Article about Dave Brat, Cantor’s 7th District Primary Opponent: Washington is Broken

Admin: I found this great article from the Culpepper Star Exponent posted back in January 2014:

Seventh District congressional candidate: Washington is broken

By Allison Brophy Champion  -  abrophy@starexponent.com  -  (540) 825-0771 ext. 101

Dave Brat wants to be Eric Cantor's term limit.

  "It's not personal. I think we need term limits at this point in time in history, and it's not just Eric Cantor — they all need to go. There's too much money up there in Washington and it just pursues power. We need to break that up," Brat told the Culpeper County Republican Committee at its meeting Thursday night, advocating for a 12-year limit to congressional service.

  Rep. Cantor, R-Richmond, was first elected in 2000.

  Brat is seeking the GOP nomination in the June primary in which Cantor will also compete as he pursues an eighth term in the U.S. House representing the Seventh District of Virginia, including Culpeper and Orange counties. Cantor has been House Majority Leader for his past two terms and is a national figure in the GOP earning hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions each year.

  "I am running because Washington, D.C. is broken," Brat told a receptive crowd in Culpeper. "The economic system is broken, the labor markets are broken, the financial system is broken ... and yet this is still the greatest nation on the face of the earth (because) of a combination of ethics and economics."

An 18-year professor of economics and ethics at Randolph Macon College in Hanover County, Brat, of Glen Allen, has served as head of the economics and business department at the school for the past six years. He grew up in a small-town in Michigan, earned his bachelors degree, worked in consulting for Arthur Andersen in Chicago, studied theology at Princeton Seminary, and worked for the Army as an economist in D.C. before pursuing his doctorate and current career path.

  Brat has served on the Virginia governor's board of economists for the past six years and was recently appointed to the Virginia Board of Accountancy. He said Thursday he is "running 100 percent on the Republican Creed" founded on the principles of: 1) free enterprise; 2) equal rights and justice for all; 3) fiscal responsibility; 4) preserving individual liberty; 5) a strong defense and 6) faith in God.

  "I don't think the leadership in D.C. is following this," Brat said, mentioning that the free market system in America dates to the country's founding. "It made us the richest country on earth, and now we're growing at 2 percent and everybody knows something's wrong."

  The congressional candidate said he wants to get back to the founding principles, to a system that works "even if flawed individuals went to Washington, they couldn't screw it up because there were checks and balances."

  Brat added, "These days everything is for sale in D.C." He referenced the new book, "Extortion," in making his case for widespread corruption in Washington. There's a "toll booth" for any piece of new legislation, Brat said.

  "The bill stands in a toll booth until money comes in and that bill doesn't move until then. That's against the law," he said. "That's quid pro quo."

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