May 30, 2014 - The seven
Democratic candidates running to
succeed U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D) in Virginia's 8th Congressional
District faced off in a
final, well-attended candidate forum Friday evening at the National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association building in Arlington.
The Arlington County Democratic Committee sponsored the forum (it was
billed as a "debate"), which consisted of one-minute opening and
closing statements and seven rounds of questions. Although the
ACDC had said that, "Attendees will have
the opportunity to submit written questions," that did not
happen.
Instead the forum was based on questions submitted by each candidate to
be asked of all the other candidates. In each round the
moderator, ACDC Legal Counsel Tom Connally, Jr., read
the question and the candidates, except the one who had posed
the
question, had 90 seconds to respond. It wasn't really a debate,
but for the 300 or so in attendance the result was an informative
evening.
Some of the seven questions were designed to either draw attention to
the asking candidate's strengths or his or her opponent's weaknesses
while others
were a bit more open-ended. Sen. Adam Ebbin's question was
whether the candidate had taken a position politically and later
changed that position. Lavern Chatman's question sought
three specific steps to reduce the national deficit. Del. Patrick
Hope's question, which was clearly targeted to Don Beyer, was about
support for H.R. 1844, a bill banning mandatory arbitration
contracts. Derek Hyra's question focused on the loss of
affordable housing units.
As he has in several of the recent forums, Patrick Hope directly
challenged Beyer on welfare reform. (In 1994-95,
when Beyer was lieutenant governor, he chaired Virginia's Poverty and
Welfare Commission, and his campaign website notes he "was credited
with
passing the state’s landmark welfare reform legislation, which has
served as a model for federal reforms." Mark Levine
charged Beyer had supported Tom DeLay's national sales tax, which Beyer
denied, and he said that Beyer had supported cuts to the estate
tax. One of Beyer's
daughters, who
attended the forum, said she almost cried four times as her father
endured the various attacks.
Democrats in the 8th District are are being bombarded with calls,
emails, and mailings. As an example, one household in Falls
Church has received 28 pieces of mail from six campaigns (13 pieces
from the Beyer campaign, three from the Chatman campaign, three from
the Ebbin campaign, four from the Euille campaign, four from the Hope
campaign, and one from the Levine campaign). Seeing the
candidates in person should help undecided voters sort through the
large
field as the June 10 primary rapidly approaches. |
