A last minute challenge to Don McEachin (Updated)
By Norman Leahy | Monday, November 7th, 2011 | Central Virginia, Politics, VirginiaDon McEachin, the incumbent Democrat in the 9th Senate district, has been on cruise control throughout this election cycle. Facing no major party opposition, he’s raised a lot of money, and given a lot of it away to other candidates and campaign committees.
Except the good Senator will have a challenger on Tuesday — from independent Floyd Mays.
The trick in all this is that Mays is running a write-in campaign. Those are tough campaigns to run, even with a lot of time left on the election clock. But from my discussions with sources over the weekend, the plan all along was to keep this effort under wraps so that McEachin would be caught off guard, and thus unable to mount an effective GOTV program.
Relying on more than 11,000 robo-calls to strong and leaning Republican households in the district, as well as manning polls, hitting the social media circuit (hard) and relying upon old fashioned word of mouth, the Mays campaign hopes to turn out just enough Republicans to tip the scales in their favor.
Except McEachin appears to have gotten wind of it all. In a late night phone call to a Mays supporter, McEachin thundered that he would pull out all the stops and deliver a presidential election-sized turnout to beat back the challenge. Perhaps he can. But he’s got little time and not a lot of cash on hand to fulfill that threat.
Still, it will be extremely interesting to see whether Mays, a businessman from eastern Henrico county, will be able to give McEachin a race where there previously was none.
Here’s a video Mays released just a few days ago. It certainly has the look and feel of a campaign piece:
Update
Here’s a bit more on McEachin’s late night phone call:
On Friday Nov. 4, approximately a half hour before midnight, the phone rang at the home of a volunteer working to write in conservative Virginia businessman Floyd Mays for state senator—the position currently held by McEachin. A profane verbal tirade ensued, confirmed the man, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Another source has confirmed that McEachin also sent an email to Sheriff Mike Wade, who is up for reelection, reportedly complaining about the move to unseat him.
Tags:
Contribute for Conservatism!
Share this post
About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Examiner contributor.
We're 75% there! Thank you to everyone who has so far contributed! Just $2000 to go!
Comments
8 Responses to "A last minute challenge to Don McEachin (Updated)"
Long shot doesn’t even begin to describe this one. The only real contested race in the area is the CA’s race in Henrico, otherwise low turnout could help Mays but the last time this seat was unchallenged, Benny Lambert walked with 18k votes in 2003. And had 10k votes in 1999. Mays needs AT LEAST 10k write-ins and unless he’s putting feet and flyers at EVERY precinct this is just a tilting at the windmills to the extreme.
If you believe in magical thinking and you have no idea how politics actually work, I suppose it’s possible to believe in this.
I agree with Steve. Since the redistricting, Sen. McEachin has done nothing with regards to meeting his constituents. He has been coasting by, wasting time in legislature, and completely misses the mark on constituents’ top issues. The people of District 9 and the Commonwealth deserve a commonsense man with commonsense answers. And that my friends is why we need to support Floyd Mays. If you really want to make history, get out tomorrow and write in Floyd Mays!
McEachin doesn’t understand his constituents, or the very notion of service. How could he, since he hasn’t been in touch with us since taking office? I’m sure he has made plenty of money as a trial lawyer – people know his name from his firm’s commercials. With the resentment of people out-of-touch with the concerns of the 99%, McEachin has made a critical miscalculation, and Mays is (appropriately) pouncing on the opportunity. He knows people deserve better.
I don’t know what the numbers needed to pull off an electoral surprise of this magnitude, but if you live in the 9th District what would it cost you to go the write in Floyd Mays?
If there is only a 20% turnout, then motivated patriots could actually blindside this despicable Senator who rated a voting score of ZERO from the American Conservative Union.
Get out there and vote or go inform voters in the 9th that McEachin isn’t necessarily a shoe in.
Realistically speaking, 21% turnout four years ago got McEachin 17k votes against a 4k independent run. And that was a guy with his name ON the ballot. And 169 write in votes. In order for a challenger to win this district they’d have to double turnout and have 100% of that additional turnout spell his name correctly on a write-in (or show enough for intent beyond “that other guy”). And when you launch your campaign 24 hours before the polls open, you’re playing from farther behind.
I think it’s going to be a good time and am getting a kick out of the whole deal and all for promoting folks writing in, but let’s not kid ourselves here.
No chance at all. Welcome to Hanover, Sen. McEachin.
Annoy McEachin and make him spend some money. Those are success criteria that can be met. I did the math and reached similar conclusion, advising Mays supporters that the numbers do not support the desired outcome. That said, there is an opportunity to engage concerned citizens and restore morale for those Virginians who feel the Republican party lets too many races go uncontested too long – first Bobby Scott and now this ambulance chasing doofus.
Leave your response