Having failed to observe the first rule of politics – “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” – one-time Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, ousted in 2022 as Democratic leader in the lower house of the legislature by her ungrateful colleagues, has been keeping active, buying time and plotting her next move.
Apparently she was going to run for governor in 2025 – name us a Democrat who isn’t? – but the decision by U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-10th) to eschew re-election next year due to health issues opened a new path.
Filler-Corn now says she’s going to run for the Democratic nomination in the 10th Congressional District, even though she doesn’t exactly live in the district. Not by a long shot.
But with the governorship a seeming improbability and Gerry Connolly going nowhere in the 11th House District (where Filler-Corn does live), she saw her shot and she’s taking it. Unless something else opens up in the interim.
We’ve got nothing against Filler-Corn; heck, we’ve been nicer to her than her Democratic colleagues who booted her to the curb. But this whole game of whack-a-mole (or musical chairs) with political offices she and other career politicians play is just so emblematic of the craven, obsessive nature of many in the political game.
Given the current political inclinations of Northern Virginia, it’s likely whomever emerges from the Democratic nomination process will have the job for life. So it’s no surprise a cast of thousands may end up tossing hats into the ring. Why eschew the possibility of such a cushy gig?
