Republicans are practically lining up to take on U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye in 2010.
Nye, a Democrat, narrowly won Virginia's 2nd Congressional District away from Republican Thelma Drake, largely riding a Democratic wave built by Barack Obama and Mark Warner. Republicans know that Nye won't be able to rely on the power at the top of the ticket next fall, so they are gunning for him in Washington.
Car dealer and longtime GOP money-man Scott Rigell is just the latest to go public with his congressional ambitions - almost a year and a half before voters head to the polls for the 2010 mid-term elections. Rigell, 49, has a military pedigree and the backing of Drake and a handful of prominent local Republicans - including Sen. Frank Wagner, Del. Bob Purkey and Del. Sal Iaquinto.
Rigell is the founder and president of Freedom Automotive in Virginia Beach, and he has deep pockets for member of the GOP. Here's list of Rigell's donations to Virginia Republicans. He has been a huge wallet for Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell - shelling out more than $80,000 to McDonnell during various campaigns.
Rigell has also given generously at the federal level helping bankroll Drake's campaign and others. Rigell and his wife's federal donations list run through bigtime Republicans - George W. Bush, George Allen, John McCain, Randy Forbes, Oliver North and Ed Schrock. But those probably aren't the donations that we'll be hearing about during the Republican internicine fued to take on Nye - that's because there's a check in there for $1,000 to Barack Obama - dated March 3, 2008.
Granted this appears to be an anomaly - and that was around the time when many members of the GOP were in an "anybody but Hillary Clinton" mode. But Rigell surely knows that this is going to be an issue with GOP activists.
Meanwhile, Rigell has plenty of opponents to worry about before he gets to Nye.
There's Chuck Smith, a lawyer, former Marine and one-time chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Party - who has been running for months. Smith, an African-American- was wooing voters at this year's Shad Planking in Wakefield.
Insiders expect at least a few folks to officially enter this race, including the sitting head of the Virginia Beach GOP Kenny Golden, a retired Navy SEAL named Ed Maulbeck, Ben Loyola the owner of a Virginia Beach engineering firm and Hampton resident Bert Mizusawa.
It's always hard to handicap a race so early, but it is interesting to note that Rigell managed to get a lot of big, early press when he announced that he is running - with articles in The Hill and The Virginian Pilot. That's the kind of thing that doesn't happen by accident - so Rigell clearly has some influential friends who are making his case with the movers and shakers in Washington.
In fact the Hill article tells you pretty explicitly in a single sentence that Rigell appears to be the pick from inside the beltway.
"Rigell has been in talks with the national party, which is enthusiastic about his candidacy."
Meanwhile, Nye is feeding the GOP plenty of ammunition for the race. Nye recently voted against an environment and climate change bill in Washington. The bill passed anyway and Nye's office appears to be sending out dueling letters to folks on both sides of the issue. In one letter Nye touts his stand against the bill and then in the other he talks up the legislation as an important step toward saving the environment while not mentioning that he voted against it.
This is typical hedging for a politician, but the letters from Nye don't even have the one-sentence caveat at the very least acknowledging his vote. Or at least explaining why he voted against something that he appears to support. Folks don't like it when you look like too much of a tactician.
If success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, Nye's some kind of weird stepdad here.
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