VA-09: Rick Boucher vs. Morgan Griffith

Rick Boucher is a long serving Democratic member of congress (since 1983) who has been very popular throughout most of his time in the House serving Virginia’s 9th district.

On the other hand; his opponent this November, Republican Morgan Griffith, doesn’t even live in the 9th district. For some strange reason Virginia doesn’t require that you live in a district to run for congress there.

Boucher is known for his frequent visits to all parts of the 9th district and for bringing home important federal projects to the area. Boucher is ranked by congress.org as the 10th most powerful member of congress. If Griffith were to win he would be significantly less powerful and would be unable (even if he were willing, which is unlikely) to fight for the 9th district like Boucher has done for years.

Boucher co-authored the CAN-SPAM act of 2003 which has helped to decrease the amount amount of spam we get in our Email accounts. For that he certainly deserves a round of thanks from everyone who is not a spammer.

In 2006 Boucher was named “politician of the year” by Library Journal for his work in protecting the “fair use doctrine.” This is also something that he deserves great credit for.

But while Rick Boucher has been a very good congressman during his 14 terms, I cannot say that he gets an endorsement in this race without reservations. He did vote against health care reform this year. Politically it may have been the smart thing to do because polls indicated that the reform was unpopular in the district, but sometimes doing what right is unpopular – that doesn’t mean you don’t do it.

That said, Morgan Griffith is obviously not the right man to represent the 9th district of Virginia. Not only because he doesn’t even live in the 9th district but because his views on the issues are in line with the George W. Bush policies that put this country in the mess it’s struggling to get out of today. Going back in that direction would be a huge mistake.

The modern Republican Party has taken a turn to the far right. What that means is that they don’t just want to go back to the Bush era, they actually want to turn the clock back about 150 years.

Among the things on the agenda of the “Republican Tea Party” are ending Medicare as it presently exists, privatizing Social Security, tax cuts for the wealthy (but not for the middle class), and repealing the important Wall Street Reform that will help prevent any future bailouts (the bank bailouts signed into law by George W. Bush.)

Wall Street Reform also decreases the chances of another recession like the Bush Recession that has cost so many people their jobs.

It’s important for all voters to realize that the Republican Party of today is not a responsible choice. While the Democratic Party is not perfect, the Republican Party has gone completely off the rails and threatens to destroy this country if people make the mistake of giving them power again.

This Site Endorses Rick Boucher For The VA-09 House Race.