Party nominee for vice president has been a pointed voice in favor of reasserting congressional authority on military engagement and on behalf of service members, veterans and their families, a great many of whom live and work in this region.
A former civil rights lawyer, Kaine advances policies promoting diversity and inclusion, rather than pushing the politics of division and bringing more anger into the public square. And he helped lead the effort to thwart repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the mechanism by which some 400,000 Virginians will soon have access to coverage through Medicaid expansion.
The Daily Press likewise endorsed Tim Kaine here.
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