Judy Feder

Judy Feder
Democratic nominee for U.S. Representative for Virginia, 10th District
Election date November 4, 2008
Opponent	Frank Wolf (R) Neeraj Nigam (I)
Incumbent	Frank Wolf
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Stan
Alma mater	Brandeis University, Harvard University
Profession	university professor at Georgetown University, former dean of Georgetown Public Policy Institute
Website	judyfeder.com

Judith M. Feder is the Democratic nominee for the election for Virginia's 10th congressional district (map) of the United States House of Representatives, and will face Republican Frank Wolf and Independent Neeraj Nigam in November.

Feder is a Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University and was Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute from 1999 through 2007; she is a member of the Institute of Medicine. Additionally, she is a Democratic policy consultant and served in the Clinton administration. She ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives in Virginia during the 2006 elections.

Academic career

Feder holds a B.A. from Brandeis University in 1968 and received her Master's in 1970 and Ph.D. in 1977 from Harvard University in political science. She held positions at the Brookings Institution and at the Urban Institute, before joining Georgetown in 1984. as Co-Director of the Center for Health Policy Studies, Georgetown University School of Medicine. After a stint in the Clinton administration, she returned to Georgetown in 1995 as Research Professor of Public Policy, becoming Dean of the Institute in 1999.

At Georgetown, she is codirector of the Georgetown University Long-term Care Financing, and senior advisor to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.

In addition to her membership in the Institute of Medicine, she is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Academy of Social Insurance and is past-President and board member of AcademyHealth and a Policy Council Member of the Academy of Public Policy and Management.

Publications

Books

• Medicaid Financing Crisis: Balancing Responsibilities, Priorities, and Dollars, ed. (with Diane Rowland and Alina Salganicoff). Washington, D.C.: AAAS Press, 1993.

• Insuring the Nation's Health: Market Competition, Catastrophic and Comprehensive Approaches, (with Jack Hadley and John Holahan). Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1981.

• National Health Insurance: Conflicting Goals and Policy Choices, ed. (with John Holahan and Theodore Marmor). Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, March 1980.

• Financing Health Care for the Elderly: Medicare, Medicaid, and Private Health Insurance, (with John Holahan}. Washington, D.C.: The Urban Institute, 1979.

• Medicare: The Politics of Federal Hospital Insurance, Lexington, MA: Heath, Washington, D.C. 1977.

Other publications

Feder is the author of 36 articles in peer reviewed journals in medicine and public affairs, including several articles in JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine, over 10 chapters in academic and books, as well as less academic political publications.

Political career

She was staff director of the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care (the Pepper Commission) chaired by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, which contributed to the health care debate before and during the Clinton administration in the 1990s. She served in that administration as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.

2006 House election

Incumbent Frank Wolf (R) was expected to have an easy reelection in Northern Virginia's 10th congressional district but Feder posed a surprisingly strong challenge. An October 10th poll by R.T. Strategies showed Judy Feder to be within 5% at 42% to Wolf's 47%. Late in the campaign, the DCCC added Va-10 to their target list due to Feder's strong campaign and prodigious fund-raising, bringing in a total of $1.6 million. The DCCC also sent her a late contribution of $75,000.00.

Ultimately, Feder lost to Wolf, 57.25%-40.89%, but gave him the closest challenge he had faced in 24 years. The 10th district is notorious as a difficult district for challengers due to its reliance upon the expensive Washington D.C. media market. This is evidenced by the fact that both Wolf and his predecessor Joseph L. Fisher required multiple campaigns to win the seat.

2008 House election

See also: United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2008 § District 10

In February 2008, CQ Politics rated Feder ninth nationally in terms of "U.S. House Candidates challenging incumbents of the opposite party who had the most cash-on-hand as of Dec. 31." She won the June 10th Democratic primary and will face Wolf in the general elections in November.

Ms. Feder's campaign has started robocalling as of Thursday 30 OCT. Today's robocall was "Have you seen the Thursday Washinton Post?" and continues for about 1 minute and a half. While the democrats demanded McCain stop robocalls and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle referred to it as the dying gasps of the McCain Campaign one of their own, who is presently behind in the pools 42% to 47% is using it as a tactic to bolster what some would call a losing or dying campaign. That fact aside, the gap of 5 points, or 5%, is the closest gap that Wolf has ever had to face.

See also

• Virginia's 10th congressional district

External links

• Judy Feder for U.S. Congress campaign website

• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org
• "Farewell Frank" blog