democrat

Anita Hartke, who grew up in politics, knew she would have an uphill battle against Rep. Eric I. Cantor in the heavily Republican 7th Congressional District.

Hartke, 48, a Culpeper County Democrat, is making her first run for public office. Cantor, after eight years in office, not only is the deputy Republican whip in the House of Representatives. He also is being touted as a possible vice presidential running mate for John McCain.

"I'm not naive," Hartke said in a recent interview about the hurdles she faces.

But Hartke, as a divorced mother of three children who has to pay a mortgage, pay for gas and take care of an aging mother, said she can better relate to people and their everyday concerns.

"I'm coming in to represent the working class, and I live the life of a constituent," she said.

As for Cantor, "he's been in there for a while. After anyone who has served a long time in office, it's always good to have someone who is in touch with the people and has fresh ideas," she said.

She said she learned people politics from her late father, Vance Hartke, a Democrat who represented Indiana in the U.S. Senate from 1959 to 1977. He was defeated by the current holder of that seat, Republican Sen. Richard G. Lugar. Hartke died in 2003.

The senator was best known for his opposition to the war in Vietnam, not a popular stance in conservative Indiana. As an anti-war Democrat, he sought the presidential nomination in 1972 but did not get far.

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Born in Washington, Hartke grew up in Falls Church, where, at an early age, she started helping her father in his political campaigns.

"I was born a Democrat, I was born a Lutheran," she said. "I've lived in Virginia all my life."

After her divorce, she and her mother moved to the Amissville area of northern Culpeper County in 2004. As a real estate broker, she helps sell houses for her brother, who has an office in Reston.

In Culpeper, she began to immerse herself in Democratic politics. She was president of the local Democratic committee in January, when the party started casting about for someone to run against Cantor.

Since then, she has put thousands of miles on her car, grown hoarse from talking to people and worn calluses on her feet from walking in parades. But she has raised little money and, without it, has been unable to generate much attention.

Hartke said she plans to rent an apartment in the Richmond area for the remainder of the campaign, to get closer to the population base of the sprawling district, which stretches from the west end of Richmond north and westward to Page County, across the Blue Ridge Mountains. Almost 50 percent of the registered voters live in Henrico County.

Cantor has virtually ignored Hartke, feeling confident enough to act as a surrogate for McCain.

Hartke has tried to tie herself to Democratic senatorial candidate Mark R. Warner, the popular former governor. She has Warner-Hartke yard signs and bumper stickers.

She also noted that her father, little known at the time in a Republican state, was elected to the U.S. Senate in a Democratic landslide.

"We may be having this same situation take place with Obama, Warner and myself," she said.

Hartke said she will run as a candidate who can reach across party lines to promote change. Like Warner, she describes herself as "a radical centrist."

"I am a Christian and pro-life, which is not your typical Democrat," she said.

She describes the war in Iraq as "an example of failed political incumbency. Politicians who are in office have not done their job. . . . War is a failure of the politicians."

Contact Tyler Whitley at (804) 649-6780 or twhitley@timesdispatch.com.