Thursday, June 02, 2011
Former military analyst announces plan to run against Goodlatte for 6th District nomination
Karen Kwiatkowski, a former military analyst who lives in Shenandoah County, told the Roanoke Tea Party she will challenge incumbent Congressman Bob Goodlatte for the Republican nomination in the 6th District next year.
The self-described "conservative, Constitutionalist, Libertarian Republican" favors downsizing government, letting entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare dry up and eliminating foreign entanglements.
Kwiatkowski told a crowd of more than 50 that she will defend the Constitution and all of its amendments except the 16th and 17th — which established the income tax and allowed for direct election of U.S. Senators — which she will try to repeal.
Kwiatkowski, 50, is a retired lieutenant colonel who spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 2003. She and her husband live west of Mount Jackson, where they raise cattle. She writes for several websites and is an adjunct faculty member in political science at James Madison University. She is married with four children and two grandchildren.
Twenty-year incumbent Goodlatte has been essentially bulletproof since he was elected to Congress in 1992; no challenger since then has won more than 40 percent of the vote against him.
Kwiatkowski said she is a "Goldwater Republican" who has previously voted for Goodlatte. She started to become disillusioned with him over agricultural issues, however, and particularly when trying to contact him.
"When I would email my representative, I’d get the standard pablum," Kwiatkowski said.
With few Democrats or independents gaining ground on Goodlatte, she said she decided to take him on in a primary or convention for the Republican nomination.
Roanoke Tea Party Chairman Chip Tarbutton said the group would withhold a nomination for now. Goodlatte is meeting with the group in coming months.
The self-described "conservative, Constitutionalist, Libertarian Republican" favors downsizing government, letting entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare dry up and eliminating foreign entanglements.
Kwiatkowski told a crowd of more than 50 that she will defend the Constitution and all of its amendments except the 16th and 17th — which established the income tax and allowed for direct election of U.S. Senators — which she will try to repeal.
Kwiatkowski, 50, is a retired lieutenant colonel who spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force before retiring in 2003. She and her husband live west of Mount Jackson, where they raise cattle. She writes for several websites and is an adjunct faculty member in political science at James Madison University. She is married with four children and two grandchildren.
Twenty-year incumbent Goodlatte has been essentially bulletproof since he was elected to Congress in 1992; no challenger since then has won more than 40 percent of the vote against him.
Kwiatkowski said she is a "Goldwater Republican" who has previously voted for Goodlatte. She started to become disillusioned with him over agricultural issues, however, and particularly when trying to contact him.
"When I would email my representative, I’d get the standard pablum," Kwiatkowski said.
With few Democrats or independents gaining ground on Goodlatte, she said she decided to take him on in a primary or convention for the Republican nomination.
Roanoke Tea Party Chairman Chip Tarbutton said the group would withhold a nomination for now. Goodlatte is meeting with the group in coming months.
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