Connolly lauds Obama’s accomplishments

“I’m proud to have stood by President Barack Obama’s agenda, and I’m not running away from it,” Rep. Gerry Connolly told a roomful of supporters Wednesday evening.

Connolly, a Democrat, represents Virginia’s 11th district (which includes Annandale, along with most of Fairfax and Prince Williams counties). He was swept into office in 2008, as a majority of Virginians voted for Obama. The political climate has changed quite a bit since then, and Connolly faces a tough re-election battle against Republican challenger Keith Fimian.

At the monthly meeting of the Brigades, a grassroots group formed to support the campaign of Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, Connolly said he was proud to have voted for legislation promoted by Obama, including comprehensive health care reform, Wall Street reform, the stimulus bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, cap and trade, health insurance for children, revamped student loans, and the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq.

Connolly says the stimulus bill provided funding to complete the Fairfax County Parkway, save over 800 teaching positions in Prince William County, and support technology innovations to support the move to a smart grid system, and create at least 3 million jobs nationwide, including thousands in Northern Virginia.

So with all that has been accomplished in the past year and a-half, he says, why do the polls report that “Americans are unhappy and anxious”? It’s because we’re recovering from the “worst recession in 80 years and things aren’t improving fast enough.”

Noting that Americans lost $17.5 trillion of aggregate household income in this recession, Connolly says, “No wonder people are nervous.” People have to delay retirement and rethink where they had planned to send their children to college while their homes have lost a third of their value.

“We need to do a better job of telling the story of what we have done,” he says. “We need to remind ourselves what we fought so hard for two years ago. We are on the right track. The only thing the other side has to offer is, ‘no, we don’t want that.’ ” He believes “history is going to be a good judge of what we accomplished.”

When asked by a Brigades member if he “will allow the Bush tax cuts to expire,” Connolly said the economy is still fragile, and the “prudent course would be a temporary extension of the tax cuts right now so we don’t damage the recovery.” He acknowledged the “Bush tax cuts were a mistake from day 1,” added $2 trillion to the deficit, produced a net loss of jobs, and created “economic havoc.”

“I do not favor a permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts,” he says. But ending them prematurely, would “risk the economy going south.” He noted that the 11th district is “the wealthiest district in America, based on household income, and “we need to preserve that economy.”

In response to other questions from the audience, Connolly said he supports legislation to give police officers and firefighters collective bargaining rights and does not favor shifting federal defense spending from private contractors to the federal government. “What created the economy in Northern Virginia is federal contracting,” he said, and most contractors are small businesses.

Connolly said it will be crucial for Democrats to get the vote out in the mid-term election and urged everyone to put a Connolly bumper sticker on their cars, noting “this kind of visibility is particularly important this year.”

During the last presidential election, the Democrats carried the 11th district for the first time in 24 years, and “it wasn’t even close,” he said. Voter turnout in the 11th district was nearly 80 percent. This election, “we’ll be lucky to get 40 percent.”

“We’re going to win this election with your help,” he says. It’s going to be crucial to get women, minorities, and young people to the polls; “those are the groups the other side is counting on not voting.” And he predicted the “other side” will focus on “socialized medicine and big deficits,” rather than his voting record.

“We have enough voters to win,” says Todd Smyth, vice chair of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and Brigades member. “We just have to make sure they get out and vote.”