Campaigning on school property
By Brian Kirwin | Thursday, November 5th, 2009 | PoliticsJeff McWaters must love schools. First, he’s ramping up his name ID by latching onto a PTA fundraising letter.
Now he’s breaking school board policy by campaigning at school football games, according to this Letter to the Editor in the Virginian-Pilot.
“I could not believe the way the Ocean Lakes public address announcer constantly touted state Senate candidate Jeff McWaters. I have nothing against McWaters, but this was a high school football game, not a political rally.”
Got a few reports that campaign lit was being handed out, too. Anyone experienced in the simplest details of political campaigns knows that schools are off limits. This is twice that McWaters has crossed that line.
Either he doesn’t know the rules that every one else has to follow, or he doesn’t care.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
22 Responses to "Campaigning on school property"
In cases like these I blame the consultants. McWaters has enough money that he is paying someone to tell him where to go.
Shut up, Max. You loser.
Brian, I don’t undestand the outrage. Candidates work high school football games all the time up here. I remember going to one of my brothers games and Jack Rust was there handing out lit in Fairfax. Is it something that is that taboo? I thought it was normal.
Brian, your bias towards certain candidates is really starting to get obvious. Why aren’t you also outraged about Rosemary Wilson campaigning at the polls and handing out donuts?? Her “staffers” have also been caught stealing Jeff’s signs out of people’s yards. It’s really disappointing to see her running her campaign this way.
I’m pretty certain McWaters paid for the privilege to campaign at the football game. If not for sponsorships, where would the football/athletic programs find extra money?
Reid S., because McWaters’ things were in the newspaper I read. Unless I’m supposed to be a psychic, I can’t write about things unless I know they happened.
Fair enough, thanks for your response.
Thanks for making the point. Besides, no one’s ever called me unbiased.
Well what do you expect from a guy who pals around with Mark Warner, runs a health care company than has direct polices declaring pregnant women and children with Autism “unhealthies” marking them inelegible for health insurance, and selfishly puts up his campaign signs up taking spots away from Bob McDonnell.
Rosemary Wilson staffers have NOT stolen or taken down McWaters’ signs.
How are people considering McWaters for anything… You get fired from your job where your company lost 400 million dollars and we are going to ask the citizen’s of Va Beach to elect this fool to office where he’ll have access to the taxpayers resources to help himself, his cronies, and Mark Warner. Geez Va Beach get it together and make the right choice.
Besides with McDummy’s signs since he put them up early 5 bucks to nothing the city took them own thinking his election was done… which is somehow prescient really if you think about it.
I was at a GOP breakfast where Rosemary Wilson and Bill DeSteph were the speakers on VB Tax policy. DeSteph was incredibly well prepared, as he always is and Wilson had no clue what she was talking about. An audience member asked how many FAT’s we had…Wilson’s answer…”I dont know, I really have no idea”
From someone on the FAT taskforce who came to a packed room with 100+ people in it, she sure was ill prepared.
Well facts you can learn. Honesty is far more rare.
This is true. At least she was honest enough to say she had no idea. The average politician would have tried to BS through it.
I was at one of the football games where Jeff was at and I say him doing nothing wrong. He donated money to help make the school a better place and yall attack him fot it??? Bearing Drift has become a fanclub for Rosemary Wilson and Ben Loyola and that is wrong!
Well said Austin!
Lee is way off base; no one would believe or take seriously the garbage he writes. He is therefore an asset to the McWaters campaign, unless he said something in support of him, which we won’t do. Rosemary Wilson would be smart to distance herself from him.
Brian, if campaigning broke school-board policy, why would the school eagerly accept a sponsporship from a candidate and promote that sponsor as they did? How is a sponsorship paid by a candidate any different from a sponsorship paid by a business? I wasn’t there, but it seems like clever marketing to me.
ConservativeMom…
Everything I’ve said of McWaters is researchable; take it seriously as you want but when he loses and gets slammed over things like being a failure of a CEO, being friends and a donor of Mark Warner, of having a company that provides healthcare for only those they deem “Healthy” don’t come crying to me. If there is a better candidate than Rosemary so be it that is what the primary / caucus process is for but in no way is McWaters fit to be our candidate in that race.
Btw I use my real name here why don’t you? Hmmm scared… astroturfing… lets be upfront about this.
Research shows McWaters’ well-founded success as a CEO, the enhanced access to health care that Amerigroup has provided to low-income and disabled Americans, and McWaters’ very generous contributions to Republicans. He’s the type of candidate Republicans have longed for. Voters are reacting very positively to his experience and knowledge in business and in health care, as well as his position that government should cut spending, not go to the taxpayers to pay for more programs. People like Lee, who repeat whatever negative rumor another candidate’s campaign is spinning, are why some good potential candidates choose not to enter politics at all, and that is a shame. Promote the candidate you like; don’t tear down everyone else. Aren’t we all supposed to be on the same team? If another hateful remark is fired back, I won’t be online to see it. Moms are too busy to blog; this was a rarity.
Wow Hateful… hmmm last time I checked the only people who called facts hateful were Democrats so I guess you’ve shown your true colors.
At the end of the day McWaters is just another rich Rockefeller Republican (at best) who thinks he can come in and buy himself a seat. I’d be very curious to know how many abortions were paid for via Amerigroup during his term as CEO. Is there the blood of the innocent on his hands?
Oh and btw if his name recognition was so great why was he running his campaign out of turn like he did during this election cycle.
I bet there were a good amount of surprised Virginia Beach voters on election day who expected to see Mcwaters on the ballot.
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