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Politics : Impeach George W. Bush -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (3679)	6/20/2001 3:50:07 PM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 93284

Republican Wins Va. House Election AP Randy Forbes Wednesday, June 20, 2001 Former Virginia GOP chairman Randy Forbes was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election Tuesday, defeating a fellow state senator who had hoped to become Virginia's first black female in Congress. The previous seat-holder, Democrat Norm Sisisky, died in March after representing the 4th district of Virginia for nearly 20 years. "Hopefully this is a good win for the Republican Party, and it will help make sure that the president's agenda gets a fair shake," Forbes said after receiving a congratulatory telephone call from the president Tuesday night. Forbes, who captured 52 percent of the vote to 48 percent for his opponent, Democrat Louise Lucas, told President Bush, "We couldn't have done it without you." The president is eager to portray Forbes' victory, which gives Republicans 222 seats in the House to the Democrats' 210, as an embrace of his vision for America. Forbes will be celebrating with a visit to the White House Wednesday. The lawyer from Chesapeake, Va., was pressured by the White House to make a run in this district that party leaders on both sides suggested might be a bellwether for next year's congressional elections. AP Randy Forbes, and Democrat Louise Lucas The race was at times bitter in tone and tactics. Both Forbes and his Democratic rival were popular state senators. But Lucas' major selling point was a campaign to protect Social Security from privatization efforts that didn't seem to energize voters as much as the Democrats had hoped. "It looks like we fell a little short," the former shipfitter told volunteers in a concession speech. "But each of us knows that we gave it everything we had." Thirty-eight percent of the district's registered voters participated in the election. Each side also accused the other of injecting race into the campaign for a district that is 39 percent black. Forbes' campaign criticized a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee mailing that pictured a black child on the cover and declared "12 million of us will be left behind" by Bush's budget. A few days later, a Forbes supporter was quoted as telling a white reporter that Lucas was "working to get the people out to vote. Her people. Not Randy's people, not my people, not your people, but her people." Lucas' campaign chastised Forbes for not disavowing the remark. Lucas had received help on the campaign trail from several House Democrats. She and her surrogates visited 74 black churches Sunday in a final get-out-the-vote effort. Bush and his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush, both recorded telephone campaign messages for Forbes. Vice President Dick Cheney was one of several high-profile Republicans who came to the district to campaign for Forbes. Forbes' win also was a boost for Republican National Committee chairman Jim Gilmore, the Virginia governor, who could not afford to lose in his own backyard. "This success in a moderate district shows the president's vision for America is appealing to voters across the political spectrum — proof positive that the GOP is expanding the reach of our party," Gilmore said. Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, chairman of the Republican National Congressional Committee, said Forbes' victory shows that Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords' defection, which cost the GOP control of the Senate, was a fluke. "This speaks volumes as to where the country wants to go, as opposed to the idiosyncrasies of one senator," Davis said. But New York Rep. Nita Lowey, who chairs the Democratic National Congressional Committee, said the special election didn't have any national implications. "It was a local race and it will only impact local voters," she said. "There was no national theme to this race, and neither side spent a dime talking about President Bush." The national parties spent an estimated $3.5 million on behalf of the candidates, mostly for TV advertising. Fox News' David Shuster and the Associated Press contributed to this report.