In the 5th, some early observations
By JR Hoeft | Saturday, January 9th, 2010 | PoliticsState Sen. Robert Hurt: Clearly the favorite, but other than his vote for Mark Warner’s tax increase, I don’t know much about him. His online presence is awful and there is no way of contacting him other than picking up the phone and calling. Unfortunately, I’m not a big fan of calling because I have a day job and email or Facebook works best for me. I did sign up for his emails earlier this week, but have yet to receive one. So, Hurt does have the advantage of name recognition, an active fund-raising base, and the benefit of being an elected official and having a record to run on, but that record, as you can tell, can also be scrutinized. He has since come out with a mea culpa for his vote as a Delegate on the tax increase, but will that be acceptable to Republican voters?
Albamarle County Supervisor Ken Boyd: From what I understand, he is attempting the strategy of being a party loyalist and elected official, but more conservative than Hurt. He also has a record to run on, which, to my knowledge, does not include voting for a very large tax hike. I have sent the campaign an email to which they have not responded. So, can’t tell you much more about him either. He has been able to raise some money in the district.
Former Fluvanna County School Board Member Feda Morton: Trying to be Ken Boyd, only with more limited local government experience. Her claim to fame is also being a party chair, which puts her in good standing with other city committees. However, that hasn’t translated to dollars raised. She was not able to hire both a campaign manager and a communication director because they were too expensive. She also has a team of free advisers, which bog down her decision making ability. On a positive, she did receive an “A” rating from the Virginia Gun Owners and has been poignant in her criticisms of Hurt for limiting debates to being held only at GOP committees, and minimizing the number to five:
“The facts are very clear. Hurt has a voting record he does not want to talk about in public, especially Hurt’s vote for the Warner budget of 2004 which led to the largest tax increase in the history of our Commonwealth. It is apparent that he would rather debate in friendly, controlled environments with handpicked moderators,” Morton said.
Businessman Laurence Verga: A self-funded candidate who is struggling to raise money in the district, but has plenty of money to run his campaign (96% of his funds are self-funded). He also is an inspired and determined candidate that is bringing ideas to the race and generating enthusiasm amongst national conservatives by appearing with personalities such as Laura Ingraham and Joe Wurzelbacher – as well as penning op-eds for Human Events and Red State. However, he has generated some controversy in comparing this district to NY-23 and hinting that he may step-forward with an independent run for congress, should he not receive the party’s nomination. Verga’s activism stems from moving his family and business to Virginia because he thought Charlottesville would be a great place to raise his family, and he appreciated the state’s low taxes; however, he has been seeing a trend of higher taxes in the state and federal government and thought he should get involved. His campaign frequently reaches out to new media (unfortunately, none of what we write or do makes it to his campaign material).
Mike McPadden: A very genuine person who I have met and held conversations with – and the only candidate in the 5th who I have. His supporters love him, but I have very little information on any traction he’s getting in the district. He is the only candidate that I am aware of who is talking about the gold standard – a favorite topic of the Ron Paul campaign – and the concept of “sound money”.
Ferrin and McKelvey? Don’t know ‘em.
Regarding some news this week from this race, McPadden called for a Conservative’s Convention, as all of the candidates, except Hurt, earlier wanted one. His thought is that by narrowing the field to one “conservative” candidate against Hurt, that candidate stands a better chance of winning the primary.
“The grass roots of the Republican Party will have their voices heard and their votes counted. Second, deliberately narrowing the Fifth District field to two candidates will increase the odds that a conservative will win the nomination. And third, it could turn the tide of moderate leanings from within the Republican Party and restore the ‘Big Tent’ party of Reagan to its conservative moorings,” said McPadden.
Verga, however, does not concur, which pretty much already torpedoes the idea:
“I obviously disagreed with the establishment’s decision for a primary, but I believe we must respect the rules of the game because only the winners can make history. I am the only candidate prepared and equipped to beat them at their own game, which will only make our efforts to beat the establishment and lead a conservative movement to reform the Republican party more likely to succeed.”
As a final observation – Congressman Perriello from his September report had over $600K cash on hand. So McPadden does have a point: Republicans in the 5th better figure out pretty quickly who their candidate will be – otherwise it’s going to be a long decade or two or three with Congressman Perriello as your representative.
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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15 Responses to "In the 5th, some early observations"
You know the tea party folks complain about it being a primary but hey everything is equal get out and get your votes for your candidate and beat Sen. Hurt if you can. The race aint over till the votes are counted. The Tea Partiers have an advantage of being “Bi-Partisan” and everything. Nothing is preventing you from organizing and getting your act together.
You rabble need to grow up and realize its a two party system in this country. Third parties are a joke. Bring your movement into either the Dems or Republican party and act like grown ups and not some 3rd world rabble. These fools that say “I’m Conservative” or “I’m moderate” dont mean squat! Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican that is all that matters. As for me I’m a REPUBLICAN I support Republican candidates in general elections and I vote in Republican Primaries.
