Today’s 8th Senate nomination results do not bode well for Ben Loyola and his bid for the Congressional nomination.
Rosemary Wilson attempted to make Jeff McWaters’ alleged belief in mandated health care the central focus in her campaign; McWaters focused on the economy. The results? An overwhelming 26% margin of victory for McWaters.
The perceived game plan for Loyola looks to be to draw attention to Scott Rigell’s donation of $1,000 to Barack Obama in the primary fight last February. Given their similar backgrounds (ex-military, self-starting businessman, local ties, party ties, etc) the one distinct difference Loyola has pointed to has been the donation. That donation was perceived to be Rigell’s weakness, in the opinion of Team Loyola. Given the similarities in strategy on the Wilson campaign, if in fact Loyola attempts to make a central issue of Rigell’s donation while Rigell talks economy and positive message, Loyola will be hard-pressed to gain any traction on May 8th, if he makes it that far. The only chance Loyola has after Wilson’s trouncing today is a legitimate, issues-orientated campaign.
Additionally, at the Advance last night, the energy and attention was firmly with Rigell, followed by Kenny Golden, with Loyola a distant third. Scott Taylor showed up around 10 PM last night, while Ed Maulbeck, Chuck Smith and Bert Mizusawa had no presence whatsoever. Ironically enough, that’s starting to resemble the pecking order in terms of strength of candidacy, with an argument to be made that Taylor and Loyola could be swapped. Maulbeck, Smith and Mizusawa have zero chance; Golden, Loyola and Taylor remain longshots, in that order.
I reported last week about the disturbing preview the 8th District race was. The consensus at the Advance was it was a disaster, a textbook example how not to have a special election nomination fight. Now that it’s over, let’s hope the principals and more importantly the staffs for the 2nd candidates saw what works and what doesn’t.
