In most congressional elections, Virginia has very few choices to vote for by the general election. In years past many neanderthals have run unopposed for re-election or only been challenged by fringe candidates without a prayer of winning. This year (2008) is very, very different. There are Democrats running for every congressional seat (which is a first I think, for many years). Some are facing very difficult challenges; but several have a real shot this year because Americans are finally waking up to the lies of the modern Republican party.
I have already contributed a small donation to the Glenn Nye campaign to unseat Thelma Drake in the 2nd district. If you have not, and you are tired of Virginia being embarrassed by her antics; please contribute to Glenn Nye yourself.
I just now finally contributed to the Judy Feder campaign to unseat Frank Wolf (who is no friend of veterans) in my own district (10th). Please help unseat Wolf and get someone who will actually work for better health care into office. I also just contributed to the Anita Hartke campaign to unseat the horribly offensive and childish Eric Cantor in the 7th district. The 7th and the 10th are normally overwhelmingly conservative districts, but Wolf's big spending habits and Cantor's cry-baby antics have even die hard Republicans annoyed. We have a real shot at getting responsible public servants in office in both districts.
Perhaps the best shot we have of doing this in the state is the inspiring campaign of Tom Perriello to unseat Virgil Goode in the 5th district. Sadly when I went to contribute today, the Perriello campaign website could not SSL encrypt my transaction, so I did not contribute yet. It appears to be a small technical flaw that can be easily fixed so I hope it will be fixed and we can contribute soon. Please volunteer, donate, consider, and vote for these fine candidates I've linked to and watch Virginia become a moderate state again.
I have to be a little more careful...
Having said that, I really, really like Bill Day and Sam Rasoul. I confess I don't give either of them very good odds, but Bill establishing some name recognition for future elections is a very important thing in it's own right.
My next funding (aside from Perriello once the SSL gets working) is probably to Bill Day.
I also very much like our incumbent Democrats; but figure they have more money than my little contributions can help; and figure the same of Connolly even though he's not an incumbent.