9th Congressional District seat draws crowd of contenders

ABINGDON, Va. – A little more than a year after U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., ran unopposed for his 14th term in Congress, opponents are coming out of the woodwork.

At least three Republicans and one independent have announced plans to run against Boucher for his 9th District seat this year; two state delegates might also throw their hats into the ring.

Among the candidates who have declared, the message is the same: They’re fed up with the direction the country is going under the leadership of Democratic President Barack Obama, and they think it’s time for a change. They also said they perceive Boucher, a longtime incumbent and early Obama supporter, as a man whose values have diverged from those of the district he represents.

“Washington’s out of control,” said Jessee Ring, a Pulaski County Republican who is seeking his party’s nomination to run against Boucher. “They’re spending money like drunken sailors. Actually, that’s an insult to drunken sailors.”

Boucher said he’s working on his congressional agenda – and as yet has no comment about this year’s campaign season.

Leigh Anne Collier, executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia, said in a written statement that Boucher stands on his record.

“Rick Boucher has a widely recognized record of creating jobs, diversifying the economy and bringing advanced communications capabilities and telemedicine services to Southwest Virginia,” Collier said. “These are the things Southwest Virginians look to their Congressman to achieve, so this is not a district that Republicans are likely to make competitive,” Collier said. “The fact that Republicans have spent many months searching for a high profile opponent is evidence of that fact.”

GOP challengers

So far, Republicans Jim Bebout, Jessee Ring and Dave Moore have announced their intentions to seek the nomination.

Bebout, who announced his run at a conservative “Tea Party” protest last year, described himself as “the average Joe Citizen … who’s pretty much got fed up with politicians that just let you down at every turn.”

Moore, of Tazewell County, calls himself “a true Constitutionalist” who believes the U.S. economy – and its superpower status – is in jeopardy because of an over-reaching federal government.

“Those who are in power right now have a radical environmentalist agenda that seeks to subordinate private property rights and state sovereignty rights and force us to submit to an agenda that is detrimental to our economy, our national defense and our future prosperity,” Moore said.

He also said that a Congressman’s job is to block such policy – and he believes Boucher has failed to do so.

“I’m not going to say Rick Boucher didn’t start with the best of intentions, but he certainly doesn’t represent the 9th District anymore,” Moore said. “He’s presided over 28 years of a crumbling Southwest Virginia.”

State Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, and Sen. William Wampler, R-Bristol, have said they aren’t going to run for the congressional office.

Staff members of state Delegate Bill Carrico, R-Independence, and House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said they are considering a run and will decide in the coming weeks.

The filing deadline for Republicans seeking the nomination is 5 p.m. March 1, said Michelle Jenkins, the party’s 9th District chairwoman. The nominee will be chosen in May.

Independent candidate

The deadline for nonparty candidates to file paperwork and petitions is June 8, according to the Virginia State Board of Elections.

Jeremiah Heaton, a Washington County businessman, is running as an independent. A conservative who shares many of the same sentiments as the Republican candidates, Heaton said he believes he’d have more say in Congress if elected as an independent rather than as a Republican.

“When you have these divided issues like health care and other issues such as cap and trade, those few votes can totally shift the way, the direction, that the discussion goes because … independents are not obligated to go along with what the party line is,” Heaton said. “Yes, there’s a benefit to being a Republican candidate from the standpoint that you get all the money from the party, but once you get to Washington, D.C., you go to the bottom of the pyramid, where as an independent, you can solicit and receive a position of recognition within Congress.”

Good timing

After Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s landslide victory against Democrat Creigh Deeds in November, some Southwest Virginia conservatives said this is the year to beat Boucher, a 27-year incumbent who has long been considered unbeatable.

Ring has another reason why he believes he can win: “Scott Brown.”

Brown is the little-known Massachusetts Republican who trounced Democrat Martha Coakley, the state’s attorney general, in January’s special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat.

Kennedy had held the seat since 1962, after his brother was elected president; many point to the Democratic loss as a sign that, even in liberal Massachusetts, the American people are fed up with Obama’s political agenda.

“I think the general political environment, the mood of the public now, is such they’re looking for change, they’re not happy with what’s going on in Washington, they’ve made their views known on health care, on cap and trade and the trillion-dollar bailout. Congress isn’t listening,” Ring said. “Congress doesn’t care what the people think. And I think the mood is right for a change. People want the country to go in a different direction.”

Jenkins said there is just more interest in opposing Boucher this year than in the past several.

“I think a lot of that probably has to do with some of the votes that Mr. Boucher has made and kind of the direction that national policy is going right now,” Jenkins said.

Cap and trade

The biggest issue, Jenkins said, is proposed climate change legislation, known as “cap and trade,” that would limit the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted into the atmosphere. It’s of major concern in Southwest Virginia, where coal, which releases carbon dioxide when it’s burned for electricity, is a big part of the economy.

“The coal industry affects everybody in the 9th District,” Jenkins said. “It will also affect our power bills, and I think the vote that Boucher has made [in favor of] cap and trade was a vote against coal companies and a vote against industry in the 9th District.”

Boucher has said his involvement in the process of crafting cap and trade legislation has lessened the potential blow to industry in the region. For example, he said, the time frame for polluters to comply will be longer than initially proposed and millions of dollars will be poured into clean-coal research to help reduce the emissions of coal-fired power plants.

The easy political vote would have been to oppose the bill, Boucher said, but his choice was to be involved in the process and that has helped his district by mitigating the impact of carbon dioxide regulation, which he views as inevitable.

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