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David Sherfinski

dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com

David Sherfinski covered politics for The Washington Times.

Articles by David Sherfinski

** FILE ** Virginia Democratic Senate candidate, former Gov. Tim Kaine addresses the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Tech Town Hall in Reston, Va., Thursday, June 28, 2012. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Virginia GOP attack on Kaine ricochets

The Virginia Republican Party lambasted Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine on Monday for backing a congressional deal that's led to the specter of $500 billion in defense cuts starting next year — despite a majority of the state's Republican lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, having voted for the plan.

July 23, 2012
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (left) speaks on Saturday, July 21, 2012, as former Sen. George Allen, also a former governor, listens during the Virginia Bar Association's senatorial debate at the Homestead in Hot Springs, Va. (Associated Press)

Sharp exchanges punctuate first Allen-Kaine debate in Virginia

Both U.S. Senate candidates in Virginia offered glimpses of their lines of attack in the race's first general election debate, with Democrat Tim Kaine repeatedly labeling Republican opponent George Allen a big spender and overt partisan, and Mr. Allen painting Mr. Kaine as a serial tax-hiker and cheerleader of President Obama's agenda, notably his high-profile federal health care law.

July 21, 2012
** FILE ** Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, greets supporters during a campaign stop in Portsmouth, Va., on Thursday, May 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Virginian-Pilot, Ross Taylor)

Poll: Romney winning over hesitant Virginia voters

Mitt Romney has erased an 8-point deficit in the swing state of Virginia, which provided President Obama with one of his biggest victories in 2008 by supporting a Democratic candidate for the first time in more than four decades.

July 19, 2012
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks July 18, 2012, during a campaign stop in Bowling Green, Ohio. (Associated Press)

In Ohio, fired-up Romney pledges to ‘fight for soul of America’

Mitt Romney brought his newly aggressive style of attack against President Obama to Ohio on Wednesday, hammering the president for his recent comments on small businesses and pledging to "fight for the soul of America" in the face of mounting pressure to release more of his tax returns.

July 18, 2012
**FILE** GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney speaks at an event at Horizontal Wireline Services in Irwin, Pa., on July 17, 2012. Pennsylvania is considered a battleground state, even though the state went for the Democrats in 2008. (Associated Press)

Romney team gets outgunned on rapid response to Obama

Even as Mitt Romney was readying one of his strongest direct attacks yet on President Obama on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama's campaign pre-empted him with its own attack ad in the state, a turn of events emblematic of the Republican challenger's struggle to impose his own narrative to drive — and win — what is now a 24-hour news cycle.

July 17, 2012
Mitt Romney has started swinging out against President Obama as a crony capitalist in a new ad and his own appearances. It’s a posture many have wanted. “People in the GOP are looking for him to come out swinging, rather than letting the Super PACs do the swinging for him,” one strategist said. (Associated Press)

Romney shows his fighting side, to GOP cheers

Dogged by lingering questions about his business record, Mitt Romney shifted from defense to attack mode Monday, accusing President Obama of unfairly rewarding campaign donors. It was a more aggressive posture many Republicans have been wanting to see.

July 16, 2012
German national Jens Soering was convicted in Bedford County, Va., of killing his girlfriend's parents in 1985. (Associated Press)

GOP smells blood in Virginia Senate race

A newly discovered connection between U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine and convicted double murderer Jens Soering has prompted renewed attacks by Republicans on an issue over which the Democratic former governor has long been perceived as vulnerable.

July 13, 2012
President Obama greets supporters after a campaign event at a community college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Tuesday, July 10, 2012. (Associated Press)

These three fact-checkers keep candidates in line

The emergence of fact-checkers is one of the major stories of the 2012 presidential campaign, with the self-appointed arbiters of truth inserting themselves into all of the thorniest issues.

July 12, 2012
U.S. Senate candidates from Virginia George Allen and Tim Kaine shake hands while on stage for a photo op at the Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Tech Town Hall on Thursday, June 28, 2012 at the Microsoft offices in Reston, Va. Each candidate was allowed opening remarks followed by a 30-minute Q&A session with a Microsoft panel. (Barbara L. Salisbury/The Washington Times)

Between Allen and Kaine, no daylight

U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and George Allen on Wednesday announced their best quarterly fundraising totals, even as a new poll showed the Virginia political heavyweights still neck and neck heading into the summer campaign season.

July 11, 2012
"The consequences of governors' decisions will impact our states — and the nation — for decades to come, so we must have all the information needed to choose wisely," Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, wrote in a letter to President Obama. (Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

Va. Gov. McDonnell undecided on adding to Medicaid

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told members of the General Assembly on Tuesday that it is too early to say whether the state will follow the lead of a handful of Republican governors who have vowed not to implement key portions of President Obama's health care overhaul.

July 10, 2012
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Goode’s third-party run: Bad news for Romney in Virginia?

Former Virginia Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr.'s bid for the White House as the Constitution Party's nominee could help resuscitate a political career cut short by a razor-thin loss in 2008 — but it also carries the risk of tipping the scales toward President Obama in the all-important swing state.

July 8, 2012
President Barack Obama speaks before signing HR 4348, the Surface Transportation Bill, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, July 6, 2012. The bill maintains jobs on transportation projects and prevents interest rate increases on new loans to millions of college students. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Obama touts transportation, student loans; GOP hits economy, health care

President Obama, in his weekly radio address, highlighted a bill he signed into law Friday that will provide more money for transportation projects and prevent interest rates for student loans from doubling, opting to stray from the two subjects that have dominated the headlines in recent days — the economy and health care.

July 7, 2012
Artur Davis, a onetime Democratic representative from Alabama, says his recent switch to the Republican Party was prompted by the massive chasm between President Obama's promises as a candidate and his results as president. "The candidate who talked about and pledged to cut the deficit in half has now gotten us accustomed ... to trillion-dollar deficits every single year of his presidency,"he said on a visit to Virginia. (Associated Press)

New to the GOP side, Davis sounds battle cry

Former Rep. Artur Davis, who recently switched from Democrat to Republican, has fast become a high-profile backer for Mitt Romney in Virginia as he sounds the battle cry for disaffected Democrats.

July 5, 2012
**FILE** Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks June 19, 2012, in Holland, Mich. (Associated Press)

Romney goes against GOP on ‘tax’ label

In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling last week, Republicans on Capitol Hill spent four days laying out an attack on President Obama's health care law as a massive tax increase.

July 2, 2012

State worker paid criminal $80,000

A Virginia Department of Corrections employee paid a prolific criminal with whom he had a homosexual relationship nearly $80,000 in public funds to perform work for the state that was never done, a recent report concludes.

July 2, 2012