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The results of yesterday’s elections are historic in many obvious ways. Unlike 1994, Virginians participated in making that history by turning over three liberal incumbent members of the House of Representatives (see Washington Post), including a 28-year veteran previoulsy thought unbeatable, someone who hadn’t had a competitive race in years. So we congratulate three friends of The Family Foundation who won their races yesterday and are on their way to Congress:

» Congressman-elect Morgan Griffith (Newsweek’s The Gaggle blog), a 100 percent TFF voter as a member of the House of Delegates;

» Congressman-elect Robert Hurt (Danville Register & Bee), a 91 percent TFF voter as a member of the Virginia Senate; and

» Congressman-elect Scott Rigell (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot), a donor to our organization.

In the 11th district, liberal incumbent Gerry Connolly has a narrow lead over conservative challenger Keith Fimian, a vote likely to be recounted (Wall Street Journal Washington Wire blog). Pending that outcome, eight of Virginia’s 11 Representatives are Republican. We were pleased to participate in the voter education and get-out-the-vote efforts in these districts. Some of you may have received our GOTV phone calls over the weekend.

In some ways, though, the elections went beyond politics. While the national and state media focus on Congressional outcomes, something happened a bit below the surface that is even more historic — and perhaps longer term.

For example, at least 19 state legislative bodies, including those in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Iowa, North Carolina and Ohio flipped partisan control to Republicans (John Hood at National Review’s The Corner blog and Ryan Beckwith at CQ Politics’ The Eye blog). In fact, the North Carolina Legislature is Republican for the first time since 1870. The Alabama legislature is Republican for the first time since 1876.

I don’t tell you that to trumpet Republicans, but because our sister family policy council organizations inform us that many of those elected yesterday support pro-family policies. These organizations ran campaigns similar to our Winning Matters 2009 program and saw pro-life, pro-family candidates win across the board. More important than simply electing people of one particular party, citizens in these states elected pro-family conservatives.

Possibly more telling, voters in Iowa defeated three Supreme Court judges instrumental in imposing homosexual marriage on that state against the will of the people via judicial fiat (New York Times). It is the first time since judges have been on the ballot in Iowa (1962) that they have been defeated on Election Day. Once again, when the issue of marriage is put to the people, traditional marriage wins.

Now, the question is, will the message sent by the voters yesterday carry over into next year’s crucial Virginia Senate elections? Will party leaders get the message that motivates voters and give us candidates that are unapologetically pro-life and pro-family? Will Virginia follow the lead of other states that brought wholesale change to their legislatures? Will party leaders endorse incumbents for the sake of “party unity” or listen to the voters? Time will tell if they truly got the message.

CitizenLink has produced and is airing a radio ad in support of 11th district Republican Congressional candidate Keith Fimian. The 30 second ad denounces the record debt created, taxes raised and Washington’s assault on our faith and values over the last two years. 

The ad is in conjunction with a CitizenLink mailer (in which Family Foundation Action partnered) sent to 11th district values voters within the last few days that criticizes the Democrat incumbent Gerry Connolly (click here). 

To hear the ad and to distribute it to voters in the 11th district via e-mail or social media sites, click here then scroll to the bottom of the page. 

Our sister organization, Family Foundation Action, and CitizenLink, have partnered on a mailer sent to values voters in Virginia’s 11th Congressional district. The campaign there is between first-term Democrat Gerry Connolly and Republican Keith Fimian. The mailer documents Mr. Connolly’s voting record, which received a zero on the Family Research Council Action scorecard. Among the lowlights are a 97 percent voting record in lockstep with the Obama-Pelosi agenda, including voting for the $800 billion failed “stimulus” bill, the monstrous Obamacare government takeover of the health care industry and taxpayer funded abortions.

To view it online, to print or forward the mailer on Congressman Connolly’s record to other voters in the 11th district (or if you don’t live in the 11th but know people who do), click here. 

Most agree this is the most important mid-term election in decades, if ever. It will determine whether we continue on a course sharply to the left, or apply the brakes and set a steady, constitutional course. Be informed and make the best decision you can reach, then  exercise the full power of your citizenship and vote on Tuesday; and think about getting more involved by spreading the word about the 11th district campaign or any of Virginia’s other 10 Congressional districts.

If you live in the 11th district, but didn’t receive the mailer, sign up to get updates from  CitizenLink by clicking here. For those who visit this site but do not receive Family Foundation alerts, click here to sign up.

Here’s more information about the voter guide for the November 2 11th Congressional District election. They are non-partisan guides that give the candidates’ positions on issues important to people of faith such as their positions on life and marriage. This race is between incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly and Republican challenger Keith Fimian. These guides are jointly produced by The Prince William & Manassas Family Forum, The Fairfax Family Forum and The Family Foundation Action and are legal for distribution in churches and other houses of worship.

