More On New York Liberal Rob Hurt

Tim Boyer continues his series of blog posts profiling the surprisingly liberal voting record of State Senator Robert Hurt. With this sort of background I hope 5th District Republicans think long and hard before handing him the nomination. We already have two candidates who have worked hard to reach out to the conservative grassroots, Bradley Rees and Laurence Verga. And while I don't think Verga could find his way to Southside Virginia he at least was able to find his way to D.C. for the 9-12 protests. Good job!

Here's the latest on Hurt:

A couple of years ago the Republican-controlled VA House of Delegates passed a bill (HB3202) that established Regional Transportation Authorities for the purpose of collecting taxes ostensibly for fixing the roads in Northern Virginia (NoVa).

These UNELECTED bureaucrats were granted the power by the General Assembly to raise taxes without oversight by the GA.
Those of you who revere the Constitution will recognize this as taxation without representation.
Unelected bodies with the power to levy taxes on you and me!

This accomplished a twofold purpose;
First, it allowed the Republican majority to raise taxes for the purpose of fixing roads without having to actually vote for a tax increase, and then take the credit for fixing the roads "without raising taxes".
Secondarily, it protected the elected officials from the wrath of angry voters whose taxes would be raised in order to do so.

Now raising taxes is ALWAYS a problem for me.
But a far greater problem for me is taxation without representation, which HB 3202 undeniably did.
When this anti-American legislation was challenged by Bob Marshall and Pat McSweeney, even the Virginia Supreme Court agreed in a 7-0 decision that it WAS taxation without representation, and they overturned it.
This all happened under Republican control of the VA House and Robert Hurt voted for this bill.

Between this vote and his vote for the largest tax increase in Virginia's history, a disturbing pattern is becoming clear in his record.

Folks, we fought a war partially over taxation without representation 250 years ago, and now here is the "conservative" republican party hatching a plot to do exactly that, and then dare to tell us that they are for lower taxes??

Once again, if our party cannot do better than this, how can we possibly present any kind of a contrast to Perriello?

I also hope the 5th District Committee will have the courage to stand up for the people they represent and resist the powers that be to vote for a convention, so Democrats will find it far more difficult to infect our nomination with their liberal poison in a primary.

The Committee should be offended if Washington surrogates attempt to usurp their authority in the selection for the method of nomination, if indeed that becomes a reality as it generally does in this type of situation.

It is about time We the People take back the responsibility for recruiting our own leaders rather than ceding control of our political future to bureaucrats in Washington.

Combined with his voting record, and reported support from some bureaucrats in the Washington establishment Senator Hurt looks less and less like the right man to challenge Perriello.

Amen Tom! (Boyer, not Perriello, of course).