Va. Funds Sent to National GOP as 'Retribution' for Cantor Defeat

Virginia's Republican 7th District Committee, which is dominated by supporters of outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, voted to send most of its money to the national GOP,  The Washington Post reported.

The move means that Dave Brat, who deposed Cantor as the district's Republican congressional candidate, will not be able to tap the transferred $400,000 for his campaign against Democrat, and fellow Randolph-Macon College professor, Jack Trammell.

Brat supporter Robert Stuber said the committee's move was "retribution" so that the Brat campaign wouldn't have access to the funds that Cantor had raised.

The committee's decision indicates the difficulties Brat will have in uniting his tea party faction with the district's established Republican organization. It also shows that tensions between the two camps remain deep at the national level, according to the Post.

The district is a Republican bastion reaching from suburban Richmond northwest toward the Shenandoah Valley, the Post reported.

Donald Williams, a Cantor-aligned committee member, led the effort to send the money to Washington where the national Republican campaign apparatus would divvy up the funds to all the party's congressional candidates in the state with some money also earmarked for the state GOP.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said it would operate a fully funded campaign for the entire field of Republican congressional candidates with an office based in the 7th District.

A spokesman for Brat, Brian Gottstein, said it was "extremely disappointing" that the $400,000 would not be available for Brat's get-out-the-vote effort. "Now the 7th District Committee is filtering the majority of that money through Washington, and there's no guarantee it will come back." He added, "Dave's focus on unifying Republicans and folks of all stripes around bringing fiscal sanity back to Washington has resulted in financial support from across the 7th District and beyond."

For now, Brat's campaign organization remains rudimentary with only three paid staffers.
Trammell, who takes liberal-leaning policy positions, said he knows he is the underdog in the race since a Democrat has not won a congressional seat in the district since 1971.

He says he hopes the professor versus professor race will be collegial "in the spirit of the way Madison and Monroe had a kind of friend vs. friend, but competitive campaign, many, many years ago," that was contested on the basis of "ideas and issues," the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

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• Cantor: I'll Vote for Brat
• David Brat Played on Anti-Washington Sentiment to Beat Cantor