You can order a quantity of voter guides for yourself, your friends and family, and your church by contacting one of the following people:

» Denny Daugherty: dennydaugherty@erols.com (Prince William/Manassas)

» Bob Allen: 703-361-2278 (Prince William/Manassas)

» Terry Wear: tjwear@yahoo.com (Fairfax)

» The Fairfax Family Forum: fairfaxfamilyforum@gmail.com (Fairfax)

You can view (and print) the voter guide by clicking here.

Even if you don’t live in the district, you can share it on your social media networks and via e-mail with people you know who live in Fairfax and Prince William Counties and Manassas.

The voter guides also will be available at the Northern Virginia IS Pro Life Rally tomorrow from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Government Center Ellipse in Fairfax (more information is at the Fairfax Family Forum and at the organizer’s site, Pro-Life Unity). There are only two Sundays left between now and the election, so we hope voters in Northern Virginia will take advantage of these guides and distribute them as widely as possible.

The Family Foundation Action, our sister organization, yesterday released a voter guide on the positions of the candidates running for the House of Representatives in the 11th Congressional district: incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly and Republican challenger Keith Fimian. The guide was compiled in conjunction with two of our Northern Virginia affiliates, the Prince William-Manassas Family Alliance and Fairfax Family Forum.

The 11th Congressional District voter guide is available for download by clicking here.

It can be printed and distributed to interested groups or individuals, forwarded to e-mail lists, or you share it on social media sites. If you want bulk copies, contact Roger Pogge at 804-343-0010 or at roger@familyfoundation.org.

Speaking of guides, Congressman Connolly scored a whopping zero on the FRC Action Scorecard for the last two years in the House of Representatives and only 9 percent on ecomonic issues from The Club For Growth.

In the hotly contested and close 11th district Congressional race, Republican Keith Fimian, by all accounts, took it to incumbent Democrat Gerry Connolly at Tysons Corner debate last night. 

Here’s a Fimian quote as reporter by the Washington Examiner (click here for the entire article):

The single most important thing government can do to create jobs is reduce uncertainty. Mr. Connolly doesn’t know that — he’s never created a job his whole life. As a consequence, he is not in a position to fix what’s broken.

The line is emerging, perhaps, as Fimian’s closing argument. He is spotlighting Connolly’s record as chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and now in Congress: increased property taxes, two pay raises, and a $650 million deficit. In only one term in Congress, Connolly voted for  more than $600 billion in new taxes, supported Nancy Pelosi 97 percent of the time, and helped create an unsustainable national debt by voting for the stimulus and Obamacare.

Fimian sees a “pattern,” thus the name of his latest television ad:

Republican Keith Fimian setting the record straight on Gerry Connolly’s “pro-business” record.

FRC Action yesterday released its Congressional Scorecard for the 111th Congress. It was excellent for some Virginia lawmakers, a disaster for most. More about that below. First, here’s FRC Action President Tony Perkins’ explanation of the scorecard’s methodology:

From January 2009 through August of this year, Congress voted on an increasingly bold liberal agenda that covered everything from international abortion funding and “hate crimes” to a record ten votes on ObamaCare and the confirmation of two controversial Supreme Court justices. FRC Action has compiled those votes in its annual scorecard for the 111th Congress.

Taking into account 16 votes in the House and 24 in the Senate, we honor 110 Congressmen {5 from Virginia} and 17 Senators as “True Blue” — men and women who voted consistently with FRC Action’s position on a cross-section of issues affecting the family.

To download a PDF copy of the scorecard, click here. The scorecard details the specific votes and issues scored and provides an informative background on the 111th Congress itself, as well as other worthwhile information. We hope you take some time to look it over, especially during this crucial election season, to inform yourself on how your Congressman voted on issues important to the family, traditional values and economic and religious liberty. (Not ironically, see how similarly Virginia’s Congressional delegation fared from the Club For Growth, which monitors taxes, spending and economic matters.)

Quick thoughts: I never thought I’d see the day when a congressman who voted against Christmas (Bobby Scott) could receive a better score from a family values organization than other members from a Virginia delegation, but both Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran got goose eggs. As for our two senators, Jim Webb followed the Connolly and Moran lead, while that self-proclaimed “raging centrist” Mark Warner had the second lowest score of the 13 Virginians in Congress: A ”whopping” 4%! I guess it’s true. This really is what he thinks of us.

