Virginia Democrats Lose Narrative After SCC Chooses a Primary

Remember in 2012 and 2013 when Virginia Democrats used RPV’s decision to nominate by convention as a cudgel against the process and the candidates it produced? Remember how they shopped that narrative to every media outlet in the state, telling reporters and other key influencers how RPV must be too “extreme” for choosing a convention when Democrats said a primary would have produced more electable, more mainstream candidates?

The typical DPVA narrative looked something like this statement, issued August 17th, 2012:

“The Democratic Party of Virginia’s decision to choose our 2013 candidates by primary reflects the commitment to maximize engagement, inclusion and transparency that is a hallmark of our party,” said DPVA Chairman Brian Moran. “Our party’s unified decision to conduct an open and transparent primary stands in stark contrast to the Republican Party’s tumultuous decision to reverse their vote to have a primary and turn their nominating process over to extreme Republican Party.”

That Democratic narrative faded earlier today when RPV’s State Central Committee voted 41-40 to nominate its 2017 candidates by primary.

In response, Democrats couldn’t do any better than this:

“Virginia Republicans’ decision to hold a primary provides the same nominating mechanism that delivered Donald Trump a victory on Super Tuesday against a crowded field of candidates,” said DPVA Chairwoman Susan Swecker. “They will not be able to escape their years of pandering to the far right, and their candidates will reflect that strategy.”

“Virginia Republicans will be engaged in a bitter race to the right until primary day, while Virginia Democrats will continue to lay critical groundwork for 2017.”

If this is the best Virginia Democrats can do then they’re in for a long few years.

With RPV choosing a nominating method which former DPVA Chairman Brian Moran said will, “maximize engagement, inclusion and transparency,” Swecker’s team will have to try a little harder if they want to discredit a newly-forged commitment to broadening the Republican tent in a closely-divided purple state as the Virginia GOP sets out to retake the Commonwealth’s three top offices next year while laying the groundwork for eventually recapturing a seat in the US Senate.

Swecker’s response is directly at odds with the narrative pushed by former Chairman Brian Moran’s Democratic Party all throughout 2012 and 2013.

She knows better. RPV’s strategy in 2016 represents the same approach lauded by her predecessor four years ago.

Reporters might want to ask Swecker whether she believes RPV’s selection of an “open and transparent primary” is a decision which “reflects [a] commitment to maximize engagement, inclusion and transparency” according to Democratic logic espoused just four years ago.

While Swecker and her communications team spin like a top trying to wrap their heads around that, one thing remains clear: the outcome of today’s SCC vote has defused a very unhelpful Democratic narrative which gained traction in 2012 and 2013. This is the hallmark of a party ready to carve out a pragmatic path to restore Republican leadership in Richmond, staying true to core values while adapting to a New Virginia.

Try as they might, Virginia Democrats can’t have it both ways.

Their reaction statement today is little more than them tripping over their own two feet.