1) After the convention, Hager gave a significant amount of help to Earley. Earley's loss had nothing to do with Hager. Earley ran a week post-convention campaign.
2) I would assume that in addition to Norfolk, he'll also do Richmond, Roanoke and Northern Virginia, all the major media markets. Pretty much all statewide candidates do it that way.
Thanks for clearing that up again Corin.
Earley was also facing a budget backlash, passed on from Gilmore (who could not run again). And Horseface did a nice job of courting the VA business community.
" Earley ran a week post-convention campaign."
Well, that 'splains it .. he had five months to run his campaign ;)
Problem is, Warner had two years. I don't buy that a primary challenge does anything but hurt the candidate for the general election when the opposing candidate hasn't had a primary challenge. I could be wrong but I don't recall Warner having a primary challenge, and he was blessed with endless money to spend, had developed name ID through his Senate run, had an organization in place, and just happened to run as a Republican.
With all due respect to Mr. Fitch, he doesn't seem to stand a snowball's chance, so why weaken Kilgore for the general? What does he bring to the table? The linked article and Fitch himself seemed to give precious little information. I'd seriously like to know, as I will be voting in that primary.