House (see page 7)

1st District: Robert Wittman (R): 100%

2nd District: Glenn Nye (D): 37%

3rd District: Bobby Scott (D): 6%

4th District: Randy Forbes (R): 100%

5th District: Tom Perriello (D): 12%

6th District: Bob Goodlatte (R): 100%

7th District: Eric Cantor (R): 100%

8th District: Jim Moran (D): 0%

9th District: Rick Boucher (D): 25%

10th District: Frank Wolf (R): 100%

11th District: Gerry Connolly (D): 0% 

Senate (see page 11)

Jim Webb (D): 0%

Mark Warner (D): 4%

In 1994, a year after George Allen led a historic landslide Republican victory in the Old Dominion, Virginia was, for the most part, left out of the national limelight in the even more historic national Republican wave that won the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate for the first time in more than 40years. Oliver North lost a hotly contested Senate race to Chuck Robb and the GOP picked up only one House seat (the 11th, Tom Davis) while Republicans were winning in all corners of America. Was reason given by pundits at the time was that Virginians had gotten the protest out of their system in 1993.

This year, following last year’s more-impressive-than-1993 Bob McDonnell-led-landslide, Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins has been fond of saying that to take back the House, the GOP needs to gain 40 seats; 10 percent of that is here in Virginia. Now, as Jim Geraghty of National Review’s Campaign Spot blog writes today, polling information shows those victories may be within reach: Three Republican challengers in those four targeted districts are leading their Democrat incumbent rivals, with a fourth closing fast. Here’s the breakdown:

» In the 2nd Congressional District, Republican Scott Rigell leads Democrat Glenn Nye, 48.6 to 34.5 percent.

» In the 5th District, Republican Robert Hurt leads Democrat Tom Perriello, 51.1 to 34.7 percent.

» In the 11th District, Republican Keith Fimian leads Democrat Gerry Connolly, 42.2 percent to 36.7 percent.

» In the 9th District, Republican challenger Morgan Griffith is down to Democrat Rick Boucher only 42.6 to 39.7 percent. However, one poll had Boucher up by 20 points about a month back, then by only 8 points a couple of weeks ago. The recent fallout over Mr. Boucher buying a brand new Ford with campaign funds while Virginians in the Southwest part of the state are suffering particularly hard during this recession could easily factor into a quickly narrowing gap.

The rest of the respondents in each poll were undecided. Tellingly, though, the poll, conducted by ccAdvdertising, does not include independents or third parties. Although not a top tier polling outfit, the snapshot does provide a glimpse of what directions the campaigns are going and who has momentum.

Not all landslides are the same and electorates can swing back from whence they came in a very short time. But this year, Virginia Democrats have much going against them, much more so than in 1994. Many of the circumstances that drove people to the polls and to the GOP in Virginia and in blue New Jersey (and deep blue Massachusetts in January) last year are still around: Primarily, as in the case of Congressman Boucher, this:

This love is going to last, but that might not be a good thing.

And this:

He’s doing fine, representing liberal special interests rather then his constituents.

Republicans need to gain 40 seats in November’s midterm elections to win control of the House of Representatives. Ten percent of that goal is in Virginia, where targeted incumbent Democrats Rick Boucher (VA-9), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Glenn Nye (VA-2) and Tom Perriello (VA-5) are being challenged by House of Delegates Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, Keith Fimian, Scott Rigell and Virginia Senator Robert Hurt, respectively. Connolly, Nye and Perriello all are freshmen and Perriello may be the number one GOP target in the entire country given his razor thin victory in 2008 and the 5th’s generally conservative leanings (Charlottesville Daily Progress). Perhaps no House win pleased liberals more.

Now, according to a poll released yesterday by SurveyUSA for Roanoke television station WDBJ, Representative Perriello may be toast (see American Prospect’s Tapped Blog and the Washington Post’s Virginia Politics Blog). It shows the 5th to be a blowout already: Hurt up by a 58-35 margin (see National Review Online’s Campaign Spot Blog).

While many GOP House candidates are polling well, few have the numbers that elicited a “WOW” from NRO’s Jim Geraghty. Of course, polls this early can mean anything and the pros will say SurveyUSA is not a top tier pollster on the lines of Mason-Dixon or Rasmussen Reports. But, SurveyUSA was the first to poll Virginia last summer (51 weeks ago, to be exact) and it had all three statewide races right from the beginning to the very end, including double digit leads when all the more “reputable” polls showed it closer. In fact, one political pro told me the SurveyUSA results were “embarrassing,” but the only people embarrassed last November were the doubters and the Democrats.

The numbers are even more astounding considering a hard fought Republican primary, a Libertarian candidate and some TEA Party dissatisfaction with Senator Hurt. (SurveyUSA breaks down its research here.) It admits it has factored Republican turnout to be much greater than Democrat turnout (not surprising since when comparing the U.Va. student drop-of from 2008, where Perriello benefited from a large Barack Obama student turnout, to 2009). However, SurveyUSA says even if it factors in a 50-50 Republican-Democrat turnout, Hurt still wins by 11 points. At this point. (Which would allow the GOP to focus on the other three seats.) But, if the trend holds, it’s a remarkable sign for House Republicans — and one down and 39 to go.

Speaking of needing no explanation, here’s Gerry Connolly’s colleague U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge showing the love to a college student:

Kind of makes “macaca” seem tame.