Virginia Vision PAC Calls for Primary Challenges to Three Virginia Congressman

written by Jeanine Martin June 16, 2015

The new PAC, Virginia Vision, is calling on Virginia conservatives to mount primary challenges against three Virginia Congressional representatives when they run for re-election in 2016. Those three are Scott Rigell (2^nd), Robert Hurt (5^th), and Barbara Comstock (10^th). [read_more] As we reported earlier, those three voted to give Obama fast track authority. Of course that was not their first vote against conservative values.

ConservativeReview.com has rated all Virginia Congressman on their conservative votes. Rigell and Comstock received an ‘F’ and Hurt a ‘D’.

What has happened to conservatives in Virginia? Barbara Comstock is only slightly better than Gerry Connelly and Bobby Scott!

Jeanine Martin

Also known as Lovettsville Lady, I am a Republican activist in the wilds of western Loudoun County.

George

Since when did protectionism become conservative?
George

I go to the web site and it will not give me the way the scores are computed without joining the mailing list.
Savoia di Lucania

Why does it show Hurt has a ‘D, while you state he has an ‘F’?
And doesn’t it strike you as odd that nobody but Brat has a D or F?

You’re posting some real winning material these days Jeanine. Where’s Albertson?
- Jeanine Martin
  
  Thanks for catching my error.
  
  Brat did not receive a D or an F, the others did.
Joshua Huffman

You can find the various scores for the legislators from Conservative Review here. https://www.conservativereview.com/scorecard
- George
  
  but it does not say where the scores come from. What votes count for what.
Publius68

who is the RINO…Jeanine or our 8 Republican MOCs in VA’s congressional delegation?
- Waverly Woods
  
  Well that depends on how much of your liberty your willing to part with. Jeanine isn’t.
Nikhil Verma

I’m sorry but it’s absolutely idiotic to suggest that Barbara Comstock is only slightly better than Connolly and Bobby Scott. First, whomever you nominate to challenge her would have a hard time winning the general election. Remember, this is the VA 10th district, not some ruby red place in Texas. Second, let’s take a look at her position on the issues. She is adamantly against Obamacare, against the stimulus, against EPA overreach, for traditional marriage, for tax cuts, against sequestration, amongst many other positions. Yeah, some RINO……sorry, but some of you people don’t seem to be satisfied with anyone who gets elected. Before long, you’ll be saying Ted Cruz is a RINO. As for TPA? The simple reality is the world is getting more global in nature every day. It’s getting more competitive every day, with the 193 countries in the UN all competing for first place. You may not like that but it’s the simple truth. By not giving the POTUS TPA, we are tying our own hands behind our back while allowing other countries to gain a competitive advantage on us. Since when did opposing TPA make someone a RINO? We are the party of free markets and free enterprise. Opposing TPA is an extreme left position, taken up by the likes of Bernie Sanders and others. Protectionism is not a winning position either for our party or the country as a whole. Be glad you have someone in Congress that recognizes that.
- Lawrence Wood
  
  I don’t believe the majority of individuals who have issues with Comstock are disappointed in what she “claims” to support (a politicians’ pre-election claims and fairy tales have a lot in common) but her subsequent voting record and policy associations since being seated in the House. Regarding your conceptual grasp of what the TPA constitutional PROCESS really entails, I would have to say your best case is ignorance, but more likely just progressive like inability to incorporate and handle the simple facts in a the situation without taking off your partisan glasses.
- Jeanine Martin
  
  Yes, we are all aware of what issues Barbara Comstock claimed to support when she ran for office. However, her votes tell us something else. We all hope she will turn this around within the next year before someone mounts a primary challenge against her.
kelley

when one is in the company of Congressmen Griffith & Forbes, then one is in conservative company. thank you Robert Hurt
Stephen Spiker

Great, another fly-by-night organization that no one has ever heard of who uses specious logic (or no logic at all) to justify throwing the book at solid conservatives in the name of being “holier than thou”.

No thanks. I’ll stick with the tried-and-true, proven conservative organization the American Conservative Union, which hosts CPAC every year and has been a reliable metric of commitment to the cause of liberty since it was founded by William Buckley in the days of Goldwater.

They have Rigell with a lifetime score of 80 and Hurt with a lifetime score of 88. More importantly, they tell you what goes into the score, and it’s not just based off a handful of votes. They don’t have ratings for the 2015-2016 Congress yet, but it seems highly unlikely that they’ll give Comstock and Connolly similar ratings since, you know, that’s incredibly stupid.

