Republican Efforts Gaining Momentum
Alot of the focus in Virginia’s conservative blogosphere for the past week has been the ongoing battle between a majority of the Republican Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee and Chairman Jeff Frederick. This is understandable–political intrigue, of any kind, is always going to draw attention and speculation. However, it’s important to keep an eye on the fact that, regardless of who’s in charge, the grassroots is marching towards a convention in Richmond– and excitement is in the air. From RPV:
Petersburg, which is just slightly less fertile to Republicans than Detroit, will send 30 delegates to the State Convention this year, compared to just 8 last year. Great job Linas Kojelis for keeping the enthusiasm sky-high in Petersburg! Wise County, 20 State Convention Delegates, up from 10 last year Dickinson, 21 Delegates for 2009, up from 3 last year And the unit with the highest percentage increase, Isle of Wight, which elected 46 Delegates this year, compared to ZERO last year!
Just ask former Gov. Jim Gilmore, who thought he had a substantial lead last year in the nominating contest to run for the U.S. Senate but came out of the nominating convention with a minuscule and politically damaging victory over Del. Robert G. Marshall of Prince William County.
Marshall had gathered his forces for the convention; Gilmore had not. A total of 5,200 people signed up to go to the convention, but only about 3,200 showed up.
Yet there’s a big motivator in getting people to the convention. Well, three actually–AG Candidates John Brownlee, Dave Foster, and Senator Ken Cuccinelli.
Each has filed large numbers of names of potential delegates under party rules in which the candidates file the names of delegates in each jurisdiction.
“Step one is getting people signed up; step two is getting them to go,” said Dave Johnson, a veteran Republican political operative who is working for Brownlee, a former U.S. attorney in the western district of Virginia. Brownlee lives in Roanoke.
The delegate selection process began Feb. 1 and concludes April 1. Among Richmond area jurisdictions, Chesterfield County already has held its mass meeting, and Cuccinelli claimed victory there. Hanover and Henrico counties and the city of Richmond will select delegates in coming weeks.
However, there is no provision for declaring support for one candidate or the other in the pre-filing of delegate names phase. This gives the candidates the leeway to declare victory, even when it didn’t occur.
That’s the key–nobody really has any idea just how this race is going. Internal lists are one thing–but with upwards of 8,000 delegates possibly in play, there’s going to be alot of politicking going into the final days of this race.
Another big motivator: The President. Republicans are seeing the results of allowing enough seats to slip to Democrats to hand them effectively complete control of the Executive and Legislative branches in Washington and the epic spending spree that has come forth. Also playing a factor: Governor Kaine and the Democratic Senate. With Kaine getting through his smoking ban and never ceasing in his search for budget hikes, conservatives are tired and ready to win again.
In 1978, 1993 and 1994 Virginia’s Republicans set records for creating the largest ever deliberative bodies in the Western world, with tens of thousands of delegates gathering to choose our standard bearers in those races. They were loud, noisy, dirty affairs. However, at the end of the day, the party stood united and with a face of average Virginians united behind common-sense conservative principles.
Let’s see if we can do it again.
