Jay McConville Gets His Chance

So blogger and Delegate Kris Amundson is retiring this term, with a bit of a late announcement today.  I've heard nothing but good things even from Republicans about Delegate Amundson so I wish her the best.  But when I heard it, bells went off in my head about what an opportunity this is.  Normally, yeah I would shrug and say this is a tough district.  But Republicans do have a great candidate in Jay McConville community leader active in Mount Vernon.  Mount Vernon is one of those small towns that is very tight-knit locale that might do unconventional things in local elections.  This is also why its always great to run candidates in every race no matter what the odds.  Amundson more than likely would not have retired had she run unopposed like she did last time, so my forcing her to actually work for her seat it didn't work in her work-life balance.  A couple other things that help Republicans in this race . . . now its an open seat much like the Danny Smith-Kay Kory race.  Also, Pat Herrity carried Mount Vernon district in his special election razor-thin loss to Sharon Bulova.  Lastly, I think incumbency and personal popularity like that Admundson enjoyed tends to hide the problems in a district.  And there are problems in Mount Vernon stemming from crime issues along Route 1 and other things.  With this now an open seat, McConville will lose the burden of having to convince voters to dump Amundson along with arguing for himself.  Now he just gets to go out, work hard, hit the doors, and advocate for himself and his issues.  It makes things much easier.  

On a personal note, I got to spend some extended time talking to McConville at the last FAYR meeting and liked what I heard.  He is a veteran, has deep roots in Mount Vernon and clearly is running not for ideology but for bettering his community, which he is worried about.  His public career is much like our last successful local candidate John Cooke, serving in home owner's associations and youth leadership associations, things that puts him in touch with not just the political winds of the district but also the real life issues that people think and worry about.  He makes good points, a good case for getting more back from Richmond.  I'm thrilled that this is an open seat and can't wait to see how McConville does.  

Comments

[The Donkey]

Not clear that Jay has what it takes to give Scott Surovel a good run: homeowners association ties might be good enough for John Cooke, but this race is on a whole different level.