It’s WAR! WAR, I tell you! They’re ignoring the grassroots! Outrage! Despair! … ah jeez, just shut up!
Primary to determine GOP’s 2010 5th District candidate
So that happened… Anyway. Everybody knows that Tom Perriello is going to be vulnerable in his first bid for re-election. The veritable Clown Car of Candidates (love that name that Waldo Jaquith came up with) emerged to fight for the chance to oppose Perriello in the 2010 election. You’ve got Mike McPadden, Ken Boyd, Feda Morton, Lawrence Verga, Ron Ferrin, Jim McKelvey and maybe somebody else that I’ve forgotten that have declared their candidacy. Nobody really knows who in the hell these people are besides their inner circle of fervent supporters. You’ve also got a (very) wild card of Bradley Rees from Bedford. He was the first person to declare his candidacy but then decided to quit the game because he was dissatisfied with the process being used to select the candidate (whatever the hell that meant). Rees declared that he’d run as a third-party candidate if he didn’t like who was picked… but we’ll have more on that later.
Everybody knew that state senator Robert Hurt was going to throw his hat into the ring, and he did just that. He became the front-runner in the race because of his name recognition and popularity. Almost immediately, the howls of the fringe combined with the howls of the assorted other candidates because they knew they were doomed against a Hurt juggernaut. “But Hurt voted for a tax increase once!” became the rallying cry of the group, and a lot of people realized that if that’s all that they had against Hurt, they had nothing.
Let’s now look into the fringe elements of the Republican Party. They called Hurt a RINO (that stupid-ass invented acronym for Republican In Name Only). Yep, you had a bunch of WHINE-O’s calling Hurt a RINO and trying to get one of their ELLAFINO’s into the spotlight. They didn’t seem to understand that any of the other Clown Car Candidates had no district-wide support and would have almost no chance against Perriello in the general election. Hurt is the only declared candidate that would start the general election campaign at a 50/50 tossup against Perriello. However, facts like that didn’t seem to be important to the shouters and the candidates realized that the only chance they’d have to defeat Hurt would be to have a convention to select the nominee. In that venue, they could make deals and cannibalize each other and maybe get a majority of the votes in a closed atmosphere.
Let’s FastForward to this weekend’s activities. The unit representatives of the various party groups got together to select the method of nomination. The candidates and the so-called “grassroots” supporters of the other candidates started yelling and holding signs saying that a convention was the way to go. The committee smartly picked the primary, and the howls of outrage started again. These “grassroots” people and the various tea-party organizations failed yet again in getting anything accomplished. As Waldo Jaquith said in his blog…
They know how to stand around in a parking lot, wave signs, and shout, but actually getting shit done, they get an F.
Now, let’s get back to Bradley Rees. He quit the Republican game a month or so and said that he just might run against a Republican nominee if he didn’t like their stances. Well, Rees shows up at this committee meeting and joins the WHINE-O’s in saying that this was a horrible decision. In fact, in the spirit of grand hyperbole, he even said something like this was the start of a new civil war. Bradley Rees, please shut up. You quit the game, so you have no say-so in how they set the rules. If you had stayed in the race, perhaps your opinions on this would have some relevance.
Let’s break this decision down into terms that we all can relate to: Remember back when you were a semi-rebellious teenager? Remember when you wanted to do something that you felt was right but your parents made a ruling that denied what you wanted? Remember how you whined and pouted about it? Remember how your parents said that they were doing the right thing for you and you’d understand why they did it later in your life? Remember later in life when you realized that your parents were wise after all and that they had made the right decision?
The semi-rebellious teenagers are the Clown Car Candidates. The parents who made the right decision are played by the committee who ruled for the primary. The candidates can pout all they want and even lock themselves in their room, but the decision was the right one.
Would you say that a convention is intrinsically horrible? Or is it just that the 6 wanted a convention because it was their only path to victory?
