The news for Virginia Republicans is not bad, merely strange. While Survey USA shows Robert Hurt crushing incumbent Democrat Tom Perriello in one competitive district, in another, GOP challenger Parker Morgan* Griffith trails incumbent Democrat Rick Boucher by 10, narrowing the gap by 3 percentage points since their last poll.

Virginia Republicans see many reasons for optimism:

Why is a 3-point swing so remarkable?
• Name Recognition: Boucher has run 14 previous campaigns in this district — yet this is one of the closest, if not the closest — re-election runs he’s ever faced. Over the past decade, Boucher has usually finished 20 or more points ahead of his challenger. For the first time ever, his margin is shrinking.
• Air Time: Boucher has been on the air for months in annoyingly-heavy rotation. You can’t turn on the 6 p.m. news in Roanoke or the Tri-Cities without being blasted by multiple Boucher ads.
• Boucher is Running from his Record: Boucher’s TV message is a 180-degree distortion of his actual record. He claims to be for a balanced budget, but voted against a balanced budget amendment twice, and balanced budget resolutions on two other occasions. He boasts about his vote against ObamaCare, but doesn’t mention his vote to hire 16,000 IRS agents to enforce it.
If Rick is so proud of his record, why doesn’t he mention that he votes with Nancy Pelosi 96.4 percent of the time. Or for that matter, why doesn’t the word “Democrat” appear in any of his ads?
Meanwhile, as people get to know Morgan Griffith, the more they support him.

All of their reasoning is plausible; it’s just odd to see Griffith, a veteran state legislator who would presumably begin with decent name recognition in a not-terribly-Democratic district, still trailing by a significant margin.

* Thank God I didn’t write “Peter Griffin.”