At a town hall meeting in Virginia Beach last night, Curtis Colgate, a candidate for chairman of the 2nd congressional district GOP committee, discussed his ongoing effort to win the post, despite the slating shenanigans that have made his race a lot tougher.
Colgate chose to focus on the positive — highlighting his past service to the RPV (and his role in trying to make it more friendly to military personnel), why the district chairman’s job is crucial for recruiting good candidates, managing the districts affairs effectively and, most importantly, keeping the leadership accountable to the members.
This did lead to a dig at Sen. Frank Wagner, Colgate’s opponent for district chairman. Saying that having a district chairman who is also an elected official creates the perception, if not the reality, of a conflict of interest. That undermines accountability. And with the Wagner forces engaging in the slating of delegates in the earlier Virginia Beach meeting (which Wagner initially denied was in the works), one does have to question whether Mr. Wagner has the party’s best interests in mind…or his own.
Our own Jim Hoeft, who is a spokesman for Colgate’s campaign, had a more pointed take:
“The tactics used at the mass meeting were reminiscent of the Byrd- or Tammany Hall eras.”
The issues Jim raised — “…whether or not the meeting was scripted, if the approval of the rules was proper, and if the division of the house – how the slating vote was tallied – was done correctly,” may all result in an appeal or challenge of the mass meeting results. Regardless of that possibility, Colgate continues to campaign for the chairman’s job — even among those who were slated in Virginia Beach:
“We will continue to campaign to win this election – including outreach to the slated delegates from Virginia Beach – as well as encouraging all those who filed to be delegates to attend the convention anyway because it’s important for every voice to be heard and for our party to be unified going forward…”
He’s in it to win.
