Interesting [1]…
…the Danville Register & Bee has — for the first time ever —endorsed a Libertarian candidate for public office.
Our endorsement of Robert Sarvis for governor was in some ways a process of elimination that stemmed from a failure of the Republican and Democratic parties to nominate candidates that we could support — and the voters could have confidence in. This year, the two parties have played a cynical game of “the lesser of two evils.”
Yes, yes, the eternal and pointless complaint. But the Bee’s editors do manage to add this:
If there is one knock on Sarvis’ record, it is this: He has never held elected office. If he wins on Tuesday, he would have to navigate a swamp of partisan politics in Richmond.
But as a conservative, he would be a political kindred spirit with many of the Republicans in the General Assembly. We believe he could be more than just a novelty candidate in 2013, but the kind of governor who inspires confidence from Virginians and respect from other members of the General Assembly.
What we won’t get from Sarvis is a big-government agenda. In a year when so many other things have gone wrong, a young man with a new way of looking at our old problems is just what the Old Dominion needs. We’re not interested in what Robert Sarvis can do for the Libertarian Party; we’re interested in what this young, intelligent and highly-motivated family man can do to change the two-party trap we’ve gotten ourselves into.
A little more substance, even if it does manage to conflate conservatism and libertarianism along the way.
I point to this editorial strictly for its novelty: rarely do Virginia dailies endorse third-party candidates for any office let along governor. But it fits a pattern in this contest. Dailies that could have been counted on the endorse a particular party’s nominee have not done so this year. The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Lynchburg News-Advance and Roanoke Times all threw up their hands and plumped for “none of the above.” The Daily Progress went so far as to endorse a write-in of Bill Bolling.
A trend? The first fruits of Warren Buffett’s newspaper buying spree in Virginia? A flash in the pan? Hmm…
They are the kind of odd footnotes that will make this campaign an object of study for some time.