Ruffini on Virginia GOP

Good article, here's taste:

First: It’s time to fire the consultants who ran the same ImmigrationTaxesImmigrationTaxes cookie cutter race in every district, using the same message that killed Jerry Kilgore in Northern Virginia two years ago. So Ken Cuccinelli survived… by 90 votes… against a laughable opponent the Washington Post wouldn’t even endorse.

Second: Cutting and running from the GOP is even worse. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis’ anti-gun ad flopped, leading to the most lopsided unseating of the night. Didn’t 2006 teach us that there is no refuge for the Chafees and DeWines of the world when the GOP fails to advance an aggressive agenda?

Third: The days of Tom Davis giving us lectures about how to win elections in NoVa are over. See #2. (Yes, that was his wife.)

I agree with some, disagree with some. Clearly, somethin needs to change.

Comments

[200 Grande]

Is there a link?

[interestedobserver]

Can someone explain how all the Republicans in PWC did so well if the anti-illegal immigration message does not work? The Republicans who lost in Fairfax and Loudoun did not use the same message. I don't think the anti-illegal message would have worked as well there but the GA candidates in Fairfax and Loudoun did well considering all they were up against.
President Bush's historically low ratings are the main culprit. These local candidates with the R brand did not even have a chance being so close to the capital. Ruffini has absolutely NO clue what is going on throughout most of Virginia. As somone who supports and voted twice for our president it pains me to say it but the best thing that will happen to Republicans in Virginia is the re-election of another President. RPV can pull all the gimmicks and "72" HR plans it wants but they will not work with an extremely unpopular head of the party still in office.

[Loudoun Insider]

The local elections in PWC and Loudoun were more about growth issues than illegal immigration. Corey Stewart said as much in the Post. The PWC GOP supervisors are alrgely for limited growth while the Loudoun GOP supervisors were for basically unlimited growth. Both groups were largely against illegal immigration and for taking local action. Look who came out on top.

[novamiddleman]

Point one is correct since each race should be tailored to the particular district

JMDD didn't have much of a choice to cut and run from the GOP her district is a democratic district

I think this is the main issue. The consultants haven't grapsed how fast the political map is changing. Purple districts are becoming blue and red districts are becoming purple. People need to wake up and realize this. This does not mean running from the GOP it just means adjusting a red message to more of a purple one in SOME cases.

However, most of the time you don't have a choice in what candidate there is and your are somewhat hemmed in by what the candidated believes or is strong on.

So ultimately this means we need better candidate selection. And ultimately you will only get better candidate selection if you open up the party and start givinig more power to purple people who can actually run and WIN in purple districts. We should be able to take back some seats in Eastern Loudoun (Poisson, Herring) fairly easily if we get the right people to run. There are also some fairly moderate districts in Fairfax that went to the democrats fairly recently (marsden, bulova etc)that could be won back with the right kind of candidate.