Five of the six candidates for the 5th District Republican nomination met in Charlottesville last night. So what happened, who won and who lost?
Laurence Verga, Feda Morton, Ron Ferris, Mike McPadden, Ken Boyd & Jim McKelvey attended the debate, with Robert Hurt passing on this one due to General Assembly work needs.
It’s Random Thoughts time!
- There wasn’t much “debate” at this “debate” because all of the candidates have pretty much the same opinion on the same issues. I didn’t learn anything about the candidates’ positions that I didn’t already know.
- Joe Thomas, the host of the debate, appeared in a Thomas Jefferson costume. Wah wahhhh. I get it, Joe. You’re from Charlottesville. The people in the audience call themselves “patriots”. You still looked like an idiot. Colonial costumes are for Williamsburg and gubernatorial inagurations (and sparely used there, please).
- Robert Tracinski was the debate moderator and somewhat Didn’t Get It. Ask the questions, call TIME! and keep it moving. I’m not at the debate to listen to the moderator, I’m there for the stars of the show who are on the stage.
- All of that being said though, I’m pleasantly surprised that the Tea Partiers didn’t turn this debate into a free-for-all. I had significant fears that the event was going to devolve into a shout-fest.
- I give ZERO credibility to the after-debate straw poll that’s being circulated because I don’t feel that anyone in the audience changed their mind after the debate. That makes the straw poll a count on who they supported before.
Now, what about the candidates? Did they make any moves up or down the ladder?
- Laurence Verga: Verga didn’t look like he was enjoying himself and put very little emotion in his answers. Verga comes out of this debate EVEN.
- Feda Morton: Morton did absolutely nothing to make herself stand out from the other candidates. Morton comes out of this debate DOWN.
- Ron Ferrin: Ferrin started off on the wrong foot trying to make jokes that just weren’t funny and never came back. He just seemed hotheaded to me. Ferrin comes out of this debate DOWN.
- Mike McPadden: McPadden’s answers were relative short & concise and he had a professional demeanor. McPadden comes out of this debate UP.
- Ken Boyd: Boyd started off talking in the style of John Moschitta and it was hard to decipher what he was saying. He’s one of the better candidates out there but did nothing to improve his standing. Boyd comes out of this debate EVEN.
- Jim McKelvey: McKelvey was a relative unknown coming into this debate but like the others, he did nothing to make himself stand out. Unfortunately, that still leaves him in the bottom of the field. McKelvey comes out of this debate EVEN.
- Robert Hurt: Hurt made a strategic move to pass on the Tea Party debates by using the General Assembly session as his reasoning. It was a gamble, but based of what happened last night, it seems to be a good move. All Hurt has to do is let the field cannibalize themselves and he stays away from the fray. There were a few shots at Hurt’s tax increase votes (that were designed to please the anti-any-tax audience), but Hurt lost nothing by not participating in this event. Hurt comes out of this debate EVEN.
Recap: Feda Morton and Ron Ferrin seem to be nice people, but they don’t have what it takes to get me to vote for them in the primary. Jim McKelvey is barely hanging on to that threshold but I feel he’ll fall short of it very soon. That leaves Verga, Boyd, McPadden & Hurt on SouthsideCentral’s “viability scale”.
Questions about Hurt “losing nothing”….
Might him not showing up/taking part in most of the scheduled debates place him at a disadvantage when he does show up?
I mean might voters make up their minds, based in part, on the debates, causing the ‘new guy’ who enters the last one or two debates to have an already uphill battle? Might that give fodder to whomever remains in the race at that time, “hey, dude…we have been campaigning for months – thanks for playing.”
Might it feed into the argument that the others are making “Hurt thinks he is entitled to this, and the establishment have crowned their prince. Are we just going to say OK to them, or are we going to speak our own minds?”
I am not sure this “strategic move” is all that smart.
I think that most of the general public doesn’t even know that there is a contested race for this nomination at this time, sad to say. I also think that the chances are low that anybody who is undecided will make their selection based on this series of debates and before the inevitable onslaught of ads begin.
Combine that with the fact that Hurt has/had no chance to get these teapartiers’ votes anyway, I am resolute in my belief that this strategy was a good one.
It’s never smart for a candidate to say he’ll do something then back out of it. Hurt was given the privilege of choosing the day/time/location of the forum back in November – then he blows it off with no real excuse. He had five hours to travel from Richmond to C’ville on Friday. He didn’t show because he would rather avoid having to defend his 2004 tax hike vote to conservatives, than be tired the next morning for his appearance at the friendly GOP Republican breakfast in Greene County.
