Barbara Comstock is the Republican challenger in the race against first term Democrat Margaret Vanderhye.  Ms. Vanderhye won the seat that was being vacated by Vince Callahan.  It was a seat he had held since 1968.  She defeated Dave hunt by only 540 votes.

As of the last reporting period, Ms. Comstock appears to have the upper hand in cash on hand–$167,000 to Ms. Vanderhye’s $123,000.

This race is currently rated a Tossup by Swing State Project.

We will continue to keep an eye on this district.

Yesterday, I was thinking about the perfect post in response to The Washington Post’s article exposing Governor Tim Kaine’s recent absences. However, Jim Geraghty’s post in National Review eloquently made the points I was looking to make.

It’s pretty bad when your Governor decides to neglect the Commonwealth in the midst of a budget crisis and rising unemployment rates to go out of state and play partisan politics in his so-called part-time gig as DNC Chairman.

Unemployment rates are at 20% in Martinsville, and Governor Kaine had the opportunity to close a deal with Apple Computers to build a computer data center in Southside Virginia, but failed to follow through with an amendment that would have exempted Apple from paying sales taxes. This data center will now be built in North Carolina. (In case, you were wondering Governor Kaine was at the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles, when the Apple deal was dropped.)

Perhaps, it is time for Governor Kaine to spend more time in Virginia doing what the people elected him to do…serve the Commonwealth.

The fight for our nation’s future has a new focus.  In Virginia, right across the river from Barack Obama’s White House.  Right now.

If you care about our nation’s direction – if you care about rising taxes, the specter of out-of-control government growth, the public humiliation of business owners, the assaults on marriage, our faith communities, and the right to life, the raw power being handed over to unions and radical interest groups — you don’t have to wait until next year to fight back.  You can fight alongside us – the new Virginia Values Voter (VVV) PAC – in political contests we can win now –contests that will shape the national debate in 2010.

The new Virginia Values Voter PAC, founded by some of the most dedicated pro-family leaders in the nation, is ready with a gameplan to win these contests.   We want to turn the tide now – and with your help, we can.

Let’s remember. Virginia played a special role in the founding of American liberty.  It was the home of Washington and Jefferson, Madison and Mason, Patrick Henry and James Monroe.  Ideas that took form here shaped our nation’s understanding of religious liberty and limited government.

Frankly, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress want to hit us so hard we can’t recover.  Having won Virginia in the 2008 election, they are moving into this conservative-leaning state with lightning speed.  Their nominee for Virginia’s governorship, Creigh Deeds, is just the kind of stealth candidate the Left has preferred all over the nation.

What would a Deeds victory this November mean?  Look at his record.

• In 2006 he supported the popular amendment to the Virginia constitution that preserved marriage as the union of one man and one woman but now says his support was a mistake.
• As a state delegate, he voted against parental consent before a minor girl could undergo an abortion
• In the Virginia legislature last year, he compiled a 100% voting record rating from NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia
• This year he was endorsed in the gubernatorial primary by the ultraliberal Washington Post.

You know what happens next.  The national Democrats, who are targeting the Virginia legislature for takeover this fall, will portray Deeds as a moderate and pro-family candidates as out of the mainstream.  The media won’t tell the voters of Virginia about Deeds’ real record and why national Democrats are backing him to the hilt.

But the Virginia Values Voter PAC will.  We can’t afford to let this Washington Post-endorsed liberal do the same thing in the general election.