Ellmore vs. Singh in Virginia's 8th Congressional District

[Promoted - Rick Sincere, a smart political observer, who blogs at Rick Sincere News and Thoughts, offers a good overview and analysis of the VA-8 Republican Primary race.  This is a good contrast between the Huckabee wing of the Republican Party (Ellmore) and the Goldwater wing of th Republican Party (Singh).  You can put me in the Amit Singh camp - Jon Henke]

An otherwise low-key congressional nomination contest in Virginia’s Eighth District took an intriguing turn three days before the Republican primary, when the Washington Post reported that one of the candidates had, in an effort to discredit his opponent, made up quotations from that newspaper in a campaign flier.

The race between Mark Ellmore, who is making his second bid for the GOP nomination to oppose incumbent Jim Moran (D-Va.), and political newcomer Amit Singh had become bitter in recent days. The two candidates represent two different factions within the Republican party, with Ellmore frequently characterized as a “Mike Huckabee Republican” and Singh identified as a “Ron Paul Republican.” Blogger Leslie Carbone described the race as

a microcosmic look into the bold colors v. pale pastels identity crisis facing the Republican Party nationally.

Ellmore is considered to be the more “mainstream” candidate, although his campaign fundraising efforts belie that: According to Federal Election Commission reports, Singh had raised more than $58,000 as of May 21, while Ellmore had raised just a smidgen over $24,000 – and that’s despite the fact that Ellmore had been a declared candidate for a far longer time than Singh, who announced his candidacy in March.

In recent days, the campaign has become bitter, with most of the vitriol emanating from the Ellmore camp, which seems to view Singh’s association with Ron Paul and the libertarian wing of the Republican party as a negative.

An article in the Alexandria Gazette-Packet newspaper, published on June 5, reported:

"The Amit Singh supporters are a bunch of Ron Paul wingnuts," said Mike Lane, former chairman of the Eighth District Republican Committee. "They’re very active, very enthused and very crazy. Our challenge will be keeping them from hijacking a low-turnout election."

(Full disclosure:   I have been friends with Mike Lane for almost 15 years.)

In fact, Singh represents the traditional Goldwater-Reagan stream of the Republican party to such an extent that he gained the endorsement of the Republican Liberty Caucus, which one wag christened “the Republican wing of the Republican Party.” In a press release announcing the endorsement, Cliff Dunn, treasurer of the RLC-Virginia, said, “Amit Singh demonstrates a clear commitment to core Republican principles.”

Singh’s campaign manager, Steve Bierfeldt, told me in an email message earlier today:

"The candidates in this race have come to represent the two opposing viewpoints battling within the Republican Party. Ellmore represents the status quo, big-government policies that Republicans have come to stand for. Singh represents the return to liberty; traditional principles that Republicans used to stand for."

As an example of the “big-government” policies Ellmore advocates, told interviewer Paul Ibrahim of the North Star Writers Group that he supports a minimum wage and prefers the far more expensive Tysons Corner tunnel to expand the D.C.-area Metro system over the more economical and flexible above-ground extension. He also supports building a fence along the southern border of the United States to keep out illegal immigrants, a project that is already violating the property rights of landowners in Texas and other states, prompting lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security.

The story that broke in Sunday’s Washington Post raises serious questions about Ellmore’s character, which – combined with Singh’s advantage in campaign cash – may be the tipping point in Tuesday’s election. (If the last thing voters see in the newspaper about a candidate is that he makes up quotations and facts and uses them in an effort to smear his opponent, that’s also the last thing they’ll remember.)

To sum up what the Post discovered, correspondent Theresa Vargas wrote:

A flier put out by Mark W. Ellmore's campaign days before Tuesday's U.S. House Republican primary in Northern Virginia falsely attributes material to The Washington Post, an error pointed out by his opponent and confirmed by Ellmore's staff yesterday.

Ellmore is running against Amit Singh in the primary for a chance to challenge Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a nine-term incumbent.

The flier, which hit some mailboxes Friday, attributes the following photo caption to The Post: "Amit Singh with his political mentor Libertarian Ron Paul, who reportedly has plans to disrupt the Republican Convention in Minneapolis." Those words never appeared in the newspaper or as a quote elsewhere, and the photograph was not taken by The Post.

Virginia bloggers -- including Below the Beltway, Bearing Drift, and the George Mason College Republican Blog -- picked up on the story and drew attention to Ellmore's eleventh-hour act of desperation.

The Ellmore-Singh election takes place on Tuesday, June 10. Results should be known by 8:00 p.m., with the winner facing a long-term incumbent in a safe Democratic district. Who the voters of the Eighth Congressional District choose as their standard-bearer will say a lot about whether Virginia Republicans want to confirm their commitment to the core principles of a party that was brought to maturation by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, or if they want to abandon those principles for the big-government "conservatism" of George W. Bush and Mike Huckabee.