Goodlatte Will Have Challenger in 6th District

by Valerie Garner

Karen Kwiatkowski will challenge 6th District incumbent Congressman Republican Bob Goodlatte in a June 12, 2012 primary or convention. Kwiatkowski was the top pick of Libertarians to run for President in 2008. She declined the draft attempt and has not run for any other office until now.

She is running as a Republican, looks for Tea Party support and is making the rounds preparing for an official announcement in June. Her campaign manager, Joe Oddo, said in a phone call Tuesday that she had intended to come to Roanoke’s Tax Day event April 15 but had fallen ill and was “under the weather.”

Kwiatkowski has made appearances in Lynchburg, Staunton and Harrisonburg. She has made contact with acting 6th District Republican Chair Chaz Evans-Heywood, Rockingham Clerk of Circuit Court notifying him of her intentions.

Since Trixie Averill’s resignation, Chaz Evans-Heywood of Harrisonburg has been acting Chairman. Lynchburg GOP Chairman, Mark Peak has announced his candidacy for the open position. That election is on May 7.

She plans to take Goodlatte to task on his  “term limit” pledge. His term has been up long ago, explained Oddo. His “yes” vote on the budget bill to extend funding the federal government through September without sufficient budget cuts, is also a bone of contention she has with Goodlatte.

The Patriot Act is unconstitutional, says Kwiatkowski on her website, KarenKforCongress.com. “In fact, he asked me to show proof that the FISA warrants were being used on American citizens. I have seen the evidence. His campaign donors benefit from his looking the other way,” she said.

She admonishes Goodlatte for not proposing the elimination of ethanol subsidies and mandates.

Kwiatkowski would repeal the 17th amendment to the Constitution and return the power to Governors and state legislators to appoint Senators to the U.S. Senate. She would also repeal the 16th amendment that gives the federal government taxing authority.

Kwiatkowski, age 50, is a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel. She lives on a farm in Shenandoah County near Jackson with her husband and three of her four children. She has a Ph.D. in World Politics from Catholic University of America.

From May 2002 to February 2003, she served in the Pentagon’s Near East and South Asia directorate (NESA). While at NESA, she wrote a series of anonymous articles, “Insider Notes from the Pentagon.” Kwiatkowski was in her office inside the Pentagon when it was attacked on September 11, 2001.

Kwiatkowski is primarily noted for openly and publicly denouncing what she sees as a corrupting political influence on the course of military intelligence leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

She has taught classes at the University of Maryland and The American Public University System. She also has served as an adjunct faculty member in Political Science at James Madison University.