Dueling townhalls: Nye cancels 30 minutes prior; Rigell answers questions for two hours
By JR Hoeft | Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 | PoliticsAccording to Steve Batton in the Morning on Freedom 1650AM, Glenn Nye canceled a planned townhall appearance yesterday 30 minutes prior, while Scott Rigell went to the Eastern Shore and answered questions for hours in front of nearly 100 people.
Momentum?
We’re trying to find out more details. Did anyone go?
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JR Hoeft
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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24 Responses to "Dueling townhalls: Nye cancels 30 minutes prior; Rigell answers questions for two hours"
I counted about 85, Just guessing it was roughly +75% gop with some dems and independents mixed in.
Overheard someone in the back afterwards who came across as questioning whether Scott was actually a “veteran” if he was not actually deployed, stopped to listen for a sec then walked out of the room. I do not know the answer to the definition of what makes someone a veteran since I am not one either but vets who I presume may have combat experience have brought this up at other functions for some reason.
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I was at Scott Rigell’s “We the People Town Hall” last night and I am a member of the Accomac County Republican Unit Committee.
I counted 3x’s during the course of the evening, at the height there was 114 not including campaign staff or trackers.
I was thrilled by the following:
-The format was excellant. As people signed in they were told if they wanted to ask questions to write their name and drop it in the question box. That’s right, only their name.
-Everyone single person that wanted to ask questions did. Towards the end people who did not put their name in the box came up to the mic to ask questions.
-Because I’ve lived on the Eastern Shore since 1991 I knew many people there, James Cohen does not know them. I can tell you there were many Independants there, more than I even expected, and Democrats.
-Many of the people commented “on record” that our current Congressman would not return their phone calls, that his staff was arrogent to them and that he was inaccessible.
-As a member of the local GOP committee I had a number of people come up to me to ask how they could join our committee because they know the great importance of this election and they wanted to help.
Scott Rigell gave concise answers last night and many on the Eastern Shore are proud to support him.
One that cannot receive Veterans benefits or does not qualify to be a member of an honorable Veterans group (any there are many more) such as: VFW, FRA, MOA, etc., is certainly not a Veteran in my book.
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Unless a reservist dies, becomes disabled or otherwise performs fulltime duty in the armed forces other than active duty for training OR somehow qualifies to join the VFW, a reservist IS NOT A VETERAN. Should Scott Rigel revisit the VFW he need be reminded that he could not possibly qualify for membership not even by virtue of being the son of a Vet who EARNED his veteran status.
Mr Rigel is rumored to have never deployed even though there were several conflicts during his time in the reserves when every marine I know who signed up had active time.
@Justin,
You said it right, and I couldn’t agree with you more brother!
If all you can do is nitpick Rigell’s status as a Veteran, its becoming pretty clear that his is the dominant campaign. The point is he was ready if his country needed him. He has proven that he cares about and is open to the people’s opinions. He is a proven leader with business experience. He stands by his commitments. He is the man for the job.
I’m aghast. Mr. Rigell’s service as a reserve marine has been called into questioned by some of the regular posters on Bearing Drift. And, now to find out his loudest antagonist is not even a veteran, much less a Navy veteran tells me everything. The fact that some questionable “Republican” members are still sore over the primary and are willing to throw the true candidate (Mr. Rigell) and the party under the bus for some cheap theatrics disgusts me. Get over it!
Scott Rigell is the Right Man for the Right job at the Right time and the Right place. Done!
If it is true you are judged by the company you keep, the endorsement of Rigell by Ken Cuccinelli is a real negative. Our congresssional delegation and the Governor are working in a bi-partisan fashion to keep JFCOM, and the Attorney General comes to town with his partisan hat squarely on his head and makes such ridiculous accusations as to be an embarrassment to all the citizens of Hampton Roads. Nye, Forbes, Wittman, Scott, McDonnell, Warner, and Webb, all willing to put partisanship aside and work for us; Cuccinelli and Rigell willing to put our interests aside to make partisan hay. That says it all.
Love how folks hijack threads and articulate absolutely nothing to do with the original post.
The point of the post is that Rigell is clearly and convincingly facing voters, standing-up for what he believes in, while Nye can’t live up to his commitments.
Nye has been the invisible man when it comes to directly facing voters.
As for veteran status – what a bogus pile of pig excrement. As a veteran of 17 years active duty, with several deployments under my belt, I find this level of discourse moronic. You’re only proving that you’re an ass, and not anything about Candidate Rigell.
Oh, and Justin, if you’re going to provide a link on your name, use the correct address at least. It’s http://www.jfcom.mil.
I served in the Navy for over 20 years, and I don’t get all of this veteran discussion. I am not a combat veteran, so I guess in their book my service was a waste of time.
As far as Nye, I have made about 10 attempts the past year to contact him or his staff either by phone or email and I got one email response. I also tried to attend one meeting at which he was going to speak… he cancelled at the last minute. Sounds like a habit.
J.R. where are you getting your facts from? Or should I be asking where is Steve Batton getting his facts from?
It isn’t Kingsmoothie, is it?
It’s no secret that I have issues with some of Scott Rigell’s political positions, and in the past we have both made public statements concerning those differences.
However, concerning military service, as a decorated veteran of a foreign war, I recognize that we both took the same oath:
“I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”
Hence, irrespective of campaign ribbons, decorations, or deployments, we have both swore service to our country and have been bound as comrades in arms.
No one who voluntarily took and fulfilled this oath need not account for their military service any further.
As a Navy Chief, and active member of the community, I’ve seen first hand how big of a fake Nye is. Now that I’m in the business community, I see one thing going on out here…Rigell is out, dedicated to his mission, talking with concerned citizens. The business owners I know support him, as they know he gets it.
