The Free Lance Star Endorses Senator Edd Houck for Reelection

Senator Houck—pictured here in Richmond meeting with constituents—was noted by the Free Lance Star for his "dogged constituent service" in their endorsement

Senator Edd Houck continues to receive key endorsement after another in his campaign to defeat right-wing extremist Bryce Reeves and serve our district for another term in the Virginia Senate. These include the Virginia Education Association, Virginia Farm Bureau AgPAC, National Federation of Independent Business-Virginia, Virginia Association of Realtors, Virginia Professional Firefighters, the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters.

As of yesterday, you can add Fredericksburg’s Free Lance Star to the list:

THE late U.S. senator Robert Byrd, a scholar of his chamber, frequently said that the Senate was like a saucer, into which steaming legislation from the more passionate and “popular” House of Representatives was poured to cool. To keep the temperature at a safe low in the General Assembly, voters next Tuesday should re-elect state Sen. Edd Houck.

Mr. Houck, a 27-year legislative veteran who represents the 17th Senate district, is one half of an imperiled comfort zone for Democrats, who control the body by just a 22-18 margin. His loss, along with that of one other Democratic senator, would give effective Senate control to Republicans, who could win any tie vote with the intervention of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling in his role as president of the Senate.

Such a scenario, putting the GOP at the helm of both legislative chambers and the governorship, would please many voters. But it should cause trepidation, because this is not the GOP of yore, whose national leaders from Abraham Lincoln (the transcontinental railroad) to Dwight Eisenhower (the interstate highway system) to Richard Nixon (the EPA) saw the beneficent possibilities of an active government. This is the GOP of radical individualism and Tea Party affection, whose Virginia House of Delegates division won’t raise a gas tax unchanged in 25 years to fix today’s roads. It is good to have a partisan counterbalance to that philosophy in state government.

This is not to say, however, that Mr. Houck is a crazed spender, despite Photoshopped tangos with Barack Obama on campaign literature. Some of the most savvy, non-Democratic businessmen in the area (e.g., Joe Wilson and Fitz Johnson, a former county GOP chairman) back his candidacy, as does the National Federation of Independent Business. He has fought the “death tax” that can destroy an inherited family business. That Mr. Houck’s reliable support of public education and of the physically and mentally disabled make him an object of Republican caricature gives the electorate less to disdain about Mr. Houck than to fear about his detractors.

Mr. Houck is also noted for his ability to work with the other side–ask Gov. McDonnell–and for his dogged constituent service–conspicuous in his securing of state funds to move hazardous chemical-hauling rail cars from Fredericksburg’s Mayfield neighborhood. As chairman of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, he has championed government transparency.

Certainly, social conservatives have good reason to want him gone. As chairman of the Senate Education and Health Committee he has buried anti-abortion legislation, earning 100 percent ratings from NARAL and Planned Parenthood. But it is hard to see how many others share that sentiment, apart from government-hating nutzies.

We urge the re-election state Sen. Edd Houck, an ice cube in any hot Tea the GOP House is likely to brew.

In addition to these organizations, over 60 former federal, state and local law enforcement officers—including many sheriffs and prosecutors from his district—have endorsed Sen. Houck’s re-election, as have well over 40 veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

For more information about Sen. Houck, visit his website at SenatorHouck.com, and don’t forget to vote for Sen. Houck and all of our candidates on Election Day, this coming Tuesday: November 8th.