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Forgit |
In a campaign that lasts less than 30 days, the most important thing--after the voters--is the volunteers.
They help make the phone calls, knock on the doors, organize the literature drops. So Democratic congressional candidate Philip Forgit drove two hours to Fredericksburg last night to give his volunteers a pep talk.
He helped make phone calls and told the volunteers gathered at his headquarters on Town and Country Road that Democrats have a chance to win the 1st District, which has been Republican for years.
"This is an historic opportunity," Forgit said.
He's running for the 1st District in a special election to fill the seat of Jo Ann Davis, who died of breast cancer last month. The Republican candidate is Del. Rob Wittman, and there's also an independent, Lucky Narain.
Forgit thinks it's an historic opportunity because he is better-funded and has more party support than other Democrats running in the 1st District in recent years. He has campaign events scheduled with Gov. Tim Kaine, former Gov. (and U.S. Senate candidate) Mark Warner and Sen. Jim Webb.
He also hopes to ride voter dissatisfaction with Washington politics, along with an increasing "blue wave" of Democratic victories in Virginia, into Congress.
"You get this idea of broken government" when he knocks on doors and talks to voters, Forgit said in an interview. "We don't want the broken politics anymore."
He cited the transportation plan the Virginia General Assembly passed this past session--for which Wittman voted--as an example. He thinks it's bad public policy to approve a plan that imposes fees and local taxes instead of state taxes, and says voters shouldn't send someone who supported that to Washington.
"What's the point of electing these folks if they're not going to serve and make the hard decisions?" Forgit asked.
The other theme he said he's hearing on the campaign trail is Iraq, and the related topic of veterans issues.
Forgit is a decorated Iraq veteran himself, he's still in the Navy Reserve, and he's planning a trip to Iraq--whether he wins or not--at Christmas to deliver books and DVDs he's collecting for soldiers.
He said he doesn't advocate a "cut and run" plan for getting troops out of Iraq, but that the United States cannot continue to sustain an occupation. In the next couple of years, he expects to see a drawdown of troops, and hopes that will come after more training of Iraqis to take over the security of their country.
"We've got to draw it to a close in a responsible and honorable way," Forgit said. But, he added, "To proclaim victory and just leave is naive."
He also talks a lot about veterans issues, and how veterans need more help and respect from the bureaucracy that serves them.
"I want to see patriotism in the dollars in how we treat the soldiers in the field" and veterans, Forgit said. "We really don't, we don't honor that veteran who comes back."
His experience in Iraq helped prompt him to run for this seat--he didn't like the idea that there would be no competition, no debate.
"You should have to stand and say what you believe in and what you're going to do for the country," Forgit said.
His Iraq experience also makes him incredulous that only an 8 percent to 15 percent voter turnout is expected in his race.
All that's standing between voters and the ballot box, Forgit said, is Christmas shopping. In Iraq, he watched people risk their lives to vote.
"People need to start caring about what's going on in this country," he said.
Wittman, meanwhile, yesterday announced that he's been told Republicans would work to get him a seat on the House Armed Services Committee.
That committee deals with many issues of defense and military operations, which are important to the 1st District and its numerous military bases.
Rep. John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House of Representatives, has pledged to support giving Wittman a seat on the committee if Wittman wins the election. He can't promise a seat but can influence the decision by the party's steering committee. Although Democrats have the majority, Republicans fill their own seats on committees.
Wittman said he'd pushed Boehner and other congressmen hard to make such a pledge.
"The 1st District has always had a person on the Armed Services Committee," he said. "We needed a commitment to make sure folks knew that's critical information when people go to the polls."
Forgit noted that if he wins the election, he'll be a member of the majority party in Congress, and expects to be given positions on committees that reflect the large military and defense concerns of the 1st District.
"We'll be able to do more for this district than a minority party can," he said.
The election is Dec. 11.
