Republican Kenneth Boyd has informally announced his intent to run for Virginia's fifth district congressional seat in 2010.
Boyd sent an e-mail to his supporters letting them know that he intends to run but will not formally announce his candidacy until after the November election season, he said.
Boyd, the owner of Boyd Financial Services and current member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, said he decided to run because of his concern about the direction of national politics.
"I think that there's a need for some Main Street, common sense thinking in Washington these days," he said. Boyd said he is primarily concerned about federal spending, the cap and trade bill and national health care, among other issues, and added that Washington leaders are seemingly disconnected from the opinions and values of the rest of the country.
Boyd said his experiences within local government, including four years on the Albemarle County School Board and six years on the County Board of Supervisors, will help him to stay connected to the political climate outside of Washington, D.C.
"I'm really about bringing Main Street thoughts ... to the Washington power base," he said.
Boyd will be the fourth candidate to join the race for the Republican nomination. Isaac Wood, assistant communications director of the University's Center for Politics and a former Cavalier Daily opinion columnist, noted that Boyd's decision to delay his formal announcement indicates that Boyd is "sort of an establishment candidate."
"It shows that he has close ties to people in the Republican Party who don't want him to overshadow the upcoming gubernatorial race," Wood said. "In a way deferring his announcement until after the election is a way of showing that he is a team player and that he's willing to work with the Republican Party and help out with their agenda and their needs."
Wood said Boyd is currently the frontrunner because unlike the other candidates he has run and won other elections in the past.
"That will certainly change if state Sen. Robert Hurt or a few other state senators who are considering the race jump in," Wood said.
Candidates are competing to start fundraising early and set up campaign infrastructures quickly in an attempt to gain an advantage over others who might join the contest later, Wood said.
The Albemarle County Republican Committee has not yet decided on its actual nomination process, however, Committee Chairman Chris Schoenewald said. The Republican Committee will decide between either a convention or primary at a meeting in January.
"I suspect probably [the Committee will choose] convention," Schoenewald said, "but I don't know with absolute certainty."
Schoenwald also said he does not know how Boyd's entry will affect the race for the nomination, because it is still early in the process and not all of the candidates have announced their intentions.\n"Boyd will be a strong candidate along with the others that are out there," Schoenewald said. "It will make the whole race more interesting."
The 2008 race for the fifth district seat ultimately resulted in the narrowest win margin in the country - only 727 votes, Wood said. Because of this, "there's been a lot of interest among Republicans who think it's a very vulnerable seat and who think Tom Perriello is a very vulnerable incumbent," he said.
Perriello spokesperson Jessica Barba declined to comment on Boyd's announcement.
Valerie L'Herrou, chairwoman of the Albemarle County Democratic Committee, noted, though, that Perriello has shown himself to be an excellent campaigner and a very strong member of Congress.\n"I think anybody who runs against Tom [Perriello] will have an uphill race," she said.
Wood said Boyd could prove a strong candidate during the 2010 election, "especially considering that the fifth district has a rather Republican tilt to it." President Barack Obama lost the district in 2008 and Democrats typically do not fare well in the district he said, adding that Perriello was an exception last year.
"It's an interesting district because there is liberal Charlottesville and then there's the rest of the district which is much more conservative and has a different culture," Wood said. "It'll be interesting to see ... whether Ken Boyd will be able to win votes down in south side and some of the other areas, which have such a different culture and politics"
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