Democrat Webb snares more cash than Sen. Allen in Rappahannock County
By Greg Rushford
Although Sen. George Allen has raised far more campaign money statewide than his Democratic challenger, James Webb, Federal records show that Webb has raised more than twice as much money from contributors in Rappahannock County than has Republican Allen—thanks largely to one politically-active local couple.
Despite Rappahannock County’s record for voting Republican in recent U.S. Senate races, you couldn’t tell it from looking at the campaign finance filings that the candidates are required to make. County residents have contributed $4,700 directly to Democrat Webb’s campaign, and just $2,000 to Allen’s re-election effort, according to a review of the records by The Rappahannock Voice.
Statewide, Allen has raised a whopping $14.8 million in 2006 to defend his Senate seat from a strong challenge by Webb, more than three times the $4.4 million reported by the Democrat. The numbers come from Federal public disclosure forms filed as of Oct. 11, as compiled and analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization that tracks campaign financing. Candidates are required to report donations from individuals of $200 or more, so the records do not reflect any contributions of lesser amounts.
Overall, Virginians have dug deeply to finance the 2006 elections, chipping in a staggering $75.6 million to support candidates for the U.S. Senate and House. Rappahannock County – with only 7,100 residents out of the commonwealth’s 7.5 million people – accounts for slightly under $56,000 of that total.
And while 70 percent of all campaign cash from Virginia has been directed to Republicans, in Rappahannock County more than half the total donations from individuals–nearly $32,000–has gone to Democrats, with the balance of $24,000 funneled to Republicans.
Webb’s lead over Allen in money-raising in Rappahannock County can be attributed largely to the generosity of Ben Jones, the former Georgia Democratic congressman and television actor, and his wife Alma Viator, of Washington, VA. The two each gave $2,100 to Webb—the maximum allowed for donations by individuals per election cycle, according to the disclosure reports.
The couple’s $4,200 accounted for all but $500 of Webb’s total from county donors, with the rest being made up of contributions of $250 each from Linda Dietel of Flint Hill and David Albee of Sperryville, the reports show. (More donations may have been made after the Oct. 11 date of the reports used in this story, of course.) Dietel is the secretary of the Rappahannock County Democratic Committee and an active party donor. Reports show that she also has contributed $8,500 to various Democrats and liberal causes this year, including $1,000 to Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, $500 to Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and $2,000 to EMILY’s List, which supports Democratic women candidates who favor abortion rights.
In addition to their own $4,200 combined donations to Webb, Jones and Viator also hosted a successful fund-raiser at their Harris Hollow farm on Oct. 1 for the Democratic candidate. The 400-plus people who attended that rally donated more than $40,000 in contributions, according to Ray Boc, chairman of the county Democratic committee.
Allen’s $2,000 in direct contributions from Rappahannock County is broken down as follows: $1,000 from film-maker Ronald Maxwell of Flint Hill: $500 from Dale Simpson, Sperryville; and $250 each from Joseph Hall, Flint Hill, and W. Oliver of Woodville.
In the U.S. House race for the congressional district that includes Rappahannock County, relatively little has been raised for either candidate from local sources. Rep. Eric Cantor, the incumbent Republican from Richmond who represents the far-flung district, has received gifts of $250 each from Mary Timmerman, Amissville, and Robert Amos, Flint Hill. Amos has donated another $1,400 to Republican party organizations, including the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican National Committee.
According to the federal campaign disclosures, Cantor’s challenger, Democrat Jim Nachman of Richmond, had not received any contributions over $200 from Rappahannock County as of Oct. 11 this year. However, a Nachman fund-raiser hosted by Bob and Wendy Weinberg at their home south of Sperryville on Oct. 18 raised about $2,000, according to Bob Weinberg.
Statewide, Cantor has raised nearly $3 million, and Nachman had taken in just under $59,000, according to reports through Oct. 11.
Not all of the political money that has been raised in Rappahannock County has stayed in Virginia. Steven Simon, a writer for the Council on Foreign Relations who lives in Woodville, gave $250 to Joe Sestak, a retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral who is running as a Democrat for the House in Pennsylvania .
Alfred Kummli, who lives near Flint Hill, is partial to Democrats from West Virginia, having donated $1,000 to veteran Sen. Robert Byrd and another $1,500 to Rep. Alan Mollohan. George Washington University Law professor Stephanie Ridder, also of Flint Hill, gave $2,000 in 2005 and $2,000 in 2006 to Democrat Victoria Wells Wulsin, an Ohio physician who is running for Congress in Ohio. Stephen Ridder chipped in another $2,100 to Wulsin.
All of the campaign gifts recorded in the Center for Responsive Politics analysis are organized by the zip codes of the donors. In the Amissville zip code, Sen. Evan Bayh, Democrat from Indiana, was the top recipient of contributions, with $1,000 given by Washington, D.C. lawyer Edward Pennington. Also from Amissville, Hal Hunter gave $500 to America Coming Together, which conducts nationwide get-out-the-vote grassroots efforts directed at Democrats.
Conservative direct-mail fundraising specialist Richard Viguerie, also in the Amissville zip code, gave $1,000 to California conservative Howard Kaloogian, who is running for the House, and also $500 to Michael Steele, the Maryland Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate. Steele has also received $250 from James C. Miller III, a former cabinet member in the Reagan administration who lives in the Sperryville zip code with his wife Demaris, who is vice-chair of the Rappahannock County Republican Committee. (Miller told the Rappahannock Voice he also has donated $1,000 to Sen. Allen recently, though that contribution did not show up in the reports up to Oct. 11).
In Virginia, the average zip code has produced $25,106 in campaign cash this year, the Center for Responsive Politics has calculated. In Rappahannock County, the only zip code that came anywhere near that was Flint Hill’s 22627, with contributions totaling $28,337. Flint Hill, to judge from its residents’ 2006 political giving, appears to be something of a liberal outpost. The six top recipients of campaign donations from Flint Hill were Democrats like West Virginia’s Rep. Mollohan, and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
After Flint Hill, the next largest sources of county political money came from the Woodville zip code (22749) with $10,500; Washington (22747) with $7,200; Amissville (20106) with $4,925, and Sperryville (22740) with $4,650. Huntly (22640) only had one campaign donor, Dale Waters, who gave $350 to the Republican National Committee. Castleton (22716) also had a single contributor in Terrence Dixon, of Palmer Properties, Inc., who gave $250 to the Republican National Committee.
There have been no political donations from the Chester Gap zip code (22623) so far this year. Indeed, dating to 1994, the furthest year back for which computerized records are kept, nobody from Chester Gap is listed as having contributed one cent to any politician.
For more on campaign finance disclosures, go to www.opensecrets.org.
Greg Rushford lives in Rappahannock County and is editor of The Rushford Report (www.RushfordReport.com).
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