Bearing Drift Live! VA-02 Republican Committee
By D.J. Spiker | Thursday, January 28th, 2010 | Politics[Update: 7:28 PM] 2nd District convention taking place on Saturday May 8th, at 8 am. Cleveland St bingo building which seats 650 people.
[Update: 7:26 PM] Voting on behalf of the primary. Motion carries 8-1. CORRECTION: There was an additional proxy I missed. 9-1.
[Update: 7:24 PM] Kyle Adams, Chairman of Hampton Committee removes himself from voting as he does not live in the 2nd District. Speaks against the cost argument. Eastern Shore Committe chair speaking against a convention, governor races are 1/3 with procedure by convention. Says primary goes better to getting general Public behind the nominee.
[Update: 7:22 PM] David O’Kelley speaking on behalf on a primary before he makes the motion on behalf of said primary.
[Update: 7:18 PM] Jason Miyares for Scott Rigell, just thanking the committee on behalf of Rigell.
[Update: 7:15 PM] Angela Bitter speaking for Ben Loyola, speaking against the canvass. If canvass off the table, no preference.
[Update: 7:11 PM] Bert Mizusawa: defer to jdgement of committee.
Scott Taylor: still prefers convention, Convetion center available on May 22nd for a convention, holding 13,400 delegates. Under no guise of what is going to happen tonight. Chairman rebuttal, Virginia Beach would hold 60%+ of delegates, minimizing Norfolk, Hampton and Eastern Shore. Smaller committee chairs not favorable to weighted delegates.
[Update: 7:07 PM] Kenny Golden: canvass is the way to go. 81st District worked well, 8th had a few issues. However, without Justice approval, can’t go any further. Still prefer canvass. Put on the spot, with no canvass what is preference? One person, one vote. Convention is dangerous. Prefers primary only if canvass is off the table.
[Update: 7:05 PM] opening the floor up to the four candidates present, if they so choose.
6:40 PM: Hadn’t planned on live blogging, but four candidates are in the room, so I’ll give some live updates.
Scott Taylor, Kenny Golden, Bert Mizusawa are here. Representatives from Rigell’s camp are here. Unless I simply don’t know them, no one from Maulbecks campaign is present.
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Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...entrenched on the right as a member of the Establishment, proudly tattooed member of the Republican Party, bartender by trade serving both sides the libations needed to continue the debate and discourse. College student, ten years late, majoring in Public Policy and Administration with an eye to serving the conservative and Republican movement in the public or private sector. ducit amor patriae You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com. You can find D.J.on facebook, Twitter, or contact via email at gosport.conservative@gmail.com.
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23 Responses to "Bearing Drift Live! VA-02 Republican Committee"
thanks for covering this DJ.
What is it DJ Primary or Convention?
Wow. The 2nd District Chairman gets elected in a lonely convention, rather than a packed house Congressional convention.
I’m sure the two decisions had n-o-t-h-i-n-g to do with each other.
Sorry but I’m a tad bit confused. So how exactly will the Republican nominee in Virginia’s Second Congressional district be decided?
Primary
So basically Scott Taylor is screwed?
johnnyb3 – No, not screwed. Now grab everyone and their grandmother out there to vote for him!
So in effect, this means that the Nye Democrats by voting en mass in the primary can choose which Republican they want to run against?
Yeah Tim. They will. And what’s even better. The taxpayers in the district will have to pay for it!! Not the party!
I applaud our district committee for their dedication to fiscal restraint. *sarcasm*
2nd District better hope and pray somebody primaries Nye, to keep the Dems out of our primary.
Party sabotage is always a concern but has yet to ever show signs of truth. We didn’t want Deeds in June (believe it or not, we really didn’t) we wanted all Republicans to vote for Moran. We got Deeds. Few Dems are that fired out up about Nye to care enough to sabotage the Republican side of things; fewer still would even bother to try and sabotage. While we politicos follow this stuff religiously and closely, we only make up a slim percentage of the public. The majority of voters respect the process, vote when they’re supposed to, for the individuals that they’re supposed to (Republicans vote for Republicans, Democrats for Democrats)
Speaking to a convention, Gary Byler raised a few points. One, the only available date was May 22nd, rather than the preferred date of May 8 or 15 at the latest. Rather than an extra month, it’d simply be two weeks, half of which is Memorial Day weekend and festivities. Additionally, short of seating 12,000+ delegates, they would be far more likely to seat smaller numbers, which would go to weighting delegations. In that situation, Virginia Beach delegates would account for 60%+ (Gary said 63, someone else said 68) of the vote. Therefore, to be the nominee, you could win Virginia Beach but lose the Eastern Shore, Norfolk and Hampton and still be the nominee. The smaller committees were steadfastly against this proposition as well, which contributed to the vote.
Additionally, the Accomack chair raised the idea that the awareness to the general public about a primary and winner gives us a better opportunity to defeat Nye. Some of y’all might disagree but it was his opinion that the press and publicity would make it better off.
“Virginia Beach delegates would account for 60%+”
Big Freakin Deal! Virginia Beach has accounted for over 70 % of the 2nd district in election after election. A convention would’ve given smaller cities and counties MORE representation than a primary will.
