BY FRANK DELANO
Rep. Rob Wittman has joined other top Republican leaders in the state who are shunning Catherine T. Crabill, a controversial candidate for the Northern Neck's seat in the House of Delegates.
Wittman spokesman Steve Stampley said last week that the congressman from Montross will endorse neither Crabill nor incumbent Albert Pollard, D-Lancaster, in the race for the House seat Wittman once held.
Wittman also has no plans to appear with Crabill at campaign events or to donate money to her campaign, Stampley said.
The chairman of the state Republican Party and GOP candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general have also said they would stay clear of Crabill after her remarks last month in Heathsville.
"We do not condone or support the comments Catherine Crabill has made. That kind of talk has no place in civil political discourse. She has received no assistance from the state party, nor will she in the future," said Virginia Republican Party Chairman Pat Mullins.
In response, Northern Neck Republicans have rallied around Crabill, a 52-year-old real-estate agent.
District GOP Chairman R. Allen Webb of King George County announced last week that he will head a steering committee to help Crabill.
"I will do all that I can to help Catherine succeed," said Webb, who ran unsuccessfully against Pollard for the House seat in 2001.
Webb said Crabill "is solidly grounded in the Constitutions of the United States and Virginia and the principles of our Founding Fathers. How very appropriate for someone who wants to represent the Northern Neck, where those principles began. I urge Republicans to rally behind Catherine's banner."
But GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell will not be among them. "We will not campaign for or with Catherine Crabill," said McDonnell spokesman T. Tucker Martin.
"It's absolutely wrong for any candidate of any party to refer to the actions of the president of the United States and members of the United States Congress as 'domestic terrorism,' and to threaten to resort to violence if one fails to prevail in elections," Martin said.
Crabill gained national notoriety last month when a video was posted on the Web of her July 15 speech at a Heathsville "tea party."
In a diatribe against the federal government and the Obama administration, she said, "We have a chance to fight this battle at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box."
"That's the beauty of our Second Amendment rights. I'm glad for all of us who enjoy our use of firearms for hunting. But make no mistake, that was not the intent of our Founding Fathers. Our Second Amendment right was to guard against tyranny," she said.
In her speech, Crabill also said, "Our elected officials use the Constitution like so much toilet paper."
GOP candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general told The Washington Post earlier this month that they will not appear at campaign events with Crabill, who said in 1995 that she believed the federal government caused the Oklahoma City bombing for which Timothy McVeigh was executed.
Matt Wells, spokesman for the re-election campaign of Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, said Bolling "disagrees strongly with Ms. Crabill's comments and he rejects those comments in the strongest possible terms."
"Our campaign does not believe in using violence or threats of violence in a manner to entice people to vote," said Chris LaCivita of Ken Cuccinelli's campaign for attorney general.
Neither Crabill nor her campaign manager Bill Kling responded to an e-mail from The Free Lance-Star that asked, among other things, the possible effect that the GOP denunciations might have on Crabill's efforts to raise money for her campaign against Pollard.
Pollard defeated Republican Lee Anne Washington of White Stone in a 2008 special election in the district that includes the counties of King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond and Westmoreland, plus the Port Royal and Bowling Green precincts in Caroline County.
In that race, according to candidate finance reports, Pollard raised about $181,000 and spent about $140,000. Washington raised $129,000 and spent about $127,000. Many of Washington's large contributors were GOP committees and legislators.
As of June 30, Pollard had raised $18,320 for his campaign against Crabill. She had raised $1,815. Her largest contribution was $500 from the Lancaster County Republican Committee.
catherinecrabill.com albertpollard.comFrank Delano: 804/761-4300
Email: fpdelano@gmail.com