election 2016 – Page 2 – C-VILLE Weekly

Eye on the door: Hurt heading back to Chatham

Typically when a mid-career politician says he’s not seeking reelection, it means he’s looking at a run for higher office or is involved in a scandal. U.S. Representative Robert Hurt laughs when asked which prompted his decision to not run for a fourth term.

“I was first elected in 2000,” the Republican legislator says in a phone interview from Washington. “I was 30 years old. I never envisioned doing that as a career.”

He says leaving Congress is something he and his wife Kathy have been talking about for months. “Every year you serve, it’s more difficult to make a decision not to run,” he says.

And at age 46, “my desire is to look for other ways to serve,” he says.

Hurt’s first elected office was the Chatham Town Council. In 2002, he went to Richmond to the House of Delegates and in 2008, to the Senate. In 2010 he challenged incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello for the 5th District seat and won.

Gridlock in Washington is “frustrating,” he says, but was not the reason he decided not to run. “I hope with the new leadership, we’ll see more progress on that front with Paul Ryan,” he says.

On January 6, Hurt voted for the 60th or so time to repeal the Affordable Care Act. As for legislation not destined to be vetoed, he says, “I’ve always put forward legislation with bipartisan co-sponsors with a focus to create jobs.”

He cites the Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act that he introduced last year, co-sponsored by Democratic senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, which has not made it out of committee.

Hurt serves on the House Financial Services Committee and says he’s looking for ways to make it easier for businesses to get capital and turn it into jobs, which is particularly an issue in economically hard hit Southside.

Since Hurt announced he was not seeking reelection, three Republicans—state Senator Tom Garrett, Bedford developer Jim McKelvey and conservative think-tanker Michael Del Rosso have tossed their caps into the ring. Hurt says he’s not endorsing anyone.

And while he says the future is an open book, he’s pretty sure it will include practicing law in Chatham.

GOP loyalty: Primary pledge draws mixed reaction among local Republicans

Virginia has a history of parties requiring primary voters to affirm they’re loyal Democrats or Republicans. However, three African-American pastors who are Donald Trump supporters filed a lawsuit claiming the pledge required by the state GOP—“My signature below indicates I am a Republican”—will discourage minorities and the poor from voting in the March 1 primary.

Just ahead of absentee ballots going out, federal Judge Heather Lauck refused to issue a preliminary injunction January 14 to halt the pledge, a requirement Trump has loudly lambasted.

On December 27, he tweeted, “It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!”

“If someone refuses to sign the Republican affirmation, they can’t vote in the Republican primary,” says Charlottesville Electoral Board member Rick Sincere.

State code allows parties to use pledges, says Sincere, and both Democrats and Republicans have used them in the past.

At the polls on primary day, voters will be asked in which primary they want to vote, says Sincere. Once a voter has asked for a Republican ballot, “it’s a matter of public record,” he says.

Because Virginia has an open primary, there’s nothing to keep members of one party voting in another’s primary, says Geoffrey Skelley with UVA’s Center for Politics. In 2000, the state GOP “had a pledge for voters to sign promising to not participate in the nominating process of another party in the hopes of discouraging such behavior,” he says.

Reaction among city Republicans has been divided, according to Barbara Null, chair of the Republican Party of Charlottesville and co-chair for the Ted Cruz campaign in the 5th District. “This whole thing could be avoided if we registered by party in Virginia.”

“It’s not an oath,” says Albemarle County Republican Committee Chair Cindi Burket. “It’s an affirmation that people voting in the Republican primary are Republicans.” She says she’s telling party members it won’t inhibit their right to vote.

Bedford developer Jim McKelvey, who is the 5th District co-chair for the Trump campaign and a candidate for the congressional seat, is not a pledge supporter. “I simply think [the Republican Party of Virginia] is attempting to manipulate the system against a couple of candidates they don’t want,” he says. “I think we’ve got a couple of candidates that scare them to death.”

It’s tough to say whether the pledge will have any outcome on the primary in Virginia, says Skelley. “My understanding is that the pledge is not legally binding, so there’s little to stop someone who doesn’t consider herself a Republican from signing it and voting anyway,” he says. “However, it could dissuade some people from voting because they don’t want to sign something that might be viewed as a lie.”