Now, I know there’s nothing stopping so-called Republicans like Jeanine Martin to dismiss the ACU as insufficiently conservative, if for no other reason than the ACU doesn’t irrationally hate conservative leaders like Barbara Comstock. When it comes to combating sour grapes and petulant flailing, unfortunately, reason and common sense have their limits.
Pingback: This Website Probably Can’t Get Clicks Anymore | JHPolitics()
Robert Kenyon

What is Morgan Griffith doing with a D? That sounds… off.
Steve Albertson

This Conservative Review rating thing is nonsense. One has to have a very unique view of what it constitutes to be conservative to give Rob Wittman an ‘F’ grade, or Robert Hurt and Morgan Griffith ‘D’ grades.
- Lawrence Wood
  
  These is a difference between disagreement and dismissal. Without establishing what you contend to be your base criteria for conservative practice in the political arena you are not practicing anything much differently then the Virginia Vision PAC school house grading system. Those other guys have a “unique view”, why? because I claim they do. A worthwhile effort would be to have a meaningful discussion on what really constitutes conservative practice in Virginia. Not some silly party plank list, or Reagan’s rules (which seemed to have appeared only after the President was no longer among us), but what does it mean today to be labeled a Virginia conservative, as it seems so many politicians consider this label wrapping a MUST DO at election time.
- kelley
  
  thank you. I thought your blog was really going in the weeds with this post.
- Waverly Woods
  
  Then what about their scores on Heritage Action or Freedom Works? All three have terrible scores with those organizations.
- Reinhardt Reganbacker lll
  
  Congressman Wittman is as fine a man as you will ever meet. He voted against the bailouts in 2008, against TAA, TPA. Yet the wack jobs basically call him a Liberal?
  
  Is the Republican Party out of control?
- Bruce Hedrick
  
  I’m getting memories of Saturday Night Live’s classic “Point/Counterpoint” skit with Steve’s reply.
  
  “Jeanine, you ignorant…”
  - Waverly Woods
    
    More like the “Cone Heads” that don’t really read the bills before they vote on them. Bruce why don’t you try reading before you call someone a name! Do you actually comprehend what our GOP leaders are giving away for their OWN political gain?
    - Bruce Hedrick
      
      Your myopic eyes are focused on one bill where yet again you will claim “The Sky Is Falling”. The sky isn’t falling nor has it fell the other 294 times I’ve heard that.
      
      My focus is on the overall lame-ass report card that says Robert Hurt earned a “D” and should face a primary opponent. That’s idiotic.
      - Waverly Woods
        
        Fast Track and Obamatrade (TPA/TPP) comes down to this for me:
        
        1. After the disastrous 6 year reign of Obama is there any evidence he can be trusted? No.
        
        2. Paul Ryan and other GOP House members say this legislation will take power away from Obama. But, Obama is fighting to push this through. Hmmm. Would any rational person believe Obama would work so hard to divest himself of any power? No.
        
        3. The GOP has been given sizable majorities in the House and now a majority in the Senate. Yet, can you name ONE thing they have done to STOP Obama’s power grab and his destructive agenda? No.
        
        So, how can anyone possibly believe this legislation is good for America?
        
        I think the bumper sticker for this should be “It’s the TRUST, Stupid!”
        
        You may be able to find some things that appear to be just great in the bill, but I would refer you back to these.
      - Stephen Spiker
        
        The one thing Obama has been good on–really, all Presidents have been good on since Clinton–is free trade.
        
        Perhaps that’s because almost all economists recognize that free trade is beneficial and important to economies. Really, the only people opposed to it are labor unions and liberals who are beholden to the union lobby.
        
        Oh, and so-called “conservatives” who are more interested in pairing up with Elizabeth Warren than with governing conservatively.
      - Waverly Woods
        
        Well my friend the “so called conservatives” are the only ones holding government accountable to the very folks that put them in office.
      - Bruce Hedrick
        
        I’d give you some credit for having an original response if your reply had actually been an original response. Instead, you just plagiarized the same questions and answers from somebody else.
        
        Citation:
      - Waverly Woods
        
        Actually, many on an email thread had the same position. We ALL agreed to the same statement. Check your facts before you accuse someone of plagiarizing. Perhaps you were not apart of that email tread. Humm. So thanks for the credit.
      - Bruce Hedrick
        
        Perhaps you should check the definition of plagiarizing. You just admitted to it. You took someone else’s words and published them as your own without attribution.
      - Waverly Woods
        
        Perhaps you should read what I wrote again. “Actually, many on an email thread had the same position. We ALL agreed to the same statement.” When a group of individuals agree to the same statement to use it’s not plagiarizing, it’s an agreed statement. Nice try though.
      - Bruce Hedrick
        
        That’s not the way it works. You’ve been reduced to an automaton who responds to germane counterpoints with a cue card reply that doesn’t address the discussion. That’s sad.
      - Waverly Woods
        
        BLAH BLAH BLAH, you have more rhetoric. That’s sad. If we shall play like children then, sticks and stone little boy.
      - Bruce Hedrick
        
        Words Have Meanings. 🙂
      - Waverly Woods
        
        Glad there is something you can comprehend.
    - Bruce Hedrick
      
      By the way, Congress is giving away their opportunity to amend the final version of the agreement. That’s a quite good thing. In exchange for that, they get a “Yes or No?” final answer decision which gives a lot of motivation for the dealmakers to make it acceptable to everybody, or else 9 months of their time is flushed down the toilet.
Drew

Oh, thats rich. So if anyone bothered to read the metrics for the Liberty Score, its the 50 “most important” votes over the past 6 years. I guess we should get rid of Comstock because she didn’t vote on something BEFORE she was in office? If this was a real organization, that was using real data, they wouldn’t include anyone that hasn’t been in office for at least 6 years.

