Frank Wolf's Primary Opponent on "Limited Government"

Frank Wolf's Republican primary opponent, Vern McKinley, analyzes why Republicans lost the 2008 Virginia elections:

There is no doubt that the Republican Party in Virginia is in the midst of a steady slide having lost the governorship and a senate seat in recent years and seemingly in a weak position to retain Senator Warner’s seat in 2008. As the 2008 elections loom on the horizon the question is whether candidates should reverse the slide by moving more towards the Democrats on the issues of the day or stick to limited government principles.

[...]

“In national elections, the Republican Party has had some great triumphs over the past thirty years. Whether you focus on the 1980 election that brought Ronald Reagan to power or the 1994 Republican Revolution, such turning point elections were won in large part because the party was seen as upholding limited government principles,” notes Vern McKinley, who is challenging incumbent Congressman Frank Wolf for the Republican nomination in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District. “If Republicans want to turn the tide, both nationally and in Virginia, the argument in favor of returning to these limited government principles is overwhelming.”

It will be interesting to watch McKinley go after Wolf over the next 7 months or so. Already, McKinley has lambasted Wolf for having "gone native" and being "one of only 24 Republicans voting against basic earmark reforms." Essentially, McKinley is making the case that Wolf is no longer a fiscal conservative (was he 26 years ago, when he first came to Congress?).

In stark contrast to Frank Wolf, who helped George W. Bush produce the largest budget deficits in U.S. history the past 7 years, Democrats like Judy Feder believe in "pay as you go" budgetary rules. Feder also believes that "[w]e need to revive the fiscal policies of previous administrations that lessened the tax burden on the middle class, produced the longest era of prosperity in our nation's history, raised wages and created jobs, and delivered a balanced budget."

In other words, there are two fiscal conservatives in the 10th district race, and neither of them is named "Frank Wolf."