5th Senate: Firehouse primary Saturday, 7/9/16

With the election of Kenny Alexander as Norfolk's mayor, the seat in the 5th Senate District of Virginia became vacant. Democrats will choose the nominee in a firehouse primary this Saturday, July 9. For those not familiar, a firehouse primary is an unassembled caucus. Eligible voters go to pre-selected voting locations during set hours, not …

Predictions on Pilot … ah nevermind :(

One of the fun things I do regularly on this blog is to predict who The Virginian-Pilot will endorse in upcoming elections. I usually have plenty of time, as the newspaper is often pretty late in releasing their endorsements. Not this year. Roughly six weeks ahead of the time frame of the 2009 gubernatorial endorsement, …

Shad Planking: to go or not

I've attended the Shad Planking for a number of years now. With the announcement that Ken Cuccinelli will speak but Terry McAuliffe will not, I'm not sure whether I'll make the trip. Part of the reason I've attended in the past is to reconnect with some of my friends on the right that I rarely …

State convention part 3: looking ahead to 2013

Yes, I know the purpose of this convention was to focus on the 2012 elections. But being a long-view kind of person, I couldn't help but look towards what is coming for 2013 and beyond. Although he has yet to declare that he is running, there appears to be no challenge to Terry McAuliffe as …

TMac on economic growth

Once-and-future Democratic candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, shared the op-ed page of The Virginian-Pilot with me today with this article on economic growth.  Interesting that the newspaper didn't identify him that way 😉 Equally interesting to note is that a 2013 gubernatorial candidate doesn't rate a link in the VPAP clips. (Yes, I'm going to …

What happened?

In the waning days and weeks of the primary campaign, it was clear to me that my candidate, Brian Moran, was in trouble. I was heartened by some information I received from a friend Monday afternoon who concluded: For all the polls and hype, according to the historical trends, this ought to still be Brian's …

Digesting

I'm still digesting the events of yesterday. In the meantime, here are some thoughts from a friend of mine: At the end of the day, the lesson from this campaign ought to be (a) know you're base, (b) know your opponent's base, and (c) secure your base while making your opponent fight for his. Creigh …

McAuliffe AA lit piece photoshopped?

Gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe's campaign distributed a piece of literature in African American communities throughout Hampton Roads Sunday that appears to contain a photoshopped image of McAuliffe and President Barack Obama. See for yourself. (Click to enlarge. Or take a look at this pdf.) We've seen the effect of this type of thing before. The …

Firefighters upset with McAuliffe

In a press release Thursday, the Virginia State Firefighters Association takes exception with gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe's claim of support of Virginia firefighters, calling the claim "misleading." The group, which represents 13,000 firefighters, is separate from the much smaller union of paid firefighters which has endorsed McAuliffe. The VSFA has not endorsed in the primary …

Richmond Crusade for Voters controversy

I was a wee bit busy when the announcement was made of the endorsement of Terry McAuliffe by the Richmond Crusade for Voters. I did see that Sen. Henry Marsh, a long-time member of the historic black organization and a supporter of Creigh Deeds, was upset by the vote, as pointed out by the Richmond …