To quote from their website – “The Liberty Score (Which they trade marked, so I’m guessing they are looking to profit off of all of this) grades members of Congress on the top 50 votes over the past 6 years. The rolling six-year window shows a more accurate picture of a lawmaker’s performance than the traditional one or two-year scoring method.”

At least they admit that their own ratings are useless based on their non-public criteria. I’m honestly wondering if the Democrats are trying to stir this stuff up (See Jeanine).
Lawrence Wood

The same group of anonymous (but completely known) commenters regurgitating the same content free talking points, valid corrections aside. Constantly attacking Ms. Martin is not a rebuttal and after constant repetition it becomes more like a group of nine year old school yard bullies arguing over whose turn it is to use the kickball. I happen to also have little faith in these type of mysteriously constructed rating schemes but the bulk of these contributions provide no basis for any meaningful discussion of the issue. Your tendency to personalize every issue at TBE debases the discussion for everyone. Is that your only purpose here?
- ChinTurret
  
  People point out mistakes made by JM, then she admits it and corrects it. What’s wrong with that? It happens often, so any inference that she is not careful with what she posts or doesn’t really care is not unexpected.
  - Lawrence Wood
    
    Keep it factual no problem, personalize, slur, rant – problem. Simple as that.
  - Bruce Hedrick
    
    What planet do you live on?
Sgt Saunders

Albertson, please be specific, I can say the weather is lousy too, Comstock and the CR reason for scoring her record is listed in detail. If there are any errors, indicate, or perhaps you define “conservative” differently that. https://www.conservativereview.com/Members/Scorecard/B/412658
- George
  
  I looked at the web site and I don’t see how anyone is scored.
  - Virginia Free Citizen
    
    Lets take HURT as an example: Both scores at Heritage and CR are 68%, which is the average score for the GOP establishment. What has the GOP done for you lately except cave on critical issues. No spine and they don’t listen to the citizen…they are probably more interested in getting party funding for the next election, so they follow along like a line of ducks…quack quack here, quack quack there, everywhere a quack quack. Folks like Brat STAND UP against this duck duck establishment.
    …anyways….First you read how they are scored, then you look at the individual’s score card and how they voted over time. You may have to “register” to dig deeper and recommend you look at both CR and HA.
    https://www.conservativereview.com/liberty-score
    The Liberty Score® grades
    members of Congress on the top 50 votes over the past six years. The
    rolling six-year window is a more accurate picture of a lawmaker’s
    performance than traditional one or two-year scoring methods. Scores are
    determined by points earned divided by potential points. Voting with
    the conservative position earns 1 point, voting against the conservative
    position earns nothing. Missed votes are not included in a member of
    Congress’ score.
    
    Robert Hurt:
    https://www.conservativereview.com/Members/Scorecard/R/412484
    
    He voted for the FastTrack TPP, which folks like Ryan claim is free trade, but this thing is under lock and key and we can’t even read it.. …..you have to click on each YEAR to see how he voted on bills, add up the points or no points and according to the scoring formula, he is at 68%.
    
    Then look at Heritage Action scorecard:
    http://www.heritageactionscorecard.com/members/member/H001060
Rick Buchanan

Guess you guys are right, that Conservative review, the one that Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh recommend, is a real lousy piece of work. Especially if YOU have never heard of it, right?
So you have heard of Heritage, right? Well, let’s just take a look at what their ratings are for these folks. http://www.heritageactionscorecard.com/state/state/va
Hmmmmm…. Well, I’ll be, these three rate in the bottom of the Virginia Republican pack in this one too. Hurt 68, Comstock 54 and Rigell 50. Guess it must just be coincidence.
Funny, though, how these bottom raters are going along with the “leadership” to give Obama just what he wants. That, my friends, is rally what this is about. So stop picking at nits and start stopping the “leadership” from stearing the ship of state into statism. Join in and call these folks and tell them to stop this insane attempt to ruin our country in the name of free trade. You know very well this really has nothing to do with free trade and more to do with the usual cronyism.
- Alan
  
  Well stated!
Borderhawk

The liberty ratings are a like an advanced class in being a conservative. The % is the regular class. But to get a good liberty rating you have to cosponsor certain bills I guess.

Bob Goodlatte deserves to be primaried for trying to pass amnesty for illegals. Goodlatte is the best guy to primary after Cantor lost. Remove the House Judiciary RINO.
Peacemaker

Well, if they give Brat an “A”, then the other three MUST be doing something right.

Virginia Vision PAC Calls for Primary Challenges to Three Virginia Congressman

Your life will be better if you click one of these