Jeff Evans Becomes Russ Potts 2.0
By Shaun Kenney | Thursday, June 16th, 2011 | PoliticsJust when you think they’d get the point, the moderate weenies within the Republican Party just keep crawling out of the woodwork.
Today’s episode is none other than the “endorcement” refusing and now independant… er, indeepandunt… um… well, Jeff Evans is pulling a Russ Potts for the 20th State Senate because he didn’t get his way for a nomination method:
There will be no Republican Primary for Virginia’s 20th District State Senate race because Bill Stanley is the only Republican seeking office. Star News investigated and learned that no one else met yesterday’s deadline at 5pm. Doug Dunlap and Jeff Evans were expected to go to the primary this August with Stanley, but we immediately learned new information about Evans.
Jeff Evans declared his Independent campaign for Virginia’s 20th District State Senate today. He will face Republican nominee (and current State Senator) Bill Stanley and Democrat Roscoe Reynolds (incumbent) in the November general election.
When I was at RPV during the 2007 election, we sent out mail. A lot of mail. But we only had a handful of returns… except for the Evans race, where fliers were mailed back with swastika’s drawn into Evans’ head, his eyes gouged out, and all sorts of the most vile and hateful mail was returned. I truly felt sorry for the guy — we even had our own trash can just for all the returns on Evans mail.
Today’s move gives a bit of insight as to why people felt that way about Jeff Evans back in 2007. If you listen to the audio, it’s very apparent that Evans believes the 20th State Senate seat is his birthright… and the political process be damned.
So Evans is now either taking a gamble, or turning his back on the Republican Party in an effort to overturn the political process. Smart money says that if he truly believed in the people he intended to represent… he’d have challenged Bill Stanley in a primary.
Guess not. So Evans will do it the Russ Potts way…
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Shaun Kenney is the Chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, former Communications Director for the Republican Party of Virginia, and an active blogger since 2002. Shaun lives in Thomas Jefferson's backyard with his wife, six children, and a modest attempt at a farm in Kents Store, Virginia.
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12 Responses to "Jeff Evans Becomes Russ Potts 2.0"
Thanks Shaun. I truly tried to help Mr. Evans in 2007. He was unmanageable. With his idiot son as his new campaign manager, you’ve already seen the total lack of control they both exhibit via their out-of-control press releases.
Now Mr. Evans, with Aaron’s [his son] guidance has missed the legal deadline for a proper filing, and claims he didn’t mean to file anyway because he was going to run as an independent. Why did he bother to file petitions, but no other paperwork, if he didn’t want to be on the primary ballot?
The man will lie at the drop of a hat.
That had to be a tough, tough race, Alton… and you can’t help the candidate if they don’t want to help themselves.
Was not aware that his son bungled the filing paperwork. Interesting…
Yes. His son is a name you might hear later, Aaron Evans. He considered a run against Ward Armstrong a couple of years back.
He also turned tail and ran on Feda Morton in VA-05 last year… and not before kicking the trash can over when he left.
I’ll always believe Aaron was the author of the plagiarized LTE. It is so like him.
Regardless, this looks like sour grapes of the worst kind. I’ve heard there are questions surrounding the validity of Evans’ petitions, so I wonder if he really was qualified to even run…and now he’s publicly claiming that this is somehow not the “people’s choice”? Here’s an idea: become a civic servant and have a lot of the people choose you to run. Even Anthony Weiner had it right when he said today that there is no higher honor than to be chosen by your community for service.
It seems that Evans feels he’s somehow owed the service when clearly the people think otherwise.
Oh man, just listened to his interview through your link…Let me get this straight, the guy, who after begging for everyone’s endorsement and got none, thereby forcing him not to accept any “endorcements” from people who endorse his opponent, now will not run in the Republican primary (and now run as an independent) because he could not follow the basic rules of the State Board of Election?! This guy is something. Not to mention the fact that he is so incorrect about basic facts. Stanley is still the Senator for the 19th, he did not leave the 19th when he moved into the new 20th. I think the people of the 20th just dodged a bullet when he and his son messed up the filing requirements. He is blaming the process rather than himself and his disorganized campaign, if you can even call it that… I am betting that he decided to run as an independent at the moment the chairman of the 20th told him he didn’t file correctly…I bet his son, the “full-time” manager of his so-called campaign, is grounded for life.
Ol’ Russ is sui generis, Shaun.
What you’ve described in Mr. Evans, though, is an entirely new level of crazy that Russ could only aspire to…
Question on the original post is Bill Stanley still a “current state senator?” My understanding was that if you wanted to get on the ballot to run for a different seat than the one you currently hold, you have to resign. Tommy Norment was mentioning that as a possibility when he was thinking of moving into the 1st, that he’d have to resign the 3rd District seat.
Stanley remains a current state Senator. He moved within the district he was elected to represent so he did not have to give up his seat in order to run in the 20th. If Frank Wagner had moved from VA Beach to Newport News to run against Miller, he would have had to resign because he would no longer live in the district from which he was elected. Stanley moved within the district that elected him – even though his new home will no longer be in that district after the 2011 elections. Therefore, he did not have to resign.
Thanks a lot for that, Shaun, especially the video.
I think I threw up in my mouth a little….
Thanks, Tom. That clears it up.
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