There is no love lost between Albemarle County Democrats’ chair, Richard Brewer, and Rivanna District supervisor candidate wannabe, Democrat Lawrence Gaughan (née Went).
Gaughan, whose anemic semi-campaign to unseat incumbent, Robert Hurt, in last year’s Fifth District congressional race, has taken county voters on a roller coaster ride of in-again-out-again-in-again political announcements.
On January 6, Gaughan stated via Facebook that it would not be wise to announce a second campaign for Congress, just yet:
People often ask me if I am going to “run again”. Let’s wait and see how this court decision plays out. Nobody knows what their (sic) district lines will be. So at this point, I don’t know how anyone can even declare they are running, because they don’t know what the districts will be.
Four days later, in the absence of a court decision, Citizen Gaughan meta-morhped into Candidate Gaughan, informing NBC29 that he would again be challenging Congressman Hurt for the Fifth District seat, in 2016.
Sensing a more immediate political opportunity, Gaughan quickly and quietly abandoned his congressional aspirations and anointed himself a candidate for the departing Ken Boyd’s seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. In a January 28 email release, Lawrence Gaughan announced his candidacy announcement event, scheduled for the following evening:
Due to the recent announcement by Supervisor, Ken Boyd, that he is not seeking re-election, 3rd generation Albemarle County resident and 2014 5th District Congressional candidate, Lawrence Gaughan, would like to formally announce his intention to run for Mr. Boyd’s seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors in the Nov. 3rd, 2015 election…
Mr. Gaughan will be available for questions and comments immediately following the Town Hall meeting at Sutherland Middle School on Thrusday (sic) Jan. 29. [emphasis added]
On January 29, the small group of assembled media, questions in hand, were perplexed over Candidate Gaughan’s absence from his own scheduled event. No explanation was provided by the campaign.
Months later, on April 13, the ostensibly befuddled Gaughan organized a do-over campaign announcement, which he indeed attended, although insubstantially.
Gaughan’s inanity presents a dilemma for Brewer, who desperately wants all six seats on the Albemarle County Board. And Gaughan’s cockamamie candidacy was a problem to be solved for the Albemarle Democrats.
Enter Democrat Norman Dill, a 1970s hedonist who seemingly has embraced the left-wing establishment. His recently announced intent to challenge Gaughan for the Rivanna Seat nomination was a huge relief to Brewer and friends—and it will provide a rallying point for Albemarle Democrats who view Gaughan’s candidacy as the kiss of death for their party’s chances of reclaiming Rivanna.
Meanwhile, Chairman Brewer has returned the favor to Dill. Although Gaughan’s initial announcement trumped Dill’s by several months, as of April 18, Lawrence Gaughan’s name is conspicuously absent from the Albemarle County Democrats’ Our Candidates page (archived screenshot), while Dill’s is prominent.
Following the embarrassing candidacies of Democrat Cynthia Neff and the scandalously brief term of sexual predator Democrat Chris Dumler (a personal friend of Brewer and his paramour, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Denise Lunsford), the Albemarle County Democrats can ill afford another bad-joke candidate, and Richard Brewer is taking every possible precaution to prevent Lawrence Gaughan from being the Party’s latest punch line.
