Virginia Primary . . . Embarrassing

We've had essentially a statewide primary with the turnout of a board of supervisor primary.  It makes me very worried about the prospects of Virginia going for Obama for a second straight year because of this pathetic organization in place.  Turnout is significantly lower than any other presidential primary in the history of Virginia.  Its about HALF of what it was in 2008, a year where all the oxygen was sucked up by the Democrats and Romney had already dropped out and McCain had the nomination sewn up.  

We are looking at something around, what, 5-6% turnout?  Bill Bolling has been running statewide since 2005 and running Romney's operation in the state since 2008 and this is their best effort?  Bob McDonnell, budding national star and potential vice-president, endorses Romney and this is what we get?

I feel like apologizing to Mitt Romney on behalf of all Virginia Republicans for such a weak effort and showing in this critical state.  Obama has opened three or four state offices in Virginia and will be organizing like crazy.  Romney is relying on McDonnell and Bolling to get Virginia for him and this is just a terrible start.  Ron Paul had basically one guy, Chris Stearns, attempting to organize Virginia and got 40% of the vote.   We need to look long and hard at our leadership in Richmond about this embarrassing situation in Virginia.  Restrictive ballot laws, on top of even more restrictions implemented by RPV, along with the various embarrassing shenanigans from the Clown Show (thank you, LI) in the Assembly have hurt us.  

But this will be the last complaining I do.  This is over, I just needed to get it out.  Now its time for ALL OF US to put our big boy pants.  Mitt Romney deserved better than this.  We need to save this state from our own leaders.

Comments

[Loudoun Insider]

Great thoughts, and don't thank me really for "The Clown Show" - that comes from Bacon's Rebellion. But it is a great descriptor of the mess in Richmond. This is truly pathetic.

[CR UVa]

This is in no way surprising. Voters did not let Virginia down; Virginia let the voters down. With only two candidates on the ballot, most Virginians assumed the race was over and didn't want to choose between two candidates who are so far from the ideal. I hope this sends a clear message to Richmond.

[Worried about November, Too]

With an appallingly pathetic 5-6% turnout, this primary fails to accomplish the supposed purpose of holding a primary in the first place: expand your vote pool & identify your voters.

Losers on the Day:

1. Ron Paul. If you can't win a state when presented with a 1-on-1 match-up against Romney, 6% special election level turnout, Gingrich & Santorum supporters propping you up, AND Democrats crossing over to vote for you, you're just not going to win anywhere.

2. Bill Bolling. Cuccinelli has to be licking his chops looking over yesterday's absolutely pathetic turnout numbers. Will a 2013 primary even be close?

3. Bob McDonnell. Rubio made a difference for Romney in Florida. McDonnell clearly phoned it in here (which can't be comforting to Bolling, either, incidentally).

4. Jerry Kilgore and whoever was running the Gingrich petition effort. Yesterday might have been a meaningful primary that helped grow the Republican Party of Virginia were it not for the failure of the Gingrich and Perry campaigns to collect signatures.

5. Eric Cantor. The johnny-come-lately endorsement only served to make him LOOK as insignificant in Virginia (where he's not) as the chances of him becoming Speaker really ARE.

6. Every Republican who has to run for office in for next 4 years in Virginia. Virginia Democrats up and down the state have just been handed a 4-year extension on their 2008 voter ID advantage.

[Lisa McQuail]

I am a Democrat and I am willing to sign petitions (and have in the past-- I signed a petition for McCain) to get Republicans on the ballot in Virginia. It is all about the democratic values that we share as Virginians and Americans. One problem is: fewer and fewer grocery stores and strip malls allow petitioners to do so. We are forced to confine ourselves to libraries, metro stations, and polling places during primaries preceding our primary... We need an education campaign for strip mall owners and grocery store chains.

[Lisa McQuail]

Believe me, as a Democrat, it's like a bad football game this primary season. We don't enjoy it either and I, as an American, am embarrassed on your behalf. My parents were both Virginia Republicans and we had lots of civilized discussions over dinner (all of us using the correct forks, as George Will reminds us is not the scale of these current events but COULD be the origin of much of this, in my opinion. Manners are important to Virginians historically.)

[Lisa McQuail]

One more thing-- here we are in cyber space on the Mason Conservative blog, all registered via Twitter or Facebook. Can't we enter the 21st century and have cyber petitions as well? Seems like paper petitions have more authentication and security issues than cyber-petitions.

[D.J. McGuire]

This is a perfect tee-up for Cuccinelli. We have three scenarios locally:
1) Obama wins Virginia (far less likely than people think, but . . .) Ken can lay it all at the feat of the party leadership and talk about reform and revitalization.
2) The GOP does not nominate Romney, but the nominee beats Obama (least likely), Ken can contrast that person's fall performance with this primary.
3) Romney wins Virginia (I still say this is the most likely of the three scenarios), what was the difference between the primary and Romney's November win? Ken Cuccinelli.
No matter what happens, Ken wins.

[Fairfax Volunteer]

Politicians who can claim they've turned out a greater percentage of registered voters in Fairfax County (and/or their districts in Fairfax County) in a primary than Mitt Romney did:

(since 1991... as far back as Fairfax County has info online)

Barrack Obama
John Warner
John McCain
Hillary Clinton
George W. Bush
Tom Rust
John Kerry
Jody Wagner
Kaye Kory
Bob Hull
James Miller
Chris Craddock
Judy Connally
Michael Golden
Chuck Robb
Rob Brink
Jeannemarie Devolites
David Bulova
Elaine McConnell
Pat Herrity
Creigh Deeds
Jim Moran
Keith Fimian
Kyle McSlarrow
Dick Black
Gerry Connolly

Politicians who can claim the same when comparing themselves to Ron Paul...

Stu Mendelsohn
Robert McDowell
Dave Hunt
David Englin
Linda Smyth
Jerry Kilgore
Stan Reid
Frank Wolf
Jim Webb
John Mason
Miller Baker
Margi Vanderhye
Barbara Favola
Linda Clary
Mychele Brickner
Andrew Hurst
Rip Sullivan
Bob McDonnell
Andrew Rosenberg
Charlie Hall
Janet Oleszek
Gary Reese
Jim Hyland
Jay O'Brien
Libby Garvey
Steve Whitener
Pam Danner
Marcia Dykes
Sean Connaughton
John Edwards
Jim Kaplan
Brian Moran
George Barker
James Vickery
Jason Flanary
Chris Wade
Tyrone Morrow
Ken Longmyer
Andres Tobar
Jack Herrity
Teresa Martinez
Mike Huckabee
Edward Robinson

And those who can at least claim to have been within a few tenths of a percent of Ron Paul...

Harris Miller
Leslie Byrne
Rex Simmons
Steve Hunt
Adam Ebbin
Howie Lind
Terry McAuliffe
Patrick Murray
Judy Feder
Bill Cooper

Um... yikes.

[Xerxes]

HAHAHAHAHAHA, the low turnout had NOTHING to do with Richmond. It had to do with polling data showing Romney up by 44 points in a 2-man race where two other candidates (Newt in particular) were incompetent to get on the ballot.

[Worried About November, Too]

So you're not worried at all about the total and complete lack of ground game?

I mean... it wasn't just that there were no Romney paid staff up here to try to organize volunteers, phone banks, or poll coverage.

There weren't even any VOLUNTEERS working to organize volunteers.

No campaign.

Nothing. Nada. Zip.

Moreover, we've had presidential primaries in Virginia break 10% turnout routinely despite the campaign already being over (McCain 2008, Kerry 2004, etc.).

This was... different.

The lack of enthusiasm even among the minuscule number of people to show up was palpable.