Dear Editor:

H. Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), the current Majority Leader for the Virginia House of Delegates, has decided to run for Congress. And he wants to represent us here in the Ninth District, even though he’s never actually lived in the Ninth District. I guess after getting little Willie Morefield elected out here with their money, Republicans from the Eastern part of the Commonwealth think they can just start sending us their candidates! Well, as a resident of the Ninth District, I resent it.

Why does Morgan Griffith believe the people of the Ninth are incapable of representing themselves? I understand that technically the U.S. Constitution allows any Virginian (no matter where they live in the Commonwealth) to run for the Ninth District seat. But do we really want an absentee Congressman?

Morgan Griffith is a city boy who will serve the region poorly. He has little insight into our needs or our values. We don’t need his hypocrisy out here; Griffith is one of those GOP ideologues who likes to talk about how much he hates the stimulus and then show up at ribbon cuttings for projects funded with stimulus money. His hometown of Salem has benefited more from stimulus money than any place in Virginia outside Richmond. He’s gotten $1,287 per person in stimulus dollars for the people he represents there.

We don’t need a political opportunist (a carpetbagger, basically) from outside the Ninth District to represent us in Congress. If Griffith wants to run for Congress, let him run in the Sixth District, where he lives now. We don’t want a stranger representing us.

Sincerely,

Greg Cruey
Adria, Virginia