Are Chesapeake Republicans a one-family operation?

By JR Hoeft | Thursday, May 8th, 2008 | Politics

If you read today’s Virginian-Pilot, you’d certainly think so. It would appear that all the credit for the virtual Republican sweep in the city council elections can be attributed only to the Forbes’ family. However, while the Forbes’ certainly deserve a lot of credit for working to build the Republican Party in Chesapeake, the way the article tries to portray their involvement is far from reality.

This election cycle, Rep. Forbes pretty much sat it out. He only officially endorsed one candidate – his longtime friend from childhood, Rick West. But after reading the article, you would think that while Forbes stayed above the political fray by doing congressional work in DC, he left his wife Shirley back at home to micro-manage the campaigns.

Shirley Forbes wrote a letter to the editor in [Rick West's (councilman-elect)] support. She also gave him advice on campaign brochure design, how much money to spend on advertising, and where to send direct mailers, he said.

“Whenever I really got into a jam, I could call and get her opinion,” West said.

….

Burkhimer said Forbes helped “frame the whole concept” that the Republican-endorsed candidates went with.

[Debbie Ritter] (ed. note: my wife designed and maintains Ritter’s web site) said Forbes reviewed some of her literature and other campaign moves. Forbes’ voice was on a robo-call urging residents to vote for Krasnoff and other Republicans.

Ritter said all of the Republican candidates benefited from Forbes’ “experienced voice, from someone who’s been involved in a great number of campaigns.”

“She has a wonderful political mind, a wonderful set of political instincts. And she lent that generously to this campaign,” Burkhimer said. “Had we not had her help, we would have still mounted a very good campaign, no question about it.”

Randy has been lambasted in the Pilot as too controlling of local party politics, which is why this article floored me today.

I can only believe that what was written was a concerted effort by the reporter to ask Pete, Debbie and Rick about Shirley to develop this story in this manner. Seriously, what else are they going to say on-record if the reporter asks, “So, did Shirley Forbes help you this campaign?”

So, no matter what Rep. Forbes does — sit out races or provide his endorsement — it seems he’s going to get the “party boss” label from the Pilot.

I’m just left shaking my head; shaking my head for the Forbes’, who don’t deserve to be portrayed this way. Shaking my head for the vast GOP organization that works its tail off for the conservative movement in Chesapeake, only to be dismissed as irrelevant by the Virginian-Pilot.

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