Rob Wittman Endorses Ken Cuccinelli

Big blow to the Brownlee campaign, as the one congressman in the delegation who would seem like a natural fit for John Brownlee (outside of Bob Goodlatte), its Rob Wittman.  He suppported John Hager for chairman last year, and as the mad scramble for Jo Ann Davis's seat commenced, Wittman was considered the "middle" candidate.  I think that the Wittman endorsement proves that Cuccinelli's campaign is connecting across the party (despite to the chagrin of many of the RINO ankle-biters out there).

Future Lee Hill District Supervisor D.J. McGuire has a great write-up on this too:

Rob Wittman is the archetype social-conservative-first Republican.  His record on spending issues has rankled this quarter on many occasions, although he did stand very, very tallin opposing TARP last year.  He is exactly the type of Republican who would normally be put off by Cuccinelli’s firm support for lower taxes and reducing government spending, and thus give John Brownlee another look.

More to the point, Rob Wittman is the kind of Republican Brownlee desperately needs.  Without the economic moderates, Brownlee has no chance of even blocking Cuccinelli on the first ballot, let alone gobbling up Dave Foster’s backers to win on the second.
Yet Wittman endorsed Cuccinelli.

Now, one could say that this was more a regional endorsement, but for two things: 1) Wittman’s base in the 1st District is the Northern Neck, which is closer to western Virginia in terms of political culture and temperament than anywhere else in the east, and 2) many leading economic-conservative Republicans in the west (Dick Mark Obenshain, Ralph Smith, and Lynn Mitchell, to name a few) also back Cuccinelli (nice catch, Brandon, and thanks).
This time last year, it was abundantly clear that Bob Marshall had the momentum in his race against Gilmore, but he had to make up a lot of ground to get to within a whisker of victory.  Brownlee (or Foster) needed a similar boost to block Cuccinelli.  Neither accomplished that.  Moreover, Cuccinelli himself has the momentum - as evidenced by Wittman’s endorsement.

Comments

[Zach Kitts]

Yawn...DJ, I know you are trying really hard, but for crying out loud...don't you realize that you weaken your own candidate by straining so hard?