Leahy: Virginia Republicans Could Learn from Julius Caesar

Things are not rosy in the Virginia GOP these days.

Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” has been in the news a lot in recent weeks. The political antics surrounding that stage version aside, the Bard’s work has a few lessons for Virginia Republicans, who enter the general election with a weakened standard-bearer and stale campaign themes.
These are big problems. The response? Fretting over process.

This weekend, the Republican Party of Virginia’s governing body gathers to decide whether to nominate its 2018 Senate candidate by a convention of party regulars or a statewide primary.

This argument is not new. Convention backers say their method produces stronger general election nominees, free of outside interference in the selection process.

Primary proponents argue that conventions are burdensome affairs that on occasion result in the nomination of the kind of “fringe” candidates primaries weed out.

While it appears the Republicans will choose a primary for 2018, the arguments over process miss the point. The problems Republicans face are in themselves, not in the stars.

Republicans are 0-7 in recent statewide elections. That’s reason enough, one would think, for them to put aside debates over the candidate-selection process and ask the deeper questions about why they haven’t won statewide office since 2009.

Continue reading Norm Leahy’s column here.