Folk you pick a team and you help that team improve. No team has gotten better in anything by having people on the inside destroy it. Representatives are a product of the communities they come from. If you want someone different find someone and work for them and with them to build them up. Don’t piss and moan that the system isnt fair. Life aint fair. Grow up!
I am a tea partier. I am also a big supporter of Sen. Robt. Hurt. and do you want to know why? Because he has the best shot at taking out Perriello.
That is what this election is all about. Do I agree with every vote Sen. Hurt has made? Nope. But I do agree that we need to rid the 5th of Perriello.
Exactly. I’m not against the idea of citizens asserting their rights as Americans but do as REPUBLICANS!
An Independent run would be a grave mistake. For Verga to even make such a statement at this point is terribly unsettling to me. And Hurt cast a vote that raised taxes, and that is never a good thing. In balance, taxes can be repealed, but a third party candidate allowing Perriello to continue the fiscal damage in Washington is a more serious offense.
And Hurt is no Scozzafava. Not even close.
Verga was not saying he’d run as an Independent. He was saying he thought a tax raiser like Hurt would provoke one.
Virginia law states that if one runs in a primary than you cannot run as an Independent in the General. The same is not true for a convention or canvass.
People keep spreading the rumors that Verga will run as an independent. He has never said he would and has actually said he would not consider a run as an independent. These rumors are obviously being spread by his opponents or their supporters. As mentioned by Master chief he would not be allowed under Virginia law after participating in a primary which he is gearing up for.
From what I am hearing the talk is not about whether or not Verga himself will run independent, but rather whether the libertarian Bradley Rees from Bedford County will launch a third party challenge to Hurt.
Rees is holding this out there as a threat. I am not sure what Verga himself may have said in the past, however, I know that recently he has stated that he is running for the GOP nomination and is not interested in a third party.
I need to hear more from Verga outside of “Robert Hurt is the devil.” Also i need to hear more from the other candidates, including Mr. Hurt himself. As the author noted, he has run a poor campaign to this point. He needs to start to get his message out there and move past the procedural wrangling to putting out some policy/content about how he will govern.
For what it’s worth, I asked Verga’s spokesman directly about a 3rd Party run. It was not unequivocally disqualified.
J.R.,
In that case, Verga will need to establish what his position is on that point. I tend to give him some leniency on things like that due to his being a first time candidate. He still has a month or so to iron out points like that.
did you read recently that Virginia’s eldest statesman, US Senator Harry F. Byrd Jr, chastised Sen Mark Warner for voting for bills that would financially destroy this country?
and some of those same articles said that Sen Byrd supported then-Gov. Warner’s tax hike for schools.
So wonder if Hurt had NOT voted for the tax hike? would his Republican opposition (& eventually Perriello) say that Hurt was against public schools, against the children, against teachers, against education, but mostly totally against children, etc.?
the problem with having a record is that it is a record.
so if you don’t have a record (like B+rack Obama–his was mighty damn slim), its sometimes easier to maneuver around thorny issues.
The back and forth over Hurt’s tax vote is making even my head spin.
First, Hurt’s vote is becoming a self-inflicted wound. Instead of trying to come up with some defense of the vote, his defense is now that he was mislead by Warner and that he regrets the vote. This makes him come off as weak.
In reality, we all know that Hurt’s vote for the 2004 budget deal with the largest increase in Virginia history was simple pork politics. Put him in the same group as Senator Nelson of Nebraska and Senator Landrieu of Louisiana. Southside had a list of projects they wanted and Warner agreed to deliver. Simple pork politics. Which is how Southside is run.
Hurt is a plain Republican with weak conservative credentials outside of checking off boxes for different Republican special interest groups. He does little to nothing to actual move the conservative agenda forward. For example he voted against the proposal to privatize ABC stores, which is now a key part of the Governor’s transportation plan. Voting against privatization may have been the “safe” vote because it doesn’t deviate from the status quo. But someone conservative leaders need to fight to actually change and reform government! Hurt falls short on this count.
Hurt just sent out his first email update, which also included a link to a Twitter account which had been previously non-existent. Looks like they are finally getting moving.
Suffice to say, signatures are being gathered on my behalf.
Whether I turn them in or not? …stay tuned. I do, after all, have until June 8th (coincidentally, the day of the Republican primary. …Um…, yes, I’m SURE it’s simply a coincidence).
Mr Rees — please contact the State Board of Elections if you have concerns about the seeming-conspiracy over the dates of the primary and filing deadlines being the same. I assure you, no on in the Republican Party has control over those dates, as they are set by the SBE far in advance of any decision-making by us.
Here’s the 5 year calendar of General Election dates:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/2010_2014Calendar.pdf
And here are the specific deadlines for 2010:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/2010_November_Election_Calendar.pdf
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