Posted on 10/12/2014 2:49:39 PM PDT by Din Maker
There are signs that the U.S. Senate race in Virginia, previously considered a long-shot for Republicans and a safe seat for Democrats, could get interesting in the final weeks of the campaign. The incumbent, Democrat Mark Warner, has had a large lead in the polls over his Republican opponent Ed Gilespie since the beginning of the race. But the lead has shrunk in recent weeks from about 20 points to about 10, and the Gillespie campaign is now up with TV ads in the swing Northern Virginia market outside Washington, which Warner had previously had to himself.
A popular former governor, Warner has cultivated a reputation of moderate bipartisanship—despite the fact that he's voted with President Obama 97 percent of the time.
But a scandal touching Virginia's current Democratic governor, Terry McAuliffe, may also implicate Warner. Several Democratic figures in the Old Dominion are involved a federal investigation looking into the circumstances of the resignation of a former Democratic state senator. The Washington Post has the scoop that federal investigators have been told of Warner's supposed involvement in offering that senator and his family political favors in exchange for his staying in the legislature:
The son of a former Virginia state senator has told federal investigators that U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner discussed the possibility of several jobs, including a federal judgeship, for the senator’s daughter in an effort to dissuade him from quitting the evenly divided state Senate.
Warner was part of a string of high-powered Virginia Democrats who in early June pressed then-state senator Phillip P. Puckett not to go through with plans to give up his seat in the middle of a bitterly partisan battle over health care.
A Warner spokesman acknowledged Friday that the conversation occurred, but he emphasized that the senator had made no explicit job offer.
Puckett eventually resigned, throwing control of the chamber to the Republican Party and dooming Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s top legislative priority — expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The incident also triggered a federal investigation into Puckett’s surprise exit, which came at a time when Republicans were planning to give Puckett a job on the state tobacco commission and confirm his daughter to assume a judgeship.
On June 6, three days before the state senator’s resignation became official, Warner called Puckett’s son, Joseph, and discussed an appointment to the federal bench as well as a potential corporate position for Martha Puckett Ketron, according to Joseph Puckett’s attorney, Charles E. “Chuck” James Jr. of Williams Mullen.
James said that Warner suggested a post for Ketron at CGI, at high-tech firm Warner helped lure to Southwest Virginia when he was governor a decade ago.
The story, featured on the front page of the Post's Metro section Saturday, could hurt Warner in Northern Virginia.
Meanwhile, Gillespie has released a comprehensive alternative to Obamacare that's earned the attention of the Post. The paper notes that Gillespie is "one of a handful of candidates" to provide an alternative to the health-care law. Here's more from the Post:
His plan would end the individual mandate to buy health insurance, the health-care exchanges and all of the law’s industry regulations. In their place, he would offer tax credits that increase with age and family size.
Adults younger than 35 would get $1,200 a year. Those 35 to 49 would get $3,000 a year. Those 50 and older would get $3,000 a year. For every dependent child, the credit would increase by $900.
While many individual premiums have gone up under the Affordable Care Act, Gillespie argued that competition — including across state lines — would help lower premium costs in the individual market. Citing Government Accountability Office numbers, Gillespie said the credits would be sufficient to buy coverage in most cases. This GAO report refers only to base rates, noting that actual premiums could be higher. In addition, under Gillespie’s proposal, family plans would no longer be required to cover young adults until age 26.
In a sign that Warner's supporters are worried about the attractiveness of Gillespie's plan, which is based on the alternative developed by the 2017 Project, it's already taking fire from the left-wing organization Planned Parenthood. The pro-abortion group issued a lengthy statement condemning the Republican's plan for being an attack on women's health. The crux of their argument is the dubious one that repealing Obamacare will make contraceptives more expensive. But in any case, a provision of Gillespie's plan is to lower costs for birth control by making it available over-the-counter, a policy idea other Republicans have adopted recently to some apparent political success.
If the Virginia contest becomes a referendum on Obamacare--which is unpopular in Virginia as it is in most of the country—and Mark Warner comes to be seen not as an above-the-fray former governor but as an ethically challenged pro-Obama partisan incumbent, this race could get awfully interesting.
Why not just let the market work? Repeal Obamacare and let the market figure out all the rest of the crap. People will lead healthier lives knowing that they have to pay for it.
Sounds pretty much like a repeal to me.
If people have thousands of extra dollars to spend per annum you can bet that a WHOLE lot of free market startups are going to happen.
bump
Warner did not come off well in the Warner-Gillespie debate either.
That’s what I heard. I heard he was acting nervous. Maybe he knew the “scandal” news was about to break.
Karl Rove and Joe Trippi predict that Roberts (KS) and McConnell (KY) will lose.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3214391/posts
Obama’s injustice department under Holder will not indict Warner. If he offered a federal judgeship to the daughter as a quid pro quo, that makes things very interesting.
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