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VA GOP 2009 = 2010 Victory?

By: RightSideRedux (Diary)  |  June 1st, 2009 at 12:46 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

From the diaries by Erick.


view a slide show of this weekend’s RPV convention here

Will Virginia field the first wave of comebacks for the GOP this coming November or will the momentum of Obama-mania continue unabated through 2009 and on into the next federal elections? Saturday’s convention in Richmond for the Republican Party of Virginia holds some interesting lessons for us all.

At the best attended convention in nearly 15 years, Republicans gathered at the Richmond Coliseum to crown their next set of candidates for the upcoming 2009 elections. (Virginia is one of the few states to hold off-year elections for state level offices.) All politics is local as they say, so what follows is a series of lessons learned from the debates leading up to the convention and the final results. Glean from it what you will:

(Note to newcomers: Virginia has a closed convention approach to picking party nominees. Delegates from around the state gather and vote in secret ballot deciding their candidates for elected offices. This year there was three majors spots up for bid: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General.)

* Attorney General – I’m starting with the AG spot for obvious reasons that will follow. This year a three-way fight ensued between State Senator Ken Cuccinelli and local elected officials John Brownlee and David Foster. This battle was a microcosm of every conservative angst and internal melee since November. Cuccinelli was the favored candidate going into the election but was countered heavily by the moderate “egg-shell walking” / Vichy Republicans. “Too conservative to be elected”, they declared. “Social conservatism” is dead!” they’d shout. They were wrong. To be fair Brownlee has strong social conservative credentials but Cuccinelli has the ear and heart of the social conservative base in a major way. Cuccinelli made his pitch on Saturday to an enthused crowd of over 7000 as big yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flags went flying around the floor. Insiders around the stadium took bets that a second and third ballot would keep us well into the evening. It took one vote and Cuccinelli walked away victorious with over 55% of the vote in a three-way race. The Post did their usual “pro-life” extremist explanation but Cuccinelli is the tea party candidate to be sure. Cuccinelli has a lot of learning to do on the new media side of things but he has consistently won his elections as Senator in increasingly blue Fairfax County since 2002. LESSON LEARNED: moderates nervous about perceptions are using November’s losses to oust social conservatives. The truth: social conservatives are some of the strongest supporters and will work hard to elect full spectrum conservatives.

* Governor - Republicans have lost the Governor’s mansion in the last two tries. in 2006, popular Democratic governor Mark Warner passed the baton to his Lieutenant Governor, Tim Kaine, with relative ease while he went on to defeat Jim Gilmore for Senate. This year Republicans chose former Attorney General Bob McDonnell to take back the helm. A strong former prosecutor, McDonnell is just about the best looking candidate you can ask for with a strong conservative record on all fronts. McDonnell ran unopposed so Saturday was pretty much a coronation for the front man of the ticket. Bob also has some of the most compelling campaign video promos I’ve ever seen along with a decent website:

* Lt. Governor - Early on there was talk of Bill Bolling (the current Republican Lieutenant Governor) taking on McDonnell for the nomination but unity seems to be the latest meme for a struggling RPV and Bolling conceded to run for re-election instead. Bolling was opposed by a minor “pain-in-the-butt candidate” who conceded and endorsed Bolling before the first ballot was in.

The McDonnell/Bolling/Cucinelli is one of the strongest tickets in a long while. The Democratic primary takes place on June 9th and looks to be a lock for Clintonista Terry McAuliffe to take on McDonnell.

Lessons Learned: Historically, unity has not been the game plan for the RPV but the convention goers left with relative excitement, few hurt feelings and deeper war chests. McDonnell and Bolling and their supporters tend to walk on eggshells around Cuccinelli supports and many in their camps admit to nervousness about the AG candidate bringing them down. Cuccinelli needs to walk strongly into the tea party motif, own it and demonstrate that November’s losses had more to do with Obama, Bush, McCain and the economy than Sarah Palin and social conservative heavies.

Stay tuned…

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  • tyrusray367

    I’m just wondering about your mild criticism of Cuccinelli’s “lot of learning to do with new media.”

    His periodic email is worth subscribing to even if you don’t live in his district. He gives you both overarching philosophy and nuts and bolts behind the scenes stuff from Richmond often in the same message.

    He responds to commentors on facebook. Do other candidates even have Facebook?

    Maybe other candidates in other parts of the country are head and shoulders more advanced in new media. To me, he seems like one of the leaders in adapting new media strategies.

    • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

      you said it…. Overcoming ObaMania is a big question as the ObaMedia will be doing everything possible to ensure the ObamaZombies stay the walking undead at the Ballot Box and pulling that JackAss lever. The MSM will be doing everything possible to keep the “Camelot” (see how BHO and Michelle had a “Date” in NY over the w/e – wasn’t that “so special” how they are just “normal” folks that have “Dates” while spending 100”s of Thousands of OUR dollars to do so – isn’t there Theaters and Restaurants in DC? they can DRIVE to?!?!) revived BS narrative alive feeding continued STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE! We must keep the pressure on/up to loud decibels in order to awaken some in deep slumber and otherwise not paying attention to the Country’s foundation crumbling around them. That it is, and was all along, the policies begun decades ago by/through Liberal Incremental-ism with things like the CRA (Mortgage Meltdown), and the Democrats deregulation Lies and all their (Liberals/Progressives/Democrats/Socialists) unintended consequences (Democrats always ignore) and not all the BDS!!!!