Did anyone tap anyone on the shoulder and tell them that?
These “reasons” are an obvious smokescreen to the real reason.
Well said Brian.
It sounds like the party had its mind made up for weeks as to the easiest way to get Rigell in.
The heir apparent has paved his way with a “fiscally conservative” approach that includes outspending all his opponents combined, and costing the taxpayers of the 2nd district $250-400,000 dollars. Bravo.
Everyone else has had to tighten their belts this and last year. This is exactly why groups like the TEA party exist.
Brian the only reason I brought that up was because it was put to the smaller committees.
Yeah, I know. It’s not you.
D.J. and Brian,
As everyone on here knows, I rarely post on any blog, but I do believe this is worth commenting.
There are two reasons why the 2nd District Committee should have chosen a Convention: (1) Economical sense and (2) Conservative Principles.
(1) Economical Sense: Last night the 2nd District Committee voted to have a primary. I do not even live in the 2nd District, I live in the 3rd District part of Norfolk, but now I will have to pay for this primary. The primary will costs the cities of Hampton, Norfolk and Virginia Beach, and the counties of Northampton and Accomocak between 250 and 400 thousand dollars, depending on whose numbers you use. A Convention could be held at the Virginia Beach Convention Center on May 22nd for between 20 and 25 thousand dollars. The 2nd District had decided that they would have a filing fee of $6900+ per candidate, so the total collected filing fees would be between 30 and 40 thousand dollars depending on how many candidates remained in the race and paid the filing fee. Therefore, the committee would have had more than enough money to cover the cost of the Convention without burdening the taxpayers of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts with the bill.
Furthermore, the argument that a convention with 10,000+ attendees will be too difficult for the 2nd District Committee to handle. I disagree. If the Republican Party of Virginia can handle a state convention, then the 2nd District Committee should be able to handle a District Convention.
(2) Conservative Principles: There has never been a situation where a method of nomination other than a Convention has benefited the conservative candidate. An open primary, since we do not register by party in Virginia, will allow anyone to vote without any restrictions. I’m sorry, but if you are going to nominate the Republican candidate for office, you should have to make a committment to do it. You shouldn’t be able to simply roll out of bed and drop by your polling location. You should have to show that you are dedicated to the Republican Party (no matter whether conservative or moderate) and actually have to go through some burden to show it. You should have to committ to a candidate enought so that you are willing to go to an auditorium on a set day and sit for sometimes 5 or 6 hours (or longer) to nominate a candidate. That is how you find out who has the strongest support. And yes, the conservative wing of the party (of which I consider myself a member) has a greater impact at a Convention. The selection of the primary will minimize the effect of the conservative wing of the Party in selecting the nominee, which is clearly beneficial to some candidates. We have seen it before, but once again, the conservative wing of the Paty has been ignored (can we say NY-23 anyone). Furthermore, a covention is th only process in which we are guarnateed to have a nominee that was voted for by 50% +1 of the vote. The rules of the convention regulate it so that the ultimate winner must do whatever it takes (deals, etc…) to secure 50+1 to receive the nomination. In a primary, we are running the risk of a candidate winning with 30 or 35% of the vote and I think that candidate will find it hard to unite the other 65 or 70 percent that have never cast a vote for them.
Finally, the argument over Virginia Beach having 63% of the delegates at a Convention–Big deal, Virginia Beach has roughly 70% of the vote in every 2nd District election–if you don’t like it, fix it in redistricting.
I would finally like to congratulate Young Republican Represenative Ryan Sneddon for being the only one of the voting members to stick to conservative principles and vote against a primary.
I know the above remarks make absolutely no difference to anything, but I felt these points needed to be made.
Thank you.
Good points Chris, but the die has been cast. At least a convention could have kept all of the District dirty laundry somewhat in-house which will now be turned into a public ala carte buffet of Republican candidate personal and party issues for the Nye Democrats.
The argument that the primary costs the taxpayers holds no water. Besides national defense, the number one purpose of our government is to hold free and fair elections. So if it costs the taxpayers, too bad. Lets get the government out of everything else, but seriously, taxpayers paying for elections? No one should have a problem with that.
Pat,
This isn’t an “election” as you put it. It is a nomination. There is a difference.
I do think the argument that it may cost $250,000 to be a bit weak; of all the things the government spends money on, elections are a core function of government and its worth every money to insure ballot integrity. Plus, it means that men and women serving overseas to be able to participate in the Republican nomination process.
I also disagree with the notion that a convention insures that only the “core” Republicans get to choose our nominee. If anything, it means that Democratic activists have even more sway. 200 Democrats voting in a 30,000 person primary has negligible impact. 200 Democrats showing up at a Convention (which they have every right to do as long as they live in the 2nd District) means their voting power is magnified.
More than 2,000 people showed up for Bill Fleming… on a 2 week, poorly handled campaign.
The government has NO purpose paying for anything other than the general election. Shame on the district committee for abandoning fiscal restraint in favor of a primary. If a convention is good enough to reelect the chair of the committee then it should be good enough to select our new nominee.
But we all know why a primary was chosen… and we all know who championed the cause.
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