MASON CONSERVATIVE

LG Race Wide Open

I was ready to put a long analysis but Phil Tran beat me to the punch in this good post.  Per his rundown, here is what the slate of candidates looks like right now.

• Corey Stewart
• Jeannemarie Davis
• Jeff McWaters
• Scott Lingamfelter
• Pete Snyder
• Steve Martin
• Possibly EW Jackson

Thoughts?  How are these folks affected by a convention over a primary?  The only definate "No"s for me are Jeannemarie Davis and Steve Martin.

Photo Of The Day

"Former"

I got the email that the Bolling campaign sent out about all of their endorsements.  I've got them cut and pasted below the jump, but it was startling to me.  There were a whole lot of "formers" on the list.  I was trying to figure out a way to best describe it, but an activist sent me a message that sums it up better than I could:

The NoVa names read like a rogue's gallery of the most universally despised people in the entire region . . . except for Bruce.  Bruce is the only person on that list that anyone likes or respects.  Overall, though, its a list of people who have made careers out of burning so many bridges that they have few left to burn and nothing left to lose.  It's probably harmful as an endorsement list.

Yikes.  That isn't me talking, this is someone who is in deeper than me.

Below is the list, judge for yourself.

Primary Thoughts

Real quick:

~George Allen is still what he has always been, the king of Virginia Republicans.  He won this running away, artfully handled his opponents with alienating anyone, and rebuilt his old Virginia team that he abandoned until it was too late six years ago.  This was a very VERY good win for him.

~EW Jackson comes out looking the best of all the on-Allens.  A lot of Republicans really have come to like the guy a lot, and his voice adds a lot to our message.  I think if you polled everyone who voted for George Allen and ask them who was their second choice, Jackson would win overwhelmingly.  My idea?  EW Jackson for Lieutenant Governor.

~Bob Marshall . . . this has to be a huge disappointment for him.  He waited way too long to make his mind up, bizarrely insisted on a primary over trying to fight for a convention, and his harsh condemnation over the gay prosecutor turned a ton of voters off.  

~Jamie Radtke shot too high too early.  She proved she could put together a campaign but Allen was the wrong opponent.  I know what she was trying to accomplish, I know the part she was trying to play, but it was the wrong time.  She was running like it was 2010, and its not.  That said, she was able to make a name for herself and if she truly wants to rid Virginia of RINOs, she should head home and take a good hard look at someone like Walter Stosch or Emmett Hanger and give them a run.  

~The 11th will be a bloodbath.  Is suspect we will see '08ish numbers in that race.

~This was not a good day for folks who support primaries.  Turnout was embarrassingly low again, just like in March.  All this talk about letting every Republican decide falls on def ears to me when so many Republicans don't care that much.  Why not just leave the nomination up to the truly committed and go from there?  Instead of wasting everybody's time with these statewide campaigns that cost a ton of money and don't do much to help prepare for November, why not use a convention system that allows candidates to cultivate activists and build grassroots campaigns?  I have in the past liked primaries, and I still prefer open primaries to party registration b/c it gives too much power to the political parties, but its getting to just be flat out embarrassing now.  It is also glorified incumbent protection.

Ken Vaughn for Congress (again)

As folks vote tomorrow in the 11th district primary, I want to reiterate my support for Ken Vaughn, a candidate who believes in true liberty.  In encourage you to check out his final message posted on his campaign website.

Allow me again to explain my support for Ken in this race.  In short, desperate times call for desperate measures and Vaughn seems to understand this more than Chris Perkins.  Perkins is an honorable man who served his country, but as a politician I believe Perkins is unimaginative and vanilla, willing to go along and get along.  He's a product of his surroundings . . . mentored by men like Jim Jeffords, hardly staunch conservatives who understand the magnitude of the problems we are in.  The fact is, Perkins's a product of insider, establishment Republican politics.  If elected to Congress he would be a face in the crowd, hardly fighting to change a system he's a product of.

Ken Vaughn offers a much clearer understand of the problem because he's never been apart of the problem.  He gets that to solve this debt crisis we are in, we cannot make budget cuts simply partisan where our stuff is off the table and only the Democrats are.  We cannot solve this problem just by eliminating the Department of Education.  There is a big difference national security spending and defense spending.  For Perkins to attack Vaughn is not only shameful, but an admission that Perkins isn't serious about solving this problem.  To win this fight against spending and debt, the governmnet must be willing to sacrifice just like regular folks do, who put everything on the table.  

I think that Vaughn's independence from Bushian Republican orthodoxy will ultimately help him in this race.  Perkins believes that if you run as a moderate you can win, but this is now a Democratic district, Democrats who doesn't have to "settle" for a moderate Republican when they have a straight-out Democrat.  We need someone who thinks outside the box, is willing to bring up tough issues and actually take a stand on them, like defense spending.  We need someone to offer a different presentation to this district of what a Republican is.  Bland and cookie-cutter will not get it done.  That's not to say that I think Connolly can be defeated, but I'd rather go with someone with their own ideas rather than ones fed to them by consultants.  

Ken Vaughn for Congress.

Is This True? Bolling Might Sue?

BVBL has the scoop.

Is anyone else hearing the same thing?  Is he out of his mind?

Quick additional thought:  Bolling might sue the state party in a presidential year where he is the Chairman of the campaign of the Republican nominee, costing the party thousands upon thousands of dollars that would hurt (badly) the campaign of the candidate who's campaign he's chairman of.

WTF?