MASON CONSERVATIVE

Rumor: Fimian For LG?

Hearing that Keith Fimian will not run for Congress in 2012 . . . instead he might throw in to the wide-open Lieutenant Governor's race. 

Anyone else heairng this?

Harry Reid Runs This Country

President Obama, The Democrats, the media, and even parts of the conservative media have been hammering John Boehner into submission with what is basically a taunt, claiming that they are waisting time by passing something that the Senate will just kill.

So now Harry Reid is going to pass something that won't pass the House, so who is wasting who's time?

And where is the President?  America didn't elect a Tweeter-in-Chief, they were expecting a COMMANDER-in-Chief.  He has created this chaotic atmosphere by not leading.  Look, I know there are segments on the right (and I'm probably in there) that won't go on board with most of what he does.  But while he keeps clamoring for the parties to come together, part of doing that is helping give John Boehner some cover.  Instead, he's just left him out there all alone while hiding behind Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.  That's right . . . HIDING behind Harry Reid.  Its like he's still a junior senator, doing what his Leader tells him to do.  With the two Houses of different parties, there is no more important role than president to help fix this.  But since he's a committed partisan like we've never seen before, that won't happen.  This is exposing Obama as wholly unprepared for this job.  He's a partisan who's never had to actually lead anything before in an executive role before.  You can't fix this with break out groups and community organizing.  This requires big-boy pants, and sadly the President is still in his sailor shorts.

The Flanary Files

So I told you earlier today that Jason Flanary had made someone so made with his nasty flyer lying about Steve Hunt, whom while its true some don't think he can win he is universally liked, and his record in elections that turned stretching the truth to out and out lies.  So I got a couple of emails sent my way the enlightens us all about Mr. Flanary and his record as paid consultant and lobbyist.  Shall we begin?

Jason Flanary Must Have Made Someone Mad

Apparently as Steve Hunt was talking to FCRC this month, Flanary had a flyer handed out blasting Steve for "losing" eight different elections.  And while we all know that electability is a concern with Hunt, the bluntness of the attack seems to have angered some people who might want to vote for Jason, but really like Steve.  Here's something Flanary should remember, people in this party LIKE Steve Hunt.  He and his wife have been active for 15 years at every level or political organization from precincts to running as a candidate.  He ran for office, proudly I might add, as a conservative when everyone was drinking the Tom Davis kool-aid that told us we had to move to the middle, support raising some taxes fees, et al.  He goes to every meeting, and supports every candidate.  He's also loyal and honest - witness, he continued to stand by Pat Herrity in 2008 despite most conservative going in with Keith Fimian.  Flannery may win this nomination with all the money he's raised from himself and his business, but he needs to watch how he does it. 

Steve Hunt was hustling up and down the neighborhoods of Fairfax county for every candidate with an "R" when Flannery was busted for plagiarism as a consultant, jocking for CapNet, fetching Speaker Howell his coffee, and lobbying for higher taxes with the Fairfax Chamber.

What did I say?

That's right, someone wasn't happy with what Flanary pulled and passed some nice nuggets to me which I will post up later. 

The Candidates That Will Bring Us Back The State Senate

After some consideration and research, I have decided to support the following candidates in Northern Virginia for the State Senate:

• John Stirrup
• Scott Martin
• Steve Hunt
• Jeff Frederick

These are great, conservative, hard working candidates that won't just get elected, but move the Senate to the right so we aren't stuck with the quasi-Republican Senate that we had at the beginning of the decade that did so much damage to our party brand.  I'm just a guy, but I think these four gentleman are our ticket to the majority, and a conservative majority at that.  Please support them any way you can.

