When Republicans clash at the ballot box, it generates a billion pixels worth of coverage about how the party is eating its own, is bound for the dust heap, becoming too radical as so on. But when Democrats do it, there’s a general shrug of shoulders because infighting is what Democrats do.
But the case of Democratic Del. Joe Morrissey rallying the establishment to toss his House colleague Rosalyn Dance over the side, and the reasons why he is doing so, should sound awfully familiar to folks on the right:
Morrissey said in an interview that he expects many of Virginia’s top Democrats to follow suit in the coming weeks and endorse Thompson [Dance’s primary challenger] in what he calls a move to oust an incumbent accused of voting against her own party line too many times.
“For eight years, Rosalyn has masqueraded as a Democrat who then turned around and voted Republican,” Morrissey said in an interview. “But now, people are beginning to see the true Roz.”
Dance on Monday called the attacks on her party loyalty part of a “planned takeover” of her district resulting from a dispute between Morrissey and her that flared up with a recent exchange of letters between the delegates in the Progress-Index newspaper of Petersburg.
The exchange escalated Monday, after Morrissey accused Dance of misleading Petersburg residents as “to her true colors and voting record.”
In short, Dance is a DINO and so must go (at least according to Morrissey and a few others). Yes, that sounds very familiar.
But there are probably a few other things at work here, too. Joe Morrissey, along with Henrico Sen. Don McEachin, likely believe the narrative pushed by, among others, the RTD’s Jeff Schapiro that they represent the way forward for Virginia Democrats. The two were able to take full advantage of the Henrico county GOP meltdown in 2011’s commonwealth’s attorney race to take that post, and pick up a supervisor’s seat in the eastern portion of the county. These weren’t insignificant victories.
In seeking to take out Dance, Joe wants to broaden his horizons beyond his House district, and certainly beyond his seat in the dark corner of the House chamber. And let’s not forget that the other half of Joe’s new order, Don McEachin, won his Senate seat by ousting incumbent Democrat Ben Lambert, whose heresy was endorsing George Allen for Senate over Jim Webb back in 2006 (McEachin is now the Senate Democratic caucus chairman).
Let’s assume, for fun, that Morrissey’s foray against Dance is successful. This will give him three local wins, and bragging rights. It will lend credence to the idea that he, and McEachin, really do have a potent political machine in central Virginia, and local Democrats will be on notice to get in line, or get rolled over.
Would this at all cow Democrats elsewhere? Perhaps. But this burgeoning machine could set itself up to take on the real prize in the area: Eric Cantor.
Granted, Cantor’s district sprawls across areas well beyond Morrissey’s reach and is about as comfortable a district as an incumbent could desire. In 2012, Cantor polled ahead of both Mitt Romney and George Allen (both of whom carried the district in their otherwise losing statewide campaigns). Cantor did even better in 2008, polling 10 points ahead of John McCain and three points ahead of Mark Warner.
So the Majority Leader would appear pretty secure, regardless of the political winds. But electoral security only lasts so long as the opposition party remains confused, divided and insists on running unelectable candidates.
Joe Morrissey appears to be on a mission to change that — starting in Mr. Cantor’s backyard.