There were a lot of people at the forum who are not “tea partiers”, so a no-show looks bad.
Hurt has eliminated himself in a number of ways. 1) His two votes for the biggest tax increases in Virginia history. 2) His lack of any valid explanation or mea culpa for abandoning his party and his principles. 3) His campaign which so far has been marked by gaffes, goofs and lack of effort. He backed out of his commitment to the candidate forums. For a long time he had a website which was absolutely pitiful, and insulting in that it contained zero information on positions. I am sure he is a good man with basically good beliefs, but right now we need a warrior for constitutional principles… At the forum, McPadden showed he has the best grasp of the issues, and the best ability to motivate the electorate. His website has extensive commentary on a wide range of issues. http://www.mcpaddenforcongress.com
Great comment Clay Ramsay.
Thanks, Will.
I want to add a couple comments I posted on another site. One is Mike commitment that this election will not be a repeat of the promising results in 1994 that ended in failure. The other is in reply to someone who inquired about Virgil Goode.
McPadden has already signed on with a group of 50 aspiring conservative candidates across the country whose goal is to go to Washington to begin to restore constitutional, limited government. They are pledging to learn from the failure of the class of 94, because they feel that this may be the last chance to stop the socialist movement which both parties have gone along with for nearly 16 years. You can view extensive commentary in text and video clips on his website: http://www.mcpaddenforcongress.com
It would have been great if Virgil had been pumped up to regain his seat from the get-go, but he has procrastinated. At this point, I hope he does not run. I think we need a new representative with fire in the belly to get things done. There are going to be a number of fired up new people going to Washington in 2010. Mike McPadden will be right in the forefront of the movement to turn things around.
Clay I agree Mike McPadden is a true conservative and I think would make us proud to have him as our rep. I have said since Mike started that I would support him but Virgil Goode has a HUGE following in southside Va along with the support of the tea party groups, if he jumps back in the race I would have to support him.
Thanks for supporting Mike, Will. Where are you located?
Virgil was a good representative, and he deserves the strong support that he has. Still, I would not encourage him to enter at this point. He could have had the nomination on a silver platter by acclamation, if he had wanted it.
I hope that he still feels a commitment to his conservative principles and to service to Virginia and the country. My hope is that he will recognize that Mike is the one to take the torch and run with it. I hope he will help Mike as a senior statesman/mentor, assuming that he believes in a very limited Federal government, as Mike does.
Charlotte Court House Va
I have a friend down that way who feels the same way you do about the campaign, it seems. Do you know Jon Berkley.
No but im sure its alot of people that would love to see Virgil make another run.
I would have been delighted if he had come out right away, but my enthusiasm has been diminished by the fact that he has been sitting on the sidelines.
Ever heard of a fix ?
Verga really looked bad after all of the information on “straw ballotgate” has come out. First the guy who did his website was the person who did the so called straw poll and then Josh, his manager, was marking ballots for people as they left. Verga needs to clean up this mess by apologizing to all the rest of the candidates Saturday morning in Lynchburg.
BTW the website guy now has a poll up, wonder who is winning ? Maybe the guy who controls the site ? He is a real joke.
Stars and Stripes,
You clearly know little about the 5th. Greene County is the unit of Bill Hay (Verga’s attack dog) and many others who have been bashing Hurt. That is probably the roughest place in the district that Hurt could have gone.
Not Verga, I’m hoping you were making typos though based on your handle I doubt it. The kerfuffle you’re referring to is about the McPadden campaign not the Verga campaign. Josh is McPadden’s manager, and McPadden is the candidate who’s website was built by Kurt Feigel.
Correction: the so-clled “kerfuffle” was not caused by the McPadden campaign, which did nothing wrong. It was caused by a very few people who want to embarrass the Tea Parties and their events, and to smear other candidates. To do so, they have tried to make something out of nothing.
At the McPadden desk, some blue ballots were handed out that were already marked for McPadden. My wife got one. She was encouraged to use it, and was advised that it has already been marked for you. Some people may have been confused by this practice. Perhaps in the press of people, some did not hear the comment that the ballot was pre-marked. A grand total of 3 people apparently used those ballots without realizing McPadden was already selected.
This is a lot of brouhaha over nothing, a tempest in a teapot concocted for someone’s advantage. Anyone who wants the best for the Republican party in the 5th district should count this as the garbage it is, and focus instead on the issues and the candidates themselves.