This crap about Rigell’s vet status…really? Well said Wally, he took the same oath we did. He was a Marine, and I’d like these A holes to find any Marine, active or reserve, that wouldn’t die for our country or their brothers at home or on the front line. Man, what crap.
The pulse of the military out here is beating red. They are voting Republican, wouldn’t matter if it was Turbo on the repub ticket, they’d vote for him.
Doesn’t hurt that Rigell has some impressive Flaf and General endorsements, as well as Sec Nav England.
Scott talks about Core Values all the time. If more people had ‘em, we wouldn’t be in this damn mess.
Hey Jerry, It’s nice to have Town Halls and answer questions and True Congressman Nye has never done that but how about some love for the poor Independent? I’ve done 7 now and the questions come directly from the participants, they are not screened and none are my staff members are allowed to ask questions, and you are not required to write them down ahead of time. We had over 70 folks on Fair Tax night and the questions lasted for way over an hour. We’ll do the same this Friday night for number 8. Come out and see how you like it. So you all will know, my favorite President was Washington….my favorite Virginian, R.E. Lee. On the service issue, service is service and Scott could have been called out anytime between 1978 and 1986 and he would have gone and served with distinction as his father did. I was priviledged to Command USS DUBUQUE for the Iwo Jima re-enactment in 1995 and I was able to collect some of the volcanic sand and we gave some to Scott’s Dad. I was very proud to do that. My daughter went as she was active and flew 29 missions over Iraq. Justice will go and may the Good Lord protect him as he did his Grandfather. See you Friday r Kenny
I’ve seen Mr. Rigell speak several times and one theme he has always hit upon is his preference for the term Representative, as opposed to Congressman. The fact that he is doing multiple open town halls while the incumbent Congressman avoids voters and pres shows that we need a change in leadership. Glenn Nye is hoping people fall for the independence he portrays in his commercials (even though he votes with Pelosi 8 out of 10 times) without paying attention to the fact that he ignores his constituents. Scott posted his home phone number in his car dealership and continues to post it on his campaign website today. It is the kind of representative leadership Scott Rigell will bring that our district and nation desperately need right now.
I guess that on these pages, actually being a Congressman in Washington and participating in that high office is a bar to running for that office again. So you are telling me that in similar circumstances, Rigell would skip Congress and come home to hold town hall meetings? Nye works in bi-partisan fashion to protect the interests of citizens in Hampton Roads. The fact that Rigell criticizes him reveals Rigell’s lack of knowledge about Nye’s record supporting small business, members of the military and their families, DoD civilians, and retirees. Multi millionaire Rigell cares not one wit for the common man; just for international corporations and banks, the beneficiaries of the republican agenda.
My Father is a Vietnam veteran, however I have never served. But, I think that anyone who has signed up, especially willingly deserves to be treated with respect.
@Kenny Golden> that is a class A comment (above), thank you. And thank you for your military service, and also for the service of your family.
I was heading to one of Glenn Nye’s “talks” in Hampton last Friday night. You wouldn’t find this on his website, because he has nothing listed?!! He’s invisible?!! But, a friend told me that he was going to be discussing “don’t ask, don’t tell”. I went to the event and it had been cancelled. Not only had it been cancelled, but it was cancelled 20 minutes before?!!
I have been to one of Scott Rigell’s Town Halls (in Hampton) and answered questions directly from people when their names were pulled out of a box. He did this for 2 hours. There were so many people with questions that my name was never pulled, but my friend’s was, and he asked his question, and it was answered in detail. If you ask Rigell for a yes or no answer, he gives it to you – unlike my current Congressman. I do wish I could have made it to the last one, the Eastern Shore is too far for me, but I did see some of it on YouTube.
It would be refreshing to allow people to raise their hand and speak where they were seated. It would also seem more appropriate for party chairs and staff to stand down and let the people speak.
Mike Barrett: Maybe we can respect your absurd rants when Nye holds at least one Town Hall in the district.
He hasn’t, he won’t and he refuses to engage the public because he is terrified to do so.
Bryan, do you beleive your own BS? I am no Nye supporter but my eyes are open. Nye is not ignoring the military. If you were not so stoned on GOP Koolaid you might get your facts straight. The DCCC is not taking this election laying down. I would not underestimate your opponent, Kenny Golden does not underestimate either of you.
Go run a poll, run a real poll. Look at the real humbers and leave the Al Gore mathematics out of this so real numbers come through. But before you run your poll, ask the big pollsters Zogby, Gallup, Rasmussen and others why there are NO POLL results published for the 2nd.. there are plenty of them being taken.. Silence is Golden.
Turbo, what’s next? Your theory on the grassy knoll?
You honestly think Zogby, Rasmussan and Gallup are conspiring to hide poll numbers about Kenny Golden?
You’ve really flipped the turnip, Turbo.
Brian K. Go tell your lovely candidate Scotty to fund a non partisan poll and publish the results. So far all we have is ghost poll results and the only poll I have seen for myself is the one I paid for during the primary that had Kenny at 27% late last winter.
Where are the poll stats? http://www.rasmussenreports.com/user/login
This is where you got the 4% BS from Rigell. This is blatantly bipartisan and factors out independents. Zogby also push polls inspite of their claimed neutrality.
http://www.zogby.com/features/featuredtables.cfm?ID=187
And this is why the establishment you are so in the tank for does not like what they see, if it is the same thing Rasmussen sees (hint #2 today)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123011/Parties-Congress-Near-Record-Low-Approval.aspx
See you at Neptunefest.
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