It appears Steve Hunt will come up less than 2 points shy of Dave Marsden. The 37th District now has an absentee State Senator.
In a race this close, there are a whole bunch of reasons, but I’ll focus on this one:
At this point, what you are about to read is third-hand (from a reader to Norm at TQ to yours truly), but it should still worry every Virginian:
I saw Sen. Stosch speak at the Goochland Republican meeting last week . . . he made it clear we were going to have to have more taxes this year.
If you examine the comments of Norm’s post, you’ll see that this was confirmed by one of the commenters.
I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but in Northern Virginia, voters are looking for Republicans who will not vote for tax increases. Perhaps only a few hundred or so voters caught wind of Stosch’s nonsense, but those voters switching from Hunt to Marsden were enough, especially if (as is being reported) it was the GOP base that underperformed.
Have our Republican State Senators learned nothing from the last few elections? Even Bob McDonnell understood that tax increases were a no-go, and followed Bill Bolling and Ken Cuccinelli back from the HB3202 brink. At the time, the Senate caucus was quiet – for which we can be eternally grateful. Who know what damage Stosch et al could have done to the ticket (especially if Ken Stolle – tax-hiker extraordinaire – hadn’t been too busy getting elected Virginia Beach Sheriff).
I feel bad for Hunt and his supporters. I genuinely do. However, this was yet another reminder that we need a serious shake-up in the GOP Senate caucus – the sooner, the better. Heaven forbid this crew hangs around long enough to raise our taxes and hand the entire General Assembly to the Democrats in 2011.
[...] Cross-posted to RWL [...]
How many voters in the 37th were likely to be aware of Stosch’s comments — reported second- or third-hand — at a Goochland County GOP meeting?
I cross-posted it to Virtucon (which is read far more than this space in NoVa) a week ago. IN a race this close, every impact counts, no matter how small.
I actually wonder how many voters in the 37th are aware of Goochland County.
The venue was irrelevant. What Stosch said was what mattered. Goochland may as well be on the moon to Fairfax voters, but when the leader of the GOP Senate caucus says taxes are going up, it causes blowback.
RWL – I guess you don’t want to let the facts get in your way. Did you read the lengthy rebuttal on the same post? IF the post affected the outcome of the special election, who’s to blame – Sen Stosch, the annon source who got it wrong, or Tertiun Quids for distributing the misinformation?
I did read the rebuttal, which was itself rebutted in the very next comment by Leo. You knew that because you yourself responded to Leo – in fact, you pretty much accepted Leo’s account and defended Stosch’s refusal to consider spending cuts.
As such, the “blame” goes right back to Stosch, who’s comfort with tax increases lost us the State Senate in the first place in 2K7, and I firmly believe was one of the factors in Hunt losing this race.
[...] pretty darn good analysis from DJ, laying this defeat at the feet of Walter Stosch. addthis_pub = 'jasonkenney'; Comments [1] E-Mail ThisDigg [...]