It surprised no one when Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms endorsed Mark Warner over Ed Gillespie for U.S. Senate earlier this week. Sessoms has been more than willing to cross party lines to endorse whomever he felt could be of use to him and Virginia Beach, whether that was Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam last year, or Senator Warner this year.
What many of us have been surprised by has been the level of vitriol being heaped not only on Sessoms, but the demands from activists in the Beach for all of the sitting elected officials in the area to publicly denounce the move.
This is a complete waste of time. If you’re angry about Sessoms endorsing Warner, channel that anger into working to get Ed Gillespie elected. Anything else is both counterproductive, as it wastes time and energy that needs to be focused on the race, and it also creates the perception that a Sessoms endorsement somehow matters.
It doesn’t matter, folks. Not in the slightest.
Beyond the fact that endorsements of incumbents are rarely anything more than an attempt to curry favor, are there any Republicans in Virginia Beach who may be waffling over whether to vote for Ed Gillespie that they’re looking to Will Sessoms for guidance? Not likely. The fact that nobody was really surprised when Sessoms endorsed demonstrates how worthless the endorsement is. These types of cross-party endorsements only work when it’s someone who is respected by the base of the party who crosses lines to do it. That’s so rare it’s almost never done, and that’s why those endorsements matter.
Sessoms endorsing Warner doesn’t fit that category. That’s why there’s no point in getting angry about it.
I do find it odd that some of the folks who are harping on the Sessoms endorsement the loudest don’t exactly have the best track records when it comes to crossing the aisle for endorsements. Nor have some of them been strong Gillespie supporters, either, so the outrage over Sessoms endorsement has a strange ring to it. Let’s hope that the same folks saying they’re going to “hold [Ed’s] feet to the fire” if he gets elected because they don’t trust him to be sufficiently conservative can bottle enough of that up and save it for Sessoms in 2016, but now is not the time.
I can only assume that the folks who are most angry and are ginning up the most grassroots angst about the Sessoms endorsement are doing it because they think going after Sessoms will help Ed. They’re wrong. This is an unnecessary distraction with two weeks left in the race. Everybody needs to take a deep breath and focus. And for those who are using this issue to settle old scores with Sessoms, now is not the time for that, either.
Let me be clear – this doesn’t help Ed. It gives Sessoms attention he doesn’t deserve, and it ramps people up two years before anything substantive can be done about Sessoms as Mayor. He isn’t up for reelection until 2016, if he even runs again.
We’re in the middle of an election right now, and anything that takes time and attention away from Ed does more harm than good.
Sessoms can do what he wants. Everybody paying attention recognizes it for what it was, and the only impact on the race it will have is whatever we give it.
So don’t give it any.
