I heard this driving into work yesterday morning but The Examiner caught it as well, where Bill Bolling refused to endorse Cuccinelli and said he might still run for governor. I wonder what Bob McDonnell (potential presidential candidate) and Eric Cantor (House majority leader) feel about one of their own going insane? Bill is going to hurt a lot of people that have supported him and worked for him.
Dear Bill . . . you suck at politics. If anyone believed you could have actually won you wouldn't have dropped out before a single delegate was chosen or a single vote was cast. Twice. You're a lazy politician who just likes seeing your signs up to give a speech. You spent ZERO time working to build support, instead waiting for Bob McDonnell to just do it for you.
The funny thing is that Bolling and the Richmond Establishment used a convention to ensure Jim Gilmore defeated Tom Davis for the US Senate in 2008, where Davis was pushing money around the state to get a primary. In fact, Bolling was the chairman of that convention. His bitchy response is hilarious because he is being beaten by the same tactics guys like him and his crew used to beat down other Republicans from Northern Virginia throughout the years.
So please, run for governor. I want to see you embarassed when Cuccinelli still wins and you embarass yourself and the Richmond Establishment that needs to go anyways.
I doubt very seriously that Bolling will run as an independent. On the other hand, a great many Virginians look at a choice between the Cooch and TMac and feel like it would be preferable to have a railroad spike driven through their heads rather than have either of those two in the governor's mansion. So there may be an opening for an independent candidate to have a chance.
Obviously, Bolling needs to make a decision pretty quickly if he is going to go the independent route. Which means some serious polling and some serious conversations with donors had better be taking place right now. That is assuming that Bolling really has no desire to be a spoiler and will only run if he thinks he can realistically win a three way race.
I know you like Cuccinelli, but I think many of his fans are just a wee bit overly optimistic about what they view as the certainty of his winning next November. He could easily lose a two way race.
The very things that endear Cuccinelli to his base are the same things that will turn off a large slice of the general electorate. And his four years as AG have given those things a much higher profile than when he was a state senator. The guy ain't exactly mainstream. Virginia doesn't have a history of lurching to the fringe for its governors. Maybe that will happen in 2013. I wouldn't wager too heavily on it though.
I don't have any idea what percentage of the vote Bolling might get as an independent. Or if the three way split might be close enough for somewhere in the high thirties to be sufficient to win. It might be plausible. More likely Bolling would draw his votes in places where Cuccinelli needs a big margin to overcome Democratic votes in Northern Virginia. So he likely helps McAuliffe win.
What does Bolling have to lose? He was the good soldier and stood down for McDonnell. If he doesn't run and win this year he is done anyway. If he rolls the dice he might win the prize. It's not like he is going to have a chance in the future either way.
It's a win-win for the far right. If Cuccinelli wins they have their hero as governor. If he loses they can do their well practiced victim act and blame it all on the "establishment" and assert that the party will win if it just keeps lurching further and further to the right. Continue the quest for purity and purge the apostates.
Good fun either way.
Posted by: Dan | December 11, 2012 at 02:55 PM
Dang Chris....go eat a Big Mac and calm down...good heavens
Posted by: John | December 12, 2012 at 11:39 AM