God Bless You, Joan Cross

I was very sad to hear the news that Fairfax City Councilwomen Joan Cross has passed away after battling with cancer.  And this isn't just generic condolences, either.  I was a spry 25 year old when I joined the Fairfax City GOP committee way back in 2006 . . . and if you know anything about Fairfax City, you would know I was about 20 years younger than the next oldest person.  While many of the members of the City Council would call themselves Republicans or ask for our support, Joan Cross (and Patrice Winter) where the only Council members that made every monthly meeting.  Her and her husband Ron were always sitting there.  Because nobody else would really do it, Jim Kaplan asked me to be his vice-chairman for a little while, and while I was sometimes stumbling my way through things Joan would always be very supportive and very interested in what I was doing.  The last time I saw her was back during Steve Hunt's special election campaign; they asked me to speak before the City committee to try and get some volunteers.  Joan was very excited to hear I was engaged and things were going well.  I really value the time I spent on those nights at City Hall with our little group of Republicans in a part of Fairfax county that can be politically very disingenious with the insistance that they are "independent."  There was also the time I was put in charge of setting up the yearly city committee dinner that doubled as our big fundraiser in 2007.  Through some of my blogger channels, I was able to get Bill Bolling to come.  I was also in charge of the fundraising because Jim was a federal employee.  A lot of people helped me, because I didn't have much experience, and Joan was one of them.  I got to know a lot of those people on the city committee well, and I think they liked having me around if anything because I was so young and excited about everything.  Those were good people to learn from, and Joan Cross was a women who did politics the right way.

She was a wonderful women.  Clearly, since she was constantly reelected, the people of Fairfax City respected her leadership.  And she was a good Republican, always working the polls and helping the party.  She will be missed.

God bless you, Joan Cross.

Fairfax School Board Candidates Break The Mold

I was very interested to see how the vote for school board candidates would go at this week's FCRC meeting.  The Patch has a good story up about our three nominees:  Lolita Mancheno-Smoak, Lin-Dai Kendall, and Sheree Brown-Kaplan.  Three women, two of whom are minorities, make for fresh blood in the party ranks.  And when you thrown in Sheila Ratnam, who could be the first elected official of Indian decent to be elected in Fairfax County, you have local candidates that are Republicans who seem to be much more representative of the county's diveristy.  The Democrats seem to resemble a sheet of white muffins compared to this.  Not that I personally believe in identity politics, its just fun when we can throw it back in their faces.

The Patch references Steve Stuban, a father who's son committed suicide in party because of the county school systems harsh disciplinary standards.  What I hear is that since Stuban, an active duty military man, was Hatch Act'd so his campaign was largely run by Pat Herrity's operation.  Its interesting to see the power in the county committee conservatives have now since Kendall, it seems, was the one who beat him and she is a favorite of the more conservative faction in the party.  I'll be interested to see if this is just an anomoly or a sort of marker we can use to see how the county committee will vote in other contested races (like county chairman, for example). 

John Cook Shows Some $$$ Muscle

VPAP just updated their Fairfax County BOS money returns.  For the Democratic nomination, the candidate who raised the most has actually been pushed out.  Here is the breakdown:

Candidate	Raised
Marc Greidinger (Democrat)	$40,635
Janet Sloate Oleszek (Democrat)	$8,761
Christopher Wade (Democrat)	$25,688

As for Supervisor Cook?  He dropped a cool $98,374.  Better than all three of the Dems combined.  Makes one wonder why the Dems out-thought themselves here and didn't just support Greidinger to start with.  Cook and an impressive list that goes three pages deep on the VPAP website.  Tons of individual donations there.

 

Money vs Grassroots In VA-37 and 39?

Looking at the breakdown of the two primaries, I can't help but wonder if this is what this will breakdown too.  Scott Martin and Steve Hunt raised less money, but seem to have more of a ground prescence.  Jason Flannery and Miller Baker have more money, but it seems to be money from personal business and interests they are familiar with. 

Thoughts?

What Race Is Tito Munoz Running In?

As much as I was impressed by Mr. Munoz when he came before the Fairfax YRs, I'm having a curious time understanding his campaign.  Will Jeff Frederick is running hard locally, advocating zero-line budgeting and finally eliminating the car tax, Tito Munoz is running . . . well, I'm not sure.

Dropping in my inbox yesterday was a press release talking about starting a petition against raising the debt ceiling.  Which is great, I'm with him.  But as a member of the Virginia Senate, Mr. Munoz doesn't have a vote on that issue.  I understand that he's cultivating that intellectual space, but he seems to forget that we are trying to defeat Toddy Puller in this race.  Combine that with what is really an anemic fundraising report where he badly trails both Pull and Frederick, I wonder who is running his campaign.

Meanwhile, we had Frederick.  Admittedly, he can be prickly, but Jeff has been running hard and running hard the right way.  He's talking about state issues and outworking everyone on the ground and, obviously, on the phone as well.