Gov. Gilmore won in a nail bitter with just 66 delegate votes out of over 10,000 cast. It really was closer than that in actually people attending. Due to turnout from SWVA every person attending carried more than one delegate vote. It was noted that each person attending from Carroll county carried 50 delegate votes. I made a comment earlier in a post that I thought Marshall missed an opportunity in not spending more time in our area. For Roanoke County had 189 votes but had 42 attending (at least for the Senate Nomination). Marshall would have only needed to change the mind of 10-15 people to have won.
The momentum of the day was clearly with the Marshall campaign. Never would I have believed that a flier would be put in my chair claiming that Gilmore was a RINO due to his abortion position. I was shocked. Several of us that attended the 1993 convention when Gilmore attacked his chief rival Steve Agee claiming him to be pro choice. Ironic that 15 years later the attack was put back to Gilmore.
Congratulations to Jeff Frederick in his election as chairman. He choose a great time in the electorial climate of change to move on replacing Hager. It paid off for him. Let's see if he can deliver on the promises made.
Now Fredericks house seat comes open in the '09 cycle. We start out with this Dem leaning seat now up for grabs. Jeff has begun his chairmanship with a very high bar. He has to make sure we hold his old house seat and as he claims reverse the tide of losses in the GA. Yes a very high bar indeed.
It became apparent to me on Saturday that Jeff's wife Amy is being positioned to replace him. With her writing the Howell email and speaking to the convention. Definitely a move to have her viewed in a "political" light. Aren't she and Jeff expecting another child? Seems this will be a campaign that will be tough on both of them. I'm sure he would like to keep the income and benefits but I can't imagine a tougher family strain. We'll see if the policy of not having RPV involved in nomination contests holds for this one.
It has been noted over at Novatownhall that there were a number of irregularities. I don't know if that was true but the convention did seem a bit loose in it's operation. I also felt none of the campaigns had any idea who was going to win until the final vote was read. I've seen several well run floor operations at conventions and there seemed to be very little on Saturday. Yesterday brought me to the conclusion that conventions are not the best way to nominate a candidate for public office. I'll have more to say on that in the near future.
Lastly, there was quite a surreal moment for me in the afternoon. While we were waiting for the vote to be announced for chairman, Senator George Allen spoke. I harkened back to 1993 in the Richmond coliseum with over 13,000 voting delegates hanging on ever word. That day after hotly contested races we charged out of the hall to elect George and Jim as our Governor and Attorney General. Yesterday Senator Allen spoke to maybe 1000 people with about 1/2 paying attention. Governor Gilmore was shaking hands of supporters as people filed out for the day. After 15 years how far have we fallen?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Conventions are still a good way to nominate our candidate. Consider the alternatives. A primary? Because we cannot keep the Democrats out, we have a hard time getting a solid Republican. We also cannot get rid of an incumbent. If he was not so old, we would still be running John Warner, and he is most certainly not a conservative. Mass meetings and firehouse primaries are even harder to organize.
So what is the problem? Unfortunately, people have become more and more disillusioned. That is mostly because they don't know how the system works and participate. We have the wrong people educating our children. Government runs our schools.
Post a Comment