Rep. Bob Goodlatte to face a rare intraparty challenge Tuesday from Harry Griego

 TAZ LOMBARDO | The Roanoke Times
Candidate for Congress Harry Griego holds hands with his son, Gabriel, 3, as they campaign on a street in Vinton on Wednesday.



 TAZ LOMBARDO | The Roanoke Times
Candidate for congress Harry Griego waits as resident Jessica Minter comes to the door during Griego’s door-to-door campaigning in Vinton Wednesday, June 8, 2016. Minter said she was “definitely considering” voting for Griego.



 The Roanoke Times | File 2015
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (right) talks with Virginia Rep. Dave Brat outside the House Judiciary Committee hearing room Dec. 1.



 The Waynesboro News-Virginian | File 2015
Rep. Bob Goodlatte waves to bystanders during last year’s Labor Day parade in Buena Vista.


Rep. Bob Goodlatte (left) and Harry Griego

Posted: Monday, June 13, 2016 12:00 am

By Alicia Petska alicia.petska@roanoke.com 981-3319

For only the second time in more than two decades, 6th District voters will head to the polls Tuesday to settle a contested race for the Republican nomination for Congress.


Longtime U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, is facing a rare intraparty challenge from Harry Griego, a pilot and self-described constitutional conservative.


Griego, also of Roanoke County, carries endorsements from the Roanoke Tea Party and Americans for Legal Immigration, an anti-amnesty PAC hoping to oust more than 175 GOP incumbents it put on its “Cantor List,” a reference to the stunning 2014 primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Henrico County.


Griego, who served for 23 years in the Air Force and National Guard, said voters are tired of being ignored by the political establishment in Washington.


“They want a change,” he said, drawing a parallel to the tide buoying Donald Trump’s presidential bid.


“I think in Trump what a lot of people, why they’re attracted to Trump, is he’s not part of the Washington elite. And literally Goodlatte is. He’s part of the leadership team. He’s been there for 24 years. He is the elite.”


Goodlatte, a 12-term incumbent and chair of the influential House Judiciary Committee, declined to comment on his opponent and said he’s focused on his own campaign message.


“We’ve had a lot of successes,” he said, citing initiatives to protect personal data, address immigration enforcement and push back against what he described as President Obama’s executive overreach.


Tuesday’s primary marks only the second time Goodlatte has drawn an internal party challenge since he took office.
He easily turned back a primary opponent in 2012, winning by a 2-to-1 margin.


For Griego, this is his second time taking on a Republican incumbent. He ran for the House of Delegates last year and came close to pulling off an upset.


The 6th District — a large territory extending from Roanoke County through the Shenandoah Valley — likely remains safe for Goodlatte, said Harry Wilson, director of Roanoke College’s Institute for Policy & Opinion Research.


“I think the only path for Griego is extremely low turnout,” Wilson said, adding sparse turnout tends to favor high-motivation voters who are more likely to be galvanized by a desire for change.


“It’s going to be low turnout anyway, everyone knows that, it’s a congressional primary in June,” he said of the election. “But I think Griego has to hope for just incredibly low turnout.”


That said, Wilson added, the lessons of Cantor’s defeat continue to loom large over the political world.


“Incumbent Republicans now ignore challengers from their right at their own peril,” he said.
Griego, 55, has built his campaign around a strict interpretation of the constitution and a belief that Congress needs to take a more disciplined approach to issues like debt reduction and safeguarding civil liberties.


“I want to get back to the Constitution: maximum liberty for people, limited government and low taxes,” he said.


“If you look at Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the enumerated powers of government, that tells you what government can do. If it’s not in there, I’m not going to vote for it and I’ll work hard to fight against it.”


Griego faulted Goodlatte for not doing enough to fight for goals like defunding Obamacare and halting debt ceiling increases.
Goodlatte espouses conservative priorities like reining in executive overreach, Griego said, but doesn’t back them up by pursuing options like using his Judiciary Committee role to push to impeach agency heads.


“The fact of the matter is he’s been there since 1992,” Griego said. “He’s established in that seat, and it’s a job to him.


“That was really not the intention of the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives is supposed to be people like you and I in there, citizen legislators, not career politicians.”


Goodlatte supporters said the congressman is fighting for change in an adversarial environment that includes a Democratic White House and a Senate often stymied by its own filibuster rules.


“I guarantee you that Bob Goodlatte would love to see Obamacare go away,” said Trixie Averill, a longtime Republican activist and former 6th District chairwoman. “But you have to be realistic about what you can get done. He’s not the only one in there.”


“I think Bob is doing an excellent job in Congress,” she said. “He represents the views of the people here and is definitely a good conservative, social and fiscal.”


Goodlatte, 63, has been endorsed by the NRA and the group National Right to Life. His campaign also touted a statement issued by U.S. Rep. Dave Brat — the Tea Party-backed candidate that took down Cantor — praising his work in D.C.


Goodlatte has drawn passionate criticism from a conservative union group that has held protests outside his campaign offices at least twice since April.


The Roanoke Committee to Protect Pensions, which has since endorsed Griego, broke with Goodlatte over controversial changes in pension law made in 2014.


Committee director Tim Vermillion, of Roanoke County, said for him the dispute was the tipping point amid other disappointments that included lack of substantive action on deficit reduction, immigration and other issues.


“He keeps talking about the deficit,” Vermillion, a Republican, said of Goodlatte, who regularly sponsors a balanced budget mandate and calls for debt reduction. “But it [the national debt] is sitting there at $19 trillion, and he hasn’t done anything.”


“Harry is a good man,” he continued. “He wants to make Congress accountable. We’re tired of the party establishment. It’s the same old thing with them.”


Vermillion said the pension committee has about 300 members in the local region and advocates for the interests of around 2,400 union retirees in the area.


Goodlatte has campaigned on priorities like reforming federal spending, cutting taxes and continuing efforts to fight Obamacare through legislation and lawsuits.


He voted against the last federal omnibus spending bill in December, citing in part a failure to curb wasteful spending and strip out funding for programs like Planned Parenthood. Griego’s campaign countered that Goodlatte voted no because he knew a primary challenge was ahead and highlighted his past votes for other budgets, including some that encompassed debt ceiling rises or other contested measures.
Polls in the 6th District will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for the primary vote.


The victor will run against Democrat Kai Degner, a Harrisonburg City Council member, in the fall election.

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