Recent polling and fundraising data has Democrats enthusiastic about their chances to pick up this southwestern Virginia district.
Polling taken for Democrat Phil Kellam, the Commissioner of the Revenue of Virginia Beach by Cooper & Secrest (June 27-28, 502 LV's) showed the Democrat in a statistical dead heat with freshman Republican Thelma Drake. Kellam was at 45 percent to Drake's 42 percent. Republicans have not released any polling of their own here. Still, Republican insiders concede that Drake has not yet been able to establish herself as an independent entity and is suffering the drag of an unpopular President.
The most recent FEC filing showed Drake with a decent, but not overwhelming, cash on hand lead over Kellam. Drake showed $708,000 in the bank to Kellam's $517,000. This race has already started to engage on the airwaves as well. Both Kellam and Drake have been up with ads. Kellam's have been focused on setting up his profile, while Drake has answered back attacks by MoveOn.org with an ad that challenges Kellam to call for an end to the "nasty, negative
Subscribe Today
Our subscribers have first access to individual race pages for each House, Senate and Governors race, which will include race ratings (each race is rated on a seven-point scale) and a narrative analysis pertaining to that race.