Virginia: Sixth District

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R)

Bob Goodlatte (R) Elected 1992, 8th term up
Born:	09-22-1952, Holyoke, MA
Home:	Roanoke
Education:	Bates Col., B.A. 1974, Washington & Lee Law Schl., J.D. 1977
Religion:	Christian Scientist
Marital Status:	married (Maryellen)
Professional Career:	Dist. Dir., U.S. Rep. Caldwell Butler, 1977–79; Practicing atty., 1979–92.
DC Office	2240 RHOB, 20515 202-225-5431 Fax: 202-225-9681 Website: www.house.gov/goodlatte
State Offices	Harrisonburg:540-432-2391; Lynchburg:804-845-8306; Roanoke:540-857-2672; Staunton:540-885-3861;
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The sturdy men and women who settled the Valley of Virginia west of the Blue Ridge were quite different from the “second sons” of the European aristocracy who cleared the marshy forests of the Tidewater and built grand plantations there. Even before the Revolutionary War, Scots and Scots-Irish, German Protestants and Mennonites and Moravians—members of religious communities and fiercely independent farmers—poured down the great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania to the Valley. They were looking not for the flat, mahogany-brown land that eastern tobacco growers sought, but for fields, which could support wheat, corn and hay, crops that could be rotated, and that an individual farmer and his family could handle. That same independent spirit nurtured the growth of higher education here. In Lexington alone are Washington and Lee University, which Robert E. Lee headed, and the Virginia Military Institute, where Stonewall Jackson taught philosophy and artillery tactics, and which began admitting women in 1996 under order from the U.S. Supreme Court. A quartet of distinguished women’s colleges is nearby: Mary Baldwin College at Staunton, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College at Lynchburg, Sweet Briar College at Sweet Briar, and Hollins University at Roanoke, farther south in the Valley. A presidential library for Woodrow Wilson is planned for his birthplace of Staunton. Here, industry flourished more than in most of Virginia east of the Blue Ridge. In the 19th century the Norfolk and Western Railway established its chief junction at Roanoke; as the years passed the city became the headquarters of the railroad, now Norfolk Southern, and many major companies have plants here. Now there is a proposal to build a parallel to Interstate 81, which runs through the Valley, solely for trucks.

The 6th Congressional District of Virginia covers the heart of the Valley of Virginia, from Strasburg south to Roanoke, and crosses over the Blue Ridge to take in Lynchburg, the home of the late Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University. Politically, this area has a Republican tradition hospitable to economic assistance for the little guy, and it fiercely opposed Harry Byrd Democrats. In recent decades the ancestral conservatism of Byrd Democrats and the feisty politics of the mountain rebels have melded into a single conservative Republicanism, more populist than elite in tone, as concerned with moral values as economic freedom, prickly about interference from Washington or even Richmond. In 2004 the 6th District voted 63% for George W. Bush, his highest percentage in a Virginia district; in 2006, it voted 58%-40% for Senator George Allen, also his highest percentage, in his loss to Democrat Jim Webb.

The congressman from the 6th District is Bob Goodlatte, a Republican first elected in 1992, and past chairman of the House Agriculture Committee. Goodlatte grew up in Massachusetts, attended college in Maine and then law school at Washington & Lee, and went to work in Congressman Caldwell Butler’s office in Roanoke. Goodlatte practiced law in Roanoke and stayed active in politics; in 1992, when Democrat Jim Olin retired, Goodlatte was nominated by convention and won the general 60%-40%.

Goodlatte has compiled a mostly conservative voting record. On the Judiciary Committee, he sponsored the House-passed bill to limit class-action lawsuits against tobacco companies, gun makers and other companies, and a separate bill to give federal courts jurisdiction over large class-action suits. In response to conservatives’ complaints over federal court decisions that cite legal rulings of other nations, he sponsored a bill stating that judicial decisions should not be based on foreign precedents. The House approved his plan to eliminate the visa lottery program from the immigration law.

With 9th District Democrat Rick Boucher, Goodlatte has been a leader among House members working on technology issues. He has chaired the GOP’s High-Tech Working Group and co-chairs the Congressional Internet Caucus with Boucher, where they have encouraged open and non-taxed access to broadband technology. Goodlatte sponsored the Communications Decency Act, allowing censorship of obscene material on the Internet, which was overturned by the Supreme Court. To combat spyware software that tracks users’ activities and identifying information, he won House passage of his “I-SPY Prevention Act” to criminalize the installation of such software without the owner’s approval. In 2006, he helped to enact restrictions on Internet gambling by cutting off money to overseas operators.

In 2003, Goodlatte became chairman of the Agriculture Committee. The agriculture in his district, as he notes, is “free-market oriented: poultry, livestock, orchards. It gives me a pretty free hand to work with all the different regions of the country.” He was the first Agriculture chairman since 1967 from east of the Mississippi River. He backed the Bush administration’s appeal of a 2004 World Trade Organization ruling that U.S. cotton subsidies violated international trade rules. He worked to pass the Healthy Forests Initiative and got a two-year postponement of the country of origin labeling provisions in the 2002 farm act. In 2004, he worked with other tobacco state lawmakers to steer a perilous course in successfully attaching the tobacco buyout program—specifically, the end of Depression-era quotas and price supports—to the reform of corporate taxes, while rejecting Senate provisions to include FDA regulation of tobacco. He met major protests, including some at home, when he objected to a bill designed to stop the slaughter of horses; although he argued that it would produce increased horse abuse and neglect, the House passed the bill in September 2006. He has praised the impact of the 2002 farm bill, and hoped for bipartisan cooperation in its renewal. In the 109th Congress, he was one of only four members who did not miss a House vote.

Goodlatte has been consistently reelected without difficulty and has regularly donated his salary increases to local charities. He encountered no problem when he abandoned in 2002 his self-imposed 12-year term limit. He has not faced a Democratic challenger since 1998.

Committees

• Agriculture (RMM of 21 R).
  
• Judiciary (5th of 17 R)
  Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security & International Law; Courts, the Internet & Intellectual Property.

Presidential Vote

District Demographics (More Info)

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +11
• Area size: 5,664 square miles
• Urban Population: 64.7%
• Rural Population: 35.3%
• Population 2000: 643,504
• Population 2005 (est): 662,954
• Median Income: $37,773
• Poverty Status: 11.0%
• Military Veterans: 13.7%
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 84.8% White; 10.9% Black; 0.9% Asian; 0.2% Native Am.; 0.0% Hawaiian; 1.0% Two+ races; 0.1% Other; 2.0% Hispanic Origin;
• Ancestry: 13.4% USA%; 11.9% German%; 8.9% English%;
• Occupation: Blue collar 28.5%; White collar 55.9%; Gray collar 15.6%;