The Commonwealth Needs To Remember the Common Man

Do you have a quiet place? A place where you can think? A place where the phone does not ring nor does anyone bother you? That place is mowing my yard. For one hour each week, the phone does not ring and my boss doesn’t ask me to do something. For one hour each week it’s just me and my lawnmower. It’s quiet (with the exception of the lawnmower). I use that time to think to myself, to think about the next article, to think about the next day.

So Monday night I began to mow my lawn, I started to think about a number. 1,024,913. 1,024,913 was the number of people who voted in the Republican Primary in 2016. Over 1 million people voted. Teachers, Farmers, Clergy, Mechanics, Nurses, Paralegals. People from all walks of life voted in the 2016 Republican Primary. How many of those people are out living a perfectly normal life, some of them mowing their own lawns, and yet they still had a say in the direction of our party?

Our party is about to tell those 1.2 million who voted in our primary that their vote does not matter. This Saturday the Republican Party State Central Committee will vote on how to nominate candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and possibly a United States Senate seat. Some have said there is a compromise on the table. However, my colleague Brian Schoeneman debunked that rumor (and did so with expert precision).

However, let’s get past the infighting, get past the noise, and get down  t0 the numbers of a convention. Here is what we do know.

1. The proposed convention would take place sometime in the spring of next year in Charlottesville, Virginia at the John Paul Jones Arena.
2. According to sources close to Bearing Drift, the current convention plan states that the convention would last two or three days. On Friday, the convention would agree to the rules and the Convention Chairman. On Saturday, the convention would nominate a candidate for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. It could be possible that a third day could be added to nominate a candidate for US Senate. (Let’s be honest, it’s going to be an all day and into the night convention on Saturday no matter what, so we will have to stay in Charlottesville two nights).
3. The largest event ever held in the JPJ held 15,219 people.
4. The amount of hotel rooms in Charlottesville is 3,700.

I want to be as direct as possible. The best way to nominate our candidates that is representative as Virginians as a whole is a primary. It encompasses and allows all Virginia Republicans to participate in the process not just those with the time, money, and energy to go to Charlottesville for three days.

Simply put, there are people, especially young people like me, are priced out of attending a convention. Conventions are expensive, especially ones that last for three days. Let’s take a look at how much it would cost me and my wife to attend a three-day convention.

1. Filing Fees- Let’s assume that my wife and I spend the money on filing fees. If the filing fee is the same as years past, we will have spent $70 on filing fees and we haven’t even made it to the convention.
2. Gas- I know that gas has been cheaper the past few months, but let’s consider our family car gets 23 miles to the gallon on the highway. It’s 112 miles from my house to the John Paul Jones Arena. Even if we do not factor in driving around Charlottesville, that’s $20-$25 in gas money.
3. Hotels- Like I stated before, there are only 3,700 hotel rooms in the Charlottesville area. That means that there will be a premium price on rooms, so we are going to have to factor in driving back and forth to Waynesboro every day of the convention. Add another $10 dollars in gas, plus $150 per night at a hotel.
4. Food- Let’s just assume that we eat only $20 in food per meal at each meal every day that we are at the convention (which is difficult to do with the price of food at JPJ). If we assume that we only eat 2 meals out on Friday (lunch and dinner) and only 2 meals on Sunday (breakfast and lunch), that’s 7 meals of eating at either a restaurant or at the JPJ. Seven times Twenty is $140.

If I go off a rough estimate of the cost of a convention, it would cost my wife and almost $500 to attend a convention for three days. That’s a conservative estimate for most people, especially those traveling from Tidewater or far Southwest Virginia.

For $500, I could spend a three day weekend in Virginia Beach. I could spend a three day weekend in the DC area. However, because some people want to take control of the nomination fight away from the common people and give it to the Richmond and DC power-brokers, I am going to have to spend that money to attend a convention.

Conventions price rock solid Republicans out of the convention. Think about those people just out trying to make a living. Think about the single mom who can’t afford daycare for three days. Think about the farmers who can’t leave livestock for three days. Think about small business owners who can’t leave their store empty for three days. Think about the Clergy members (or leaders in churches) who never want to miss a service, yet to have a say in their nominees, they have to miss church. If they are presented with the choice of $500 for a convention or $500 to spend quality time with their family, they are going to spend quality time with their family.

It is my hope that on Saturday, the State Central Committee remembers the 1.2 million common people who took 10 minutes out of their busy lives to vote in the 2016 primary. Those people who don’t have the time or the money to attend a convention, but still want to have a say in our government. It is my solemn hope that we remember those people and choose a primary.