Northern Virginia House races 'most winnable,' major GOP fundraiser says

William C. Cook
The Examiner
Thursday, October 08, 2009

Northern Virginia, a region that fueled the state's nearly decadelong Democratic takeover, now offers some of the "most winnable" House races for Republicans, the head of a powerful GOP political action committee said Wednesday.

GOPAC, a group that helped bankroll the national "Republican Revolution" of 1994, announced an at least $100,000 commitment to Virginia races on Wednesday, most of it for a handful of Republican House incumbents and challengers. Five of the campaigns are in the Washington suburbs, an area that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

"We always look for the most winnable races; it just so happens that a lot of them this year are in Northern Virginia," said GOPAC Chairman Frank Donatelli. "We think we have a real opportunity to break through and become much more competitive in this region than maybe Republicans have been in the past."

Republican candidateshave not fared well in recent House elections in the Washington suburbs. In 2007, Democrats knocked off two of the region's Republican state senators, helping the party gain control of the chamber, and picked up seats in the House of Delegates.

Donatelli said declines in Obama's popularity, as well as the strength of the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Bob McDonnell, who maintains a substantial lead in polls, have injected new competitiveness into the region's House races.

"I definitely reject the idea that Northern Virginia is not winnable and that our party should pay less attention to the region," Donatelli said. "It's the biggest, it's the richest, it's the fastest-growing region in the state, so we need to pay more attention to it, not less. That's one thing we're trying to say with our investments in these candidates from Northern Virginia."