      The question is will enough ObamaZombies wake up creating a big enough ObamaBacklash to overcome the votes bought by ObamaBinBiden and crew with Stimulus (promised, not actually delivered) funds and the FRAUD we know is coming in even greater amount by ACORN in order to push for Democrat control to setup even more fraud for the Census!?!?!? We MUST get these sleeping beauties (go with it, I’m just being kind ;-) ) massive quantities of Coffee known as REALITY.

      I have placed a cross reference to your Diary in my CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES – Are we preparing Conservatives via 2010 Campaigns for ’12,’14,’16 Races? – shouldn’t we be?!?! since I did not have anything specifically regarding VA in it before. And I am happy to add a Reco here.

      RedState and other outlets via the Internet is our best method around the MSM in our task to reach more and more folks that will have their own Personal Economies effected. Polls almost always had reflected a disconnect – people would often fall to the MSM propaganda and rate things as dire while saying that things for themselves were okay. These days, the opposite is going to become so obvious to folks, as the MSM will keep telling them how great things are starting to become with the implementation of the ObamAgenda and many will know it is all Smoke, Mirrors, and out and out LIES; as they, their family members, friends, and neighbors lose their jobs and will start to see the Inflation that the Democrats will start to inflate their way out of the Debt! People will begin to see How Obama’s FAILURES are the country’s SUCCESSES – since we have to spell it out and that the ObamaFAIL message WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!!

      One important thing you pointed out about VA is CLOSED PRIMARIES. States that do NOT have Closed Primaries need to begin to push to change that. We simply MUST stop allowing people meddling in our Primaries yielding us so many Candidates that are NOT the best/top choice come General Election time.

      Good Diary… Keep giving us some good news to rally around and build on.

      • Raven

        Like “Obamedia” and “Obamania”

        • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

          Stop for a moment and think like, say Dr. Lamont Hill, er… A Liberal….

          If you can’t figure it out, see: Stop Monkeying around for a hint.

          • scarlos

            nt

    • Rich Tandler

      I also have had responses from Cuccinelli on FB and the Cuccenilli Compass is must-read email.

      The bottom line is that the grassroots conservatives of Virginia nominated Cuccinelli and it’s up to us to make sure that he, along with McDonnell, get elected (the Lite Governor position in VA is worth much less than a pitcher of warm spit so it’s irrelevant. Out of the three, Bolling is the one I trust the least. He’s much closer to the Vichy Republicans than he is to Cuccinelli).

  • louisiana

    are being instrumental in choosing a true conservative such as Cuccinell.
    However, the real fight is getting your U.S. Congressmen/women to
    ensure that elections are not rigged in the Dem’s favor. This includes
    speaking out loudly against organizations like ACORN who is a
    census bureau partner. As most of you know, the DOJ has just
    told GA’s Sec. of State, that they can’t require proof of citizenship in
    order to vote, so now illegal aliens will have a vote. It does no good to have viable candidates, if they are going to be defeated at the polls because
    of Obama’s gestapo tactics.

  • IJB
  • naraht

    The winner in the VA-Gov race has gone to the party *not* in the whitehouse since the mid 1970s. I fully expect the Republicans to win it. If the Democrats had any really strong native candidates Terry C, the Clinton fundraiser wouldn’t be in it.

    Between Governors and Senators, Virginia has gone for Democrats more than Maryland over the last 6 or so years. Virginia just isn’t *that* blue.

    Now if Whitman can manage to win New Jersey, *that* will make a statement.

    Randy

  • Rod_Patrick
  • Scope

    in the most heavily attended R convention in VA in 15 years, while McDonnell and Bolling got polite applause.

  • Scope

    The buzz in VA is that this Cadet from Va Tech knocked it out of the park with his speech.

    http://www.rpvnetwork.org/profiles/blogs/the-future-and-his-name-is

    You can watch his speech on youtube in 2 parts-

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4_oL27JAvQ

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zejvNWt65vI

  • ocleverone

    Cuccinelli has not wavered in what he believes – pro life, pro 2nd amendment and unabashedly conservative – the response to his stance showed on Saturday. The response to his speech was second only to Adnod Baqwi. That speech also reflected who Ken is and the delegates loved it.

    I have had the privilege of talking to Cuccinelli one on one (both in person and on the phone) and he never waivers from who he is or what he believes. There is a resolve in this man that is palpable when talking and it is enough to say “sign me up to knock on doors”.

    Cuccinelli is clear where he stands on issues and to me, that is important. He’s not a squish and doesn’t pretend to be anyone but who he is. He always invites people to look at his record if they want to know what he believes in.

    As far as the new media, I agree with Rich that Cuccinelli has indeed embraced it with not only facebook but his e-newsletter is a must read for information. (Side note: Bob McDonnell is using text messaging in his campaign.)

    For the first time in a long time, I am truly excited about the races in Virginia. We are fielding some great top of the ticket candidates and also some great candidates elsewhere for local elections.

  • ocleverone

    He was very riveting and he had 11000 on their feets applauding.

  • Scope

    Adnan, as he is what the future GOP can become, and the grassroots love every minute of it.

  • penguin2

    Haven’t gotten involved to your level yet, but working toward it.

    I have met Bob McDonnell several times over the past several years. When he lived in Va. Beach he was highly regarded and personally, I take him as genuine and a good man.

    Are either of you going to Atlanta for RS meeting? Maybe a listing will be available…