Delegate Tim Hugo, the last remaining Republican in the House from NoVA, may get to run for re-election in 2019 against the weakest possible candidate. Dave Helmer (or is it Dan?) has announced he will run for the Democrat nomination to challenge Hugo. It’s tough to imagine that Helmer would win the nomination, but right now he’s the first to announce.
Helmer achieved political infamy last cycle in his failed run for congress when he ran the worst campaign commercial in the history of campaigns. He wanted a Top Gun style ad, but ended up with a Hot Shots! style ad instead. Take a look-
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDfhFfKSohc[/embedyt]
Wow. Topper Harley and Washout would be proud.
To our surprise, Helmer didn’t finish last in the Democrat primary in the 10th; he finished fourth with an over-performing 12%. We wrote about it, linked here.
No chance the Democrats allow this joke to be their nominee, but you never know.
Hugo won re-election last time by a little more than 100 votes in a contest that was too close to call on the night of the election. With most of the district overlapping what could very well be competitive contests for state senate seats against George Barker and Dave Marsden, Hugo could receive an uptick in turnout that he may not have received last time with milquetoast Ed Gillespie leading the Republican ticket. Let’s hope so anyways.
Hugo is a great delegate. Helmer mentioned that he is running to help the area with transportation, which Hugo has done. Hugo was instrumental in having the Fairfax County Parkway upgraded to state highway status, which increased its maintenance budget and its priority. Significant changes were immediately seen on the Parkway such as the overpass at Fair Lakes. Hugo’s office is known for excellent constituent services. He and his staff are on top of everything that comes to their office. So why run against him? Hugo is doing a great job.
Running against Del. Tim Hugo is an answer to a question no one asked. Only an office hungry person who is too self-adsorbed to be aware of the current political environment would feel the need to run against such an outstanding public servant. First Dan Helmer (or is it Dave?) tried to run for congress. In doing so he proved to be a candidate not ready for primetime. Now, just a few months later, he thinks he is ready for another office, an office that has nothing to do with the capacity of the first office he failed to capture.
So Helmer, dude, bro, “you’ve got to go. Ba dup, ba dup, ba dup…”
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