After watching this interview by Vivian Paige (good reporting, by the way), my conclusion is that 2nd Congressional District independent candidate Kenny Golden is a social libertarian — government should stay out of the bedroom, whether it’s on abortion or civil unions for gay couples. On economics, Golden seems to have a populist – and possibly environmentalist – streak, blasting the “greed and nothing else” of BP which might have “killed the Gulf of Mexico” and supporting more regulation on the out-of-control oil industry. On national security, Golden is clearly a hawk, favoring an aggressive stance in the “war on terror” and comparing the “Islamic jihadists” to the Comintern. Finally, Golden appears to be concerned with the deficit. All in all, I agree with Vivian Paige that Golden seems to be an “independent thinker.”
It will be interesting to see how Golden’s independent philosophy, combined with his military background, plays in the 2nd Congressional District this fall. Can he pull from the left and the right, or will this former Virginia Beach Republican chairman appeal more to Republicans and GOP-leaning independents? Most importantly, perhaps, will Golden have the resources necessary to garner more than a few percentage points in November? The answers to those questions could very well determine whether Rep. Glenn Nye returns to Congress next January.
