Loudoun Blogger Declares Work of Largest 10th District Unit Unnecessary for Frank Wolf to Win Big

Loudoun Insider is upset that the LCRC won 10th District Unit of the Year, and Suzanne Volpe won volunteer of the year. In explaining why he doesn't agree with those awards, he didn't deny they worked very hard this year. No one can sanely deny that. He simply said their work was unnecessary. Maybe we should be happy that someone who believes hard work is unnecessary to winning elections is only a blogger.

Thanks to everyone who worked hard to make 2010 a sucess in VA. It took a lot of working with people we disagree with to do it, but it was worth it.

Mark Sell Becomes LCRC Chairman as Loudoun Voters Reject the Politics of Demonization

I would like to take a moment to congratulate Mark Sell on winning the race for LCRC Chairman this past Saturday. He and Candace Strother ran very clean campaigns built around continuing to advance conservativism and continue the winning momentum in Loudoun. They were able to get almost 1,000 people to vote in the election and both campaign structures will be very useful in the years ahead.

Mark Sell is a committed conservative of both the fiscal and social variety. He worked very hard to pass the Marriage Amendment in 2006, and has attended as many Tea Party events as possible over the past year. He constantly volunteered with the door to door effort this past fall as he does every year for the Republican ticket, and received Ken Cuccinelli's endorsement. He knows how to campaign and recruit volunteers, and is committed to our conservative values. He will make an excellent chairman.

While Glen Caroline and Candace Strother have been very gracious in their congratulations to Mark Sell, some of Candace's supporters are very reluctant to unite behind Mark Sell after the vote. Some are taking a we will support him if... approach, (which I respect and understand) while one of Loudoun's most prominent bloggers has continued to show nothing but vitriol and hatred for Mark Sell and his supporters following the election.

The blogger I am talking about is Loudoun Insider. Following the election he wrote one of the most vile and divisive posts in his history. The day before the election he said that if you voted for Mark Sell you would be sending the LCRC back to the dark ages. In a comment on another post that day he called Mark a woman, and after the results came in he called Mark a name I will not repost on this blog. Using this kind of rhetoric about Mark and his top supporters does nothing to build the party. We can and should debate the merits of electing different people, and dig into what they believe, but name calling and ad hominem attacks of this sort have no place in the political dialogue. If you want to argue this party should be a big tent and an accepting party, then you are a hypocrite to demonize people who have worked hard in it over the years.

I am thankful to the voters of Loudoun for rejecting the politics of demonization, and I am thankful that Mark Sell's supporters refrained from this kind of personal mean spirited politics.

McDonnell Rally

So first of all, congratulations to Bob McDonnell for a very successful kick off tour on Saturday. Bringing 700 people together in Annandale to listen to a Republican is pretty impressive, and hopefully that bodes well for Bob's chances in NOVA in November.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, the Washington Post ran a very good article on the event. The subtitle on the article was "Leadership Turmoil in GOP Threatens to Steal Spotlight." In light of this article I think those supporting Jeff Frederick were definitely successful in Annandale, and while they may not have gotten media attention, there were definitely Frederick supporters at the other events. Also I don't think Bob has seen the end of Frederick supporters at his kickoff events.

As one of Jeff's most vitriolic opponents, Loudoun Insider decried the efforts of Jeff's supporters as unsuccessful. I would have to wonder what more you could hope for than to totally color an article in the Washington Post with the event.

In other news, Mason Conservative once aagain had an amazing post in which he responded to Loudoun Insider and further explained why he supports Jeff. Another very good article is Michael Giere's letter supporting Jeff.

Would Ken Cuccinelli Really Have a Negative Effect on Bob McDonnell?

As a blogger who is still neutral in the Attorney General primary, RedNova had some very good analysis on the claim that Cuccinelli will pull down Bob McDonnell.

Would Ken Cuccinelli really have a negative effect on Bob McDonnell?

Posted by theyoungreaganite under 2009, 2009 Governor's races, Bob McDonnell, John Brownlee, Ken Cuccinelli, Tim Kaine | Tags: 2009 Governors race, Bob McDonnell, John Brownlee, Ken Cuccinelli, Tim Kaine, Virginia Politics | 
 

Its no great secret that Bob McDonnell would prefer to have John Brownlee on the ticket in November than Ken Cuccinelli, and so do many others. A recent quote from Loudoun Insider over at Too Conservative shares seems to be representative of the feelings many Brownlee supporters have. Its the idea that Ken Cuccinelli will bring the ticket down as a whole.

Here is the post from Loudoun Insider

“Open your eyes and be realistic.  Cuccinelli not only loses us the AG slot, he likely brings down McDonnell and Bolling with him.  It will be far far too easy for the opposition to paint the ticket as a bunch of out of touch social conservatives intent on invading your bedrooms.  Taliban Bob will be back along with Ayatollah Cuccinelli.” (bolding added )

Its a powerful sentiment and may give the other side some ammunition. But will KC actually drag down the ticket if the nominee?

I am going to have to say no, and it has nothing to do with candidate preference. Its has been proven in  political science that candidate up ticket in state wide elections has the ability to effect the performance down ticket (rare exceptions do happen, such as Mark Warner’s big margin of victory when compared to President Obama’s).

We can look at the results of the 2005 gubernatorial election results to see what happens. Mr Kilgore managed to run such a awful campaign it cost him a 6 points loss in that election.

But what happened down ticket? Bill Bolling and Bob McDonnell both won, but won by less than a full percent in both instances. Were they weak terrible candidates or did they suffer from a up ticket weight?

Democrats love to point out that McDonnell and Bolling barely won in 2005, and that they are not as strong because of it. The fact they held off the “Kilgore effect” and still pulled it out really says something of the campaigners they are. Byrne and Deeds should be ashamed they couldnt ride the Kaine wave.

But Bolling and McDonnell should have helped make it closer for Kilgore in accordance to the logic espoused by certain Brownlee supporters. At the end of the day, McDonnell’s performance in the general will be what sways voters to vote republican down ticket.

You can make the argument that KC is too conservative too win state wide, but I do believe the idea he will hold McDonnell down is a little disingenuous.

With that said. I am one of the few authors left on the blogosphere who is still choosing to remain neutral in this AG race, and It will take me a while before I fully endorse a candidate. But, I will be addressing some of the major arguments of all the campaigns over the next few weeks until I endorse somebody.