Abingdon Democrat Anthony Flaccavento thinks he can beat GOP incumbent U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith in Southwest Virginia’s Fightin’ Ninth Congressional District in the November general election despite two glaring disadvantages.
Flaccavento is way behind Griffith in campaign fund raising, and he isn’t being helped by a strong perception that incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama is anti-coal.
“(Obama) doesn’t poll too terribly strongly. That’s in part because the right has done such an effective job denying every positive thing that has come out of his administration and highlighting things that are half true about him,” Flaccavento said in an interview. “(Republicans) have been winning the media wars because of the dominance of Fox (News) and right-wing talk radio. The president’s record is one of the casualties of that.”
In response, Griffith campaign spokesman Matthew Moran said Obama is unpopular in Southwest Virginia because he has failed the district.
“It’s that simple,” Moran said.
Still, Flaccavento campaign spokesman Dave Miranda said Flaccavento is running behind Griffith “closer than you might suspect” in internal polls.
“The key takeaway (from the Flaccavento polling) was our opponent’s support is surprisingly soft. ... He’s not entrenched and especially popular. ... This race is definitely winnable if we can get our message out there,” Miranda said.
Flaccavento said his upcoming TV ad campaign will be a combination of touting his core message and contrasting what Griffith has done since he defeated longtime incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher two years ago.
Flaccavento said that core message is talking about jobs and the economy.
“It has to be a bottom-up economy. ... We need to be helping small business and family farmers, and investing in infrastructure as opposed to trickle-down economics, which is what my opponent and his party have put their stake in,” Flaccavento said. “(But) I think the country has moved to the right over the last 10 years or so. It’s been a long-term effort on the part of Fox News and others to move the country to the right, and they’ve succeeded. But again the core message is if we invest in local communities, family farms and free up the independent banks, we really can build an economy that creates jobs and meets community needs better.”
Flaccavento is also counting on Boucher’s old support base to get behind him. He’s been endorsed by Boucher and various union groups, including the United Mine Workers.
“He’s still tremendously popular and well known throughout the district,” Flaccavento said of Boucher. “I would say the base was relatively demoralized and scattered when I started into the campaign the first of March. I think part of what I’m enthused about is in a few short months, we have really succeeded in getting folks out and galvanizing the leadership at the county level. ... We have bigger and bigger crowds that are coming out. ... I think we’ve gone from people being somewhat shell shocked by what happened in the last election to people being very excited about this election generally and my campaign specifically.”
Unlike Griffith, Flaccavento does not support repealing Obama’s signature accomplishment — the federal health care reform law — because of provisions to help coal miners with black lung disease.
“I support improving it, building on it, and strengthening it,” Flaccavento said of the law. “(Republicans) wanted black lung benefits eliminated. How are you pro-coal if you are opposed to those provisions? ... I’m pro coal miner and coal mining family.”
Campaign finance disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission at the end of June showed Flaccavento had only raised about $94,000 for his campaign, compared to Griffith’s $991,400, including almost a half million dollars from political action committee contributions.
But Flaccavento sounded confident that major fund-raising groups like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee will help him.
“We’ve moved in their eyes from being a total long shot race to a race they are keeping their eyes on, and we’re expecting they will be joining us as partners,” Flaccavento said of DCCC.
Flaccavento has two debates scheduled with Griffith: In Emory on Oct. 18 and in Bluefield on Oct. 22.
For more about Flaccavento go to www.flaccaventoforthe9th.com.