Tag: vagop

…Sorry, folks. Did the best I could in #vagov…

…but there are limits to what can be done with no budget and no staff.  Won’t be the first time, and it won’t be the last. I will admit to being surprised at the Libertarian turnout; I think that it’s the best they’ve done in my lifetime.  Which I am sure will comfort them when the two state parties take their revenge in the next few years*.

The good news is that we’re still on-track to get the AG spot in a squeaker, and the House of Delegates is staying firmly in control of the GOP, which pretty much means that Terry McAuliffe is on-track to be limited to whatever he skim off of the top of the budget.  The even better news?  It’s proving to be difficult for people to pretend that McAuliffe’s double-digit collapse in two weeks wasn’t directly related to Obamacare, and most of the pundits aren’t even trying**.   There are some slightly nervous Democratic strategists right now wondering how soon they hit the floor on Obamacare.

Moe Lane

*The Virginia Democratic and Republican parties feel that they have a good thing going, here.

**Mind you, McAuliffe will have to console himself with being Governor of Virginia.

Day Two of the Great VAGOP Meltdown.

And it is a meltdown.

For those coming in late, let me summarize*: both Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry have been excluded from the Virginia Republican primary by the Virginia GOP. This has placed the VA GOP in an awkward situation, given that: they have excluded the current national and Virginian front-runner from their own ballot; have currently no write-in option on the ballot; do have an open primary that anyone can vote in; and generally have created an environment peculiarly suited for conspiracy theories involving Mitt Romney (and ones that won’t contain the word ‘Mormon’ anywhere in their description, by the way). The current defenses to all of this are “rules are rules” and “any campaign that couldn’t follow them are by definition poor campaigns:” I will leave it to the individual reader to decide just how either argument will play in, say, Peoria; I am frankly of the opinion that the above defenses are well-suited towards reassuring Romney and/or Paul voters – and will do very little to persuade the other 60-65% or so of likely Republican primary voters.

But since I’m telling Mitt Romney what won’t help his situation, it kind of behooves me to tell him what might.

Continue reading Day Two of the Great VAGOP Meltdown.