Keep Frank Wolf in Congress in the 10th

Congressman Frank Wolf has faithfully served Virginia’s 10th Congressional District for 28 years. We see no compelling reason why he should not continue. We endorse him in the Nov. 4 election.

Given the current economic climate and the state of dissatisfaction evident among Americans nationwide, many are clamoring for more widespread change in the House and the Senate.

While we agree that it is, to a large extent, our Congressional members who have blindly led us into the swamp we are attempting to climb out from, not all members of Congress are equally to blame. In
fact, some have had the foresight to try to take a different path and Wolf is one of those leaders.

As a member of the House of Representatives, Wolf has been an advocate and is one of the chief sponsors of the SAFE (Securing America’s Future Economy) Commission Act. This is an act that would
set up a bipartisan committee whose job would be to address the budget crisis in this country. It would examine all possible options for making our national budget more balanced and reasonable.

This is something that Wolf has been advocating for since long before the current economic crisis hit. The national budget has been a beacon of financial irresponsibility for a long time and before we, as a
country, can pull ourselves from our financial calamity, our government must rectify its history of overspending and debt. Wolf seems to be one of the people who will help do this.

Wolf did vote yes on the $700 billion financial bailout, despite the fact that he said many of his constituents were asking him to vote no. He said that the information he was being given was that the bill
was absolutely essential to prevent the situation from getting worse. In fact, “behind the scenes” he was hearing words like “depression” and he felt it was his responsibility to do what he felt was right,
despite the possible ill will that might come his way from disappointed constituents. That is something we can admire. In fact, that is something we would like to see more from our leaders.

And Wolf respects his constituents so much that he wants them to understand the reasons he voted his conscience on this bill. On his Web site, he lays out his reasoning:
http://wolf.house.gov/index.cfm?action=website.section§ionid=240.

Wolf does not try to hide or obscure his unpopular votes. He explains them.

Wolf is a Republican, but he has a long history in the House and has worked with both Democrats and Republicans to get things done. He is not an extremist figure, as so many members of both parties
seem to be these days.

Don’t get us wrong, he is a conservative Republican, but he is not hateful or vengeful, and he is not blind to the need to compromise. This too is something we can admire.

And Wolf has a record in his district that is hard to deny. He secured money to help pay for improvements to the Interstate 66/Route 29 interchange in Gainesville, he procured federal funding to help pay
for the Virginia Railway Express parking deck in Manassas and he is pushing to bring mass transit to the Dulles corridor of Northern Virginia.

Wolf also advocated for and got money to create the Northern Virginia Regional Gang Task Force — a widely admired group.

And these are just some of his achievements.

Wolf is the most senior of Virginia’s House members and he has a seat on the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful committees in the House of Representatives.

Judy Feder cannot hope to match his influence, nor do we think she understands the issues as well as Wolf. Her expertise is mostly confined to health care and getting all people access to it.

While this is an admirable stand, a representative must be more diverse and nimble than we think Feder can be.

We hope on Nov. 4 you will reelect Frank Wolf to the House of Representatives.