Government Shutdown Could Upend Virginia’s Elections

“History may be repeating itself in Virginia as the federal government careens toward a shutdown in early October, just weeks before a key election in the Commonwealth,” The Messenger reports.

“With Republicans in Congress unable to agree on a spending deal, Democrats in Virginia – home to one of the largest shares of federal government workers and contractors – are preparing to use the seemingly inevitable shutdown as a cautionary tale against handing Republicans total control of state government… The goal is to tie Republicans in the commonwealth to ‘extremism’ in Washington.”

“It’s a familiar argument for Democrats in the Commonwealth: When the federal government shuttered for over two weeks in October 2013, the slate of statewide Democrats set to face voters that November made the shutdown a central part of their campaign, hopscotching between federal contractors in the closing weeks of the campaign to highlight the impact the shutdown – which they blamed on Republicans in Congress – was having on Virginia.”