Reply: The convention was the only chance that The Others had. Even then it would have been a longshot for one of them to win, but still possible if the loser on each ballot threw their support to one another. One would think that rationality would have kicked in as they would have seen another of them picked off every round, but rationality isn’t a strong part for the grassrooters & tea partiers.
wait, now, let’s not insult Tea Partiers: they are doing much to raise the consciousness level of America to see the thievery in Washington.
As a Hurt supporter, I hope the primary process favors him. But I want Perriello GONE & I will ultimately work hard for whomever the nominee is.
Sending Perriello home should be our over-arching concern.
As a northsider I can tell you, I know a lot more about Ken Boyd then Sen. Hurt. District wide recognition is something no one republican has yet; neither did Periello at first. Sen. Hurt and his RNCC boy’s got the method that they wanted, let’s see what kind of campaign they can run. I saw Sen. Hurt speak Saturday with all the others and if he is the best we got, we are in trouble. He was easily outshone by several of the “clown car” candidates.
Ken Boyd is well known and respected in the top half of the district- he’s the one candidate that has run and won a seriously contested race (two in fact). It is an insult to an elected official that has been active for decades in republican politics to lumped into a group with not an election run amongst them (Feda Morton excepted). Sen. Hurt has yet to be seriously challenged- his lackluster speech on Saturday proved that. Boyd has recruited and got elected republicans to beat the dems and take control of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. I’m not saying that Sen. Hurt can’t become a better candidate but nothing I’ve seen has shown me that he doesn’t think this election will be handed to him by his crew of RNCC approved staff.
I guess I just haven’t been shown why a convention is bad. This post was a lot more vitriolic than I’m used to seeing from this blog. I think you err when you lump the 6 together as The Others/Clown Car Candidates. I think Josh is right when he talks about Ken Boyd, and there have been several of us down in Southside who have been impressed by McPadden. Are there candidates with no chance? Yeah. And there are longshots too. But that doesn’t make them not viable against Perriello.
A convention was the best way for us as a party to fairly evaluate all the candidates and come to the decision about who was most viable. If it’s Hurt, it’s Hurt, and I’m perfectly cool with that. If the convention decides for Verga or Morton or someone else, that’s cool too. I’m undecided about whom I’m supporting. In a primary, the race can essentially be bought by money and name recognition, which feed off each other. That’s a problem, because it doesn’t put the candidates on an equal playing field. So what if the non-Hurt candidates wanted a convention because it helped their chances? They’re rational! They act in their own self-interest. I don’t see the problem with that.
I agree totally with Josh and Samuel!
The idea that the national GOP is telling conservatives to get in line and vote for Hurt, gives me great pause….they do not have the best track record lately….and honestly their credibility is suspect.
I am researching Boyd, and like what I see thus far.
I’m also not opposed to the NRCC (except for the Scozzafava fail, and that was a local leadership fail primarily), so I don’t consider their “endorsement” of Hurt a strike against him, for the record.
The national GOP gave us McCain. Newt endorsed Scozzafava, and urged people to vote for her the good of the party…the national GOP did not distance from her…then endorsed her knowing her views. The republican establishment is part of the problem, IMO
these comments are much calmer, rational & reasonable than some i’ve seen on this topic at other sites.
Perriello is going to run as an incumbent which is an advantage, plus he will have Obama money & Al Gore “global warming” money. He has fundraisers also with people associated with big labor.
look, I consider myself a “tea partier”. but I really like Hurt. and don’t think for a minute that he doesn’t realize what is staring him in the face.
dave, I can’t disagree with you about the Republican establishment.
but can someone run against the Obama establishment (such as will be behind Perriello) without their own “establishment”.?
so we need the big Republicans. sometimes they mess up. sometimes they don’t. I think we all win with Hurt.
Kelly,
I think that we can win (defined as replace Perriello with a conservative) with a strong candidate…I am just not convinced, as of yet, that the only candidate in the race who can do that is Mr. Hurt.
I want to hear from the others before deciding.
dave: you are a thoughtful man.
certainly unlike others at Virginia political blogs where posters are saying they’ll pick up their ball, go home & field a 3d party.
a 3d party candidate can win with several millions dollars. but if they don’t have the money to run a competitive race, they will siphon votes from whomever the Republicans choose in the primary.
and how does that change anything for us here in the 5th?
