Have local Republicans learned NOTHING?!
Well, just under an hour ago, the 1st District Republican convention nominated Delegate Rob Wittman for Congress. I cannot describe what a colossal mistake my fellow convention delegates made.
Now, my candidate, Jim Bowden, didn’t make it past the third ballot, and there were several good candidates in the race (I eventually settled on Paul Jost). Yet somehow, the delegates decided to nominate a politician whose most substantive action in Richmond was to support the transportation tax hike of 2007, the very piece of legislation that helped crush the party this past Tuesday.
The delegates may not have noticed (or even cared) but Hampton Roads is still seething from the regional authority and sky-high driver fees that came from the debacle. Two Hampton Roads seats in both the Senate and the House flipped over to the Democrats in reaction.
None of that mattered to the delegates.
I am left to wonder: when did the Republicans become a party of higher taxes and profligate spending? Did I mess the memo? Was I out of the room? Don’t these people have any idea of the damage they are doing?!
Rob Wittman is going to get crushed in Hampton Roads, and his support in the Fredericksubrg area is also likely to be weak (I, as a delegate, made a pledge to vote for him in the general election, but I doubt I will do much of anything else). This seat is now very, very competitive.
Meanwhile, even if Wittman wins, what then? He taxes his tax hiking record to Congress, while his seat opens up again for the man who held it for six years: the tax-hiking Al Pollard.
Honestly, this is as dejected as I have ever been about the fate of the party. No organization can solve this; no candidate recruitment effort can solve this. The Republican Party is facing an identity crisis.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Virginia Republicans must become the party of small government and low taxes again. If not, we will continue to lose, and more to the point, we will deserve to lose. Tonight, the party took a huge step backwards.
November 11, 2007 at 10:53 am
Your analysis is right on the mark. With the loss of the VA Senate, preceded by the loss of the US Senate seat from VA, preceded by the loss of the governor’s seat, republicans in VA are clearly spooked. But they have learned the wrong lesson from these setbacks. There is no point in voting republican if the republican candidates are merely democrat lite. When I want a democrat, I’ll vote for a democrat. I’m very interested in watching how Gilmore approaches the US Senate race. I hope he sticks to core principles.
November 11, 2007 at 11:18 pm
DJ, thanks for your support. My second choice was Paul Jost too.
We will have to see if local Peninsula guy Forgit has ever come out publicly for Regional Government or the 02 or 07 Transportation tax scams.
November 12, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Umm, has everyone overlooked the fact that if Marty Williams kept his seat then the Virginia Senate would still be Republican? Especially, since there wasn’t an opponent until Stall recieved the nomination.
Republicans fail because we eat our own!
Being a fiscal conservative does not mean signing the “No Tax Pledge”. It means keeping taxes low and keeping the scope of government involvment limited, while bringing accountability to how our hard earned dollars are spent; which, I might add, the “No Tax” people have failed to discuss what exactly needs to be cut in government spending and prefer to say no to taxes to only rally the base.
November 12, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Nice try, Anon, but it doesn’t work that way. The Democrat filed on primary day. They had no idea who would win that primary.
In fact, I would humbly submit that Marty Williams would have lost by a larger margin than Stall did. Check out what happened to Rerras, or all the folks who voted for the transportation tax hike in northern Virginia (O’Brien went down, D-D went down, Cuccinelli was forced into a recount), while the few opponents (Bob Marshall, Jeff Frederick, Mark Cole, and Tom Gear) prospered.
November 12, 2007 at 2:50 pm
Anon: Gov Mark Warner’s panel identified $1b in spending to cut. Oddly enough none of it has been cut.
What would be the point of having Marty stay in office if he, as a R, is raising taxes and cramming Regional Government down our throats? Keep him to raise more taxes?
Tricia lost because of her campaign - not her issues.
To win you have to have candidate, issues and campaign. The sum must be better than the other side.
November 12, 2007 at 3:49 pm
JAB,
Wasn’t that the commission headed up by Doug Wilder?
I only ask because I had always heard it labelled the Wilder Commission.
November 13, 2007 at 8:13 pm
I completely agree that taxes should be cut, and Republicans should stand true on their principles of limited government by cutting waste. My point was that the greater good was not achieved because now we have redistricting in 2010 with a Senate one vote away from GOP majority.
Plus, my original vote didn’t go to Wittman. My personal feeling is that the Speaker of the House should have done more to keep him out of the race, and I also blame the Speaker for the regional plans (HB3202) that were loaded with tax increases; why anyone would impose higher real estate transfer taxes in a declining market is beyond me!
November 13, 2007 at 10:13 pm
But you’ve missed my point, Anon. Marty Williams wouldn’t have held that seat. I’m convinced he would have lost by a greater margin than Tricia Stall did.
November 14, 2007 at 7:44 am
We can speculate all day long, but when at the end of the day Williams had the name recognition and voting history to pull it off. The GOP should have waited to oust him.
I agree that he is a RHINO, but the bigger picture of redistricting scares me.
November 14, 2007 at 9:30 am
I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree about how Marty Williams would have done.
From what I hear up north, though, it’s all but certain that Jay O’Brien would have squeaked through without HB3202 around his neck.
December 10, 2007 at 2:52 pm
[...] conservative” with the whispy platform; Phil Forgit, the Democrat; and Rob Wittman, the Republican tax-hiking cipher who seems to be doing everything within his power to make me vote for someone else [...]
April 29, 2008 at 7:27 pm
[...] us who preferred someone else at the 1st District Convention (hereafter The Night of the Long Dull Spoons) were convinced that Mr. Wittman would give us plenty of, well, blogging material. On that, at [...]
May 1, 2008 at 1:20 pm
[...] Rob Wittman, who essentially has been my member of Congress ever since the Night of the Long Dull Spoons, made good on his promise to make his earmark list public (here it is). Of course, after Tim [...]
June 3, 2008 at 3:20 pm
[...] the voting for Chairman (Shaun tried hard - in his subtle way - to talk me out of Frederick, but Rob Wittman’sspeech for Hager sealed the deal for Jeff), Brandon Bell found me. My first thought was, “I [...]