‘Family Values’ PAC targets VA’s Marshall as Comstock gets a pass
LINE OF FIRE: Delegate Bob Marshall, a staunch proponent of family-values conservatism, is the target of a fund-raising effort by the left-wing “Virginia Family Values PAC.”
By Kenric Ward | Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A liberal “family values” PAC is targeting Republican state Delegate Bob Marshall’s campaign for Congress — while staying mum about the presumptive GOP front-runner.
Virginia Family Values PAC was launched in 2005 with the goal of “defeating key legislators who promoted the intrusion of government power into the private decisions of couples and families in such matters as contraception and private sexual relations.”
Marshall, the most outspoken social conservative in the General Assembly, is in a crowded race to fill Northern Virginia’s 10th Congressional District seat held by retiring Republican Rep. Frank Wolf.
Delegate Barbara Comstock is widely seen as a favorite — if not the favorite — in the GOP’s April 26 firehouse primary. But the McLean Republican is not mentioned by the leftist “Family Values” PAC.
On Tuesday, the PAC tweeted: “Contribute now to help Virginia Family Values PAC stop anti-family radical Bob Marshall!”
Family Values has given exclusively to Democratic candidates over the past nine years, including $10,000 to Gov. Terry McAuliffe.
A total of $671,155 in the PAC’s contributions came through Sonja Smith of Charlottesville. Listed in the “homemakers/non-wage earners” category on campaign finance records, Smith is married to Michael D. Bills, of Bluestem Asset Management, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
Family Values laid out its short- and long-term strategy on the ActBlue website:
“Our goal this year is to prevent Delegate Bob Marshall, a virulent opponent of equality and family freedoms, from being elected to the U.S. Congress.
“Our goal next year will be to defeat Delegate Marshall, State Senator Dick Black, and State Senator Steve Newman, first, by assisting any family-friendly Republicans who challenge them, and second, should any or all of them be renominated, by assisting their opponents in the November general elections.”
Ron Meyer, a former GOP congressional candidate and president of Springboard Media Strategies in Northern Virginia, said the left-wing PAC’s agenda is “just hatred of Marshall.”
“They can probably raise more money that way to take on Comstock later,” Meyer told Watchdog.org.
Kenric Ward is a national correspondent for Watchdog.org. Contact him at kenric@watchdogvirginia.org or at (571) 319-9824. @Kenricward
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