All I am saying is that Hurt is not the only candidate in the race, and I am resistant to get behind him just because the national GOP says so, guess I am just a little rebellious like that…ha ha…
Like I said, I am checking out the others, and will support one of them in the primary….that person may or may nor be Hurt (although I highly doubt he will be the one)…..but whomever wins the nomination to run against Perriello, will almost certainly have my support in the general….so long as they are pro life, pro family, a constitutionalist, and fiscally conservative.
I reckon I am part of this “establishment” and as yet nobody whatsoever has contacted me in any manner about who I should support in the upcoming primary. Senator Hurt has my support, but it is solely due to the fact I decided to support him, and not because somebody in Washington has told me to. My main concern is to see to it that Perriello is taken out of that seat in 2010. He is too far to the left to suit the majority of voters in the 5th.
I have never gotten a single phone call nor communication from anyone from the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee or the Republican Party of Virginia asking me to back any candidate nor any process for selecting the candidate. I have talked to a number of county and city chairs and not one has gotten any call from any of those groups either. It is pure campaign rhetoric trying to divide people. There are endorsements for one candidate from people who serve on the RNC national committee from Virginia but non of those endorsements are for Robert Hurt.
We have had to put up with Tom Perriello way too long already and we need to focus on the common goal of getting him out of office.
Chairman Watkins perhaps you didn’t read the press release from Andy Sere, welcoming Sen. Hurt into the race (something the RNCC didn’t do for any other candidate.) I find it less then credible that the 5th district chair and others failed to see this thinly veiled preference from RNCC. You do us disservice sir, by pretending not to know that the RNCC/ Rep. Cantor worked hard to convince Sen. Hurt to run.
I understand why Sen. Hurt is the RNCC darling but what is truly disheartening is your finely worded pretense of what did not happen. It is the equivalent of Captain Renault in Casablanca, who famously said “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” and then promptly had his casino winnings handed to him.
Bruce,
Bruce, my friend I have to say after hearing each of the other candidates in the race for the 5th congressional district….that I feel that you are completely off base with the clown car analogies and other mocking comments you have been making. There is a good field….of course there are one or two that probably do not have a chance….but each of them brings reasonable and important agenda’s to the table. I suggest you do some research on these candidates before summarily dismissing them. IMO, You are better than that.
Reply: I’m sticking with what I’ve said because the other candidates have done very little to get their name recognition up at this time. I only know about Verga because of his
mouthpiecemain supporter. I vaguely know about Morton, and you’ve told me all that I know about Boyd. I would have to look up the other candidates, so they’re all “clown car” candidates to me. I don’t have to do any research on them because at this stage of the game, it’s the candidates’ job to make sure the public knows about them.Also a reminder of something you have obviously forgotten….
Tom Perriello had no “district wide support” when he started against Virgil, “no one had ever heard of him outside of his most fervent supporters”…He certainly did not “start out at 50/50” and many people felt that he had no chance to win….Tell me, what was the result of that race, Mr. Hedrick?
Reply: There’s one giant hole in your logic that I’m about to drive a truck right through, sir. Tom Perriello didn’t win that race. Virgil Goode (and his campaign) lost it. If it hadn’t been for the final four weeks of bumbling mis-steps, Goode would have kept his seat.
Josh,
The assertions that are made on many blogs are that the district committee was pressured or had their arms twisted by people outside the district on the national or state level What I clearly addressed was that that assertion is false. I think the claim that the NRCC “endorsed Robert Hurt” is false and a pure campaign tactic. You say nothing about the other outside of the district folks who have very clearly endorsed endorsed one candidate or another. Just FYI, I did get two fundraising letters from the NRC yesterday but there was no mention of any GOP candidate in them. I like Lawrence Verga but his claim is very weak at best IMHO.
Dave,
Good to se you last night. I thought the debate went well.