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Virginians, it’s time to wake up. There’s a primary election next week that deserves your attention.
Primaries have a tough time generating widespread interest. We might note the rows of campaign signs dotting the medians as we make our daily date with a traffic jam or not - but rarely do we invest time researching candidates.
It’s as if we’re only hard-wired to pay attention to the November elections. In 1994, the last time a Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate race in Virginia took place, only 16 percent of the state’s registered voters turned out.
On June 13, Harris Miller will battle Jim Webb, with the winner facing U.S. Senator and Republican presidential hopeful George Allen in November.
Until recently, Allen’s re-election seemed inevitable. After all, he’s a Republican incumbent in “red-state” Virginia and a staunch supporter of President Bush, who convincingly won Virginia’s vote in 2004. But with the president’s approval rating at an all-time low, Allen is feeling the heat. That vulnerability translates into a red-hot Democratic primary.
Across the nation, citizens wrestle with a rising death toll in Iraq, sputtering immigration reforms and a morass of corruption scandals in Washington, D.C. Red and blue states are no longer painted in sharp primary colors.
Rappahannock County along with Northern Virginia voters last November showed, greater faith in Democratic leadership. Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) carried Fairfax, Loudoun, Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Rappahannock.
It had been many, many years since this county didn’t go Republican and for others as well.
98.0%