RICHMOND — Three men are vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge House Majority Leader 7th District Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-Henrico, in the November election.
They have announced efforts to seek the party’s nod to take on the second-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives.
David Hunsicker, a retired Air Force member and real estate broker from Orange County; Jim Phillips, an attorney and college professor; and E. Wayne Powell, an attorney and retired Army colonel, want their party’s backing in the general election.
Cantor, who will seek re-election, will be “very focused this year on helping create opportunity for small businesses to create jobs and reducing the deficit,” said his political strategist, Ray Allen.
Each party decides its nomination process, be it a primary or another method. Additional candidates could enter Virginia’s 2012 congressional contests.
If a party chooses a primary, which is conducted by the state, it is scheduled to be held June 12 — at least for now. Because of a delayed congressional redistricting, there’s an effort in the state legislature to push the primary back to August.
Hunsicker says he supports President Barack Obama’s jobs plan, wants to protect Social Security and Medicare and help students who graduate college with debt.
“We cannot saddle our students with a mortgage payment when they get out of college,” he said.
Phillips teaches law at the University of Richmond and business at Virginia State University. He is stressing his experience in mediation and conflict-resolution work.
“The politics of impasse and stalemate and playing political ‘gotcha’ has got to stop and we’ve got to find new ways of working across the aisle to find complex solutions to complex problems,” he said.
Powell, who spent 30 years in the Army and commanded an intelligence unit after Sept. 11, says he has the “experience and temperament” to help.
“I’ve been a lot of different places and dealt with different cultures and I never had any problem getting my mission accomplished,” he said. “I see people who can’t even talk to people in a different party.”
Meola reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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