Bill Bolling is all in, and he's betting his entire political future on Mitt Romney becoming President of the United States Its a terrible position to be in, he isn't strong enough on his own to beat back Ken Cuccinelli. But its a nice trump card to have should it work out. Romney's Virginia team was announced today and its full of nothing but elected officials and state central committee members, the establishment Richmond-dominated bastions of power in the Commonwealth. Not a single tea party leader, or anyone of any influence in local government or within the business community is on this list.
It must be noted that there is no 10th or 11th district chairs right now . . . exposing a serious weakness for Bolling and one that could be potentially harmful to Romney in a primary against Ron Paul here in Virginia. Bolling is very weak in Northern Virginia and so, apparently, is Romney. Paul is interesting because there are large swaths of commonwealth up in the Valley area that make up huge portions of the 10th district and he will have an appeal. In Northern Virginia, much of the activist base is very conservative as well, though I suspect supporting Paul won't have as much to do with Ron Paul as it will be a protest vote against the establishment.
But back to Bolling. The stakes are high for him next March because this is a test run to see how strong his organization is and if he can build something run on a year later. Like I said above, it could pay huge dividends but it also exposes how weak Bolling is that he needs to hitch his wagon to a presidential candidate in a way no gubernatorial candidate has done since I can remember. I highly doubt Ken Cuccinelli will do anything to really *help* Ron Paul, but would would not surprise me is seeing someone like Bob Marshall come out for Paul and rally conservatives to the Texas congressman. A close win or even a loss would not only be embarassing to Romney because he needs Virginia in the general election, but it would be a tremendous blow to Bolling in 2013. With Romney in the White House, Cuccinelli would be running against not only the LG but the wishes of the POTUS (though I doubt Ken would care that much). This is Romney's worst nightmare, simply one on one with someone more conservative than him in a conservative state.
I'm beginning to hear that there are a lot of conservatives, especially cultural conservatives who have a huge say in this party, willing to vote for Ron Paul already. The difference could be that its an open primary in Virginia and Romney may need to rely on independents and Democrats to cross over. But if I'm a Democrat, I would probably vote for Paul just to F with Romney, the presumptive nominee. Does Bolling want to enter a primary in 2013 running a presidential campaign focused on getting non-Republicans into a primary?
So let's have it out . . . Paul or Romney? Who ya got?
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