Wolf vs. Feder Becomes Race to Watch

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 14, 2006

Northern Virginia's sprawling 10th District, which meanders 70 miles from McLean to the Shenandoah Valley, is nothing if not predictable. For 26 years, voters have sent Republican Frank R. Wolf of Fairfax County to represent them in Congress.

That fact alone gives Wolf, 67, an enormous advantage over his Democratic challenger this year, Judy Feder. His name recognition among voters is vast. And a quarter-century of public service has provided him with a long list of accomplishments to tout, from securing Metro funding and fighting gang violence to calling attention to atrocities in western Sudan.

But 2006 is not a year to assume that history will be a guide. The war in Iraq, high gasoline prices and the House page scandal are pushing voters away from President Bush's party -- even in a district viewed widely as Northern Virginia's most Republican. Add to that the uncertainty of seeking office in a fast-growing region where the political allegiance has shifted toward Democrats in recent elections, and the outlook for Wolf grows less bullish.

Finally, consider the challenger: Though a political newcomer, Feder is a well-funded, well-spoken public policy expert whose aggressive campaign has caused several national political analysts and Web sites to list the 10th District as a race to watch.

"Democrats have had weak candidate after weak candidate against Frank Wolf," said Virginia Commonwealth University professor Robert D. Holsworth. "She is not a weak candidate. She's been more energetic. She's done more things that you expect a quality candidate to do, such as raise money, even against a popular incumbent. It's one of those races where it's not as certain as it normally would be."

Feder, 59, is spending most of her time criticizing Bush and Republican leaders in Congress. In cable TV ads and appearances, she has reminded voters how often Wolf has voted with Bush -- for the war, for tax breaks for oil companies, for a Medicare drug program that some seniors have found confusing and expensive. A vote for Wolf, Feder says, is a vote for staying the course.

"We need change in Washington more urgently than any time I can remember in my lifetime," Feder told the Great Falls Civic Association this week.

Feder, who is on leave from her job as dean of Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, is a tiny woman with funky glasses and short-cropped hair. She was a leading architect of President Clinton's universal health plan, which failed. At the Great Falls forum, she seized the microphone with no hesitation and looked Wolf straight in the eye as she declared the need for new leadership in Congress.

Among the changes Feder would push for are a slow withdrawal from Iraq and the removal of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, more government investment in alternative energy sources and new spending patterns for federal transportation dollars to discourage sprawl and reward smarter growth.

On traffic and sprawl, Feder is following the successful campaign strategies of recently elected Democrats, including Va. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, who have prevailed in such congestion-choked communities as Loudoun and Fairfax counties with a promise to improve roads and encourage better growth patterns.

But she is also venturing into a policy area largely controlled by local governments. Wolf supporters scoffed at a town hall meeting hosted by Feder to discuss a land-use decision in Loudoun County last month, accusing her of trying to capitalize on a polarizing issue that has nothing to do with Congress.

Wolf also cried foul when Feder accused the 13-term congressman of failing to rescue a plan to build a tunnel instead of elevated tracks through Tysons Corner as part of the rail extension to Dulles International Airport.

Wolf said he did not oppose the tunnel. But he was instrumental in persuading Kaine to kill it last month because the added cost of the tunnel could have put the project at risk of failing to meet federal "cost effectiveness" guidelines, jeopardizing hundreds of millions in federal dollars.

"If that had happened, the whole thing would have gone away," Wolf said. "We need rail. Without rail, there is no hope."

Wolf said he is not always partisan on Capitol Hill and not in lock step with Bush. He has pushed for the bipartisan commission that is studying the administration's policies in Iraq.

"There was a failure," he said. The Iraq Study Group, he added, "will get to the bottom of this and come up with new ideas."

Wolf is a friend of such anti-sprawl groups as the Piedmont Environmental Council. Like Feder, he opposes a proposal by Dominion Virginia Power, which could need federal approval, to erect a new power line through pristine countryside in six 10th District counties, including Loudoun and Prince William.

Wolf, who lives in Vienna, also has used his authority as chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee to encourage telecommuting for employees of the departments of Justice, Commerce and State. He demanded an investigation into possible price gouging by oil companies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and he has voted to increase federal investment in alternative energy sources.

One of Wolf's passions has been calling attention to human rights abuses worldwide. He has traveled abroad dozens of times, to such strife-torn regions as Tibet, Congo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. Usually mild-mannered, Wolf's slight stoop and white hair lend him a grandfatherly air (he has 12 grandchildren). But he becomes animated, pounding the table as he speaks of suffering abroad.

"I have met people, held people, women who have been raped," Wolf said, his voice trailing off. "I have one person in my office who does nothing but human rights and religious freedom" issues.

Wolf's amiable disposition, longevity and views on such issues as transit and preservation have made him popular across a broad swath of the 10th District's electorate -- including left-leaning conservationists who might otherwise oppose an ally of Bush this year.

Cate Magennis Wyatt is such a voter. A resident of the Loudoun County village of Waterford and a former secretary of commerce and trade for Democratic governor L. Douglas Wilder, Wyatt now leads an effort to establish a National Heritage Area along a 175-mile corridor from Gettysburg to Monticello. In Congress, Wolf is the lead supporter of the project, Called the Journey Through Hallowed Ground.

"Mr. Wolf is listening to his constituents," Wyatt said. "Mr. Wolf is really leading the charge on conservation and ensuring our history is here for generations to come."

Such support could protect Wolf against the onslaught of anti-Republican sentiment sweeping the nation. The Web page CQPolitics.com recently reclassified the 10th District race from "safe Republican" to "Republican favored." And, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has called the 10th an "emerging" race.

A recent poll conducted by the independent R.T. Strategies of Alexandria puts Feder just 5 points behind Wolf. The poll's margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Feder said, "People all over the nation are desperate for change and accountability in Washington."

But Holsworth, the VCU professor, said, "It still would be a huge surprise if Frank Wolf could be beaten."