Ralph Northam, left, and Tom Perriello shake
hands after a debate in Richmond, May 9.
Photo credit: Steve Helber / AP
Posted on 05/12/2017 8:09:04 AM PDT by HokieMom
It wasn't supposed to be this hard. The party elders had got all their Democratic ducks in a row, merrily quacking, to escort Ralph Northam, Virginia's lieutenant governor, to victory in this year's gubernatorial primary on June 13. Both of the commonwealth's United States senators endorsed him. His boss the governor endorsed him, and so did nearly every Democrat in the state legislature. Even the state's hard-charging and ambitious attorney general, his only plausible rival for the Democratic nomination, had been persuaded not to run. The field cleared. Everybody loved old Ralph.
And then Tom Perriello showed up.
Perriello spent a single term in Congress, from 2009 to 2011. Those two years constitute his only experience in Virginia politics. On January 4, Perriello phoned Northam and told him he was going to run against him in the primary.
*snip*
By the time the legislature shut down at the end of Feburary, Perriello was tied with Northam in the polls. By mid-April, he had copped endorsements from both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. (In his ringing speech, Sanders called the candidate "Tom Perrioli," as if he were endorsing a new form of pasta.) The most recent polls show Perriello with a small lead.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
Ralph Northam, left, and Tom Perriello shake
hands after a debate in Richmond, May 9.
Photo credit: Steve Helber / AP
I agree. I live in Hampton Roads and may just do that as well. Gillespie looks to have the GOP primary locked up anyway.
I’m voting against Gillespie in June and for Corey Stewart and I will not vote for Gillespie in November if he is nominated.
I guess the VAGOP wants to lose another Governor’s race.
Sometimes that’s the only real way to get rid of a swamp creature. No doubt many Dems pitched in when Cantor was shocked in his last GOP primary.
That’s what I’m thinking. The GOPe sure has circled the wagons around Gillespie since he ‘only lost by a handful of votes’ last time.
The VAGOP is run by people who, in the election booths in November, pull the (D) lever.
and notice the ‘handful of votes’ logic did NOT apply to Cuccinelli
The risk of nominating the ultra-lefty in hopes of beating him in the general is — he might actually WIN! ugh.
I’ll back whomever the GOP nominates. I’m not a big fan of Gillespie either, but he’s superior to the dems out there. Unfortunately, with liberal infestation in the occupied North, Virginia doesn’t elect staunch conservatives like Cuccinelli to statewide office anymore.
It ain’t like what’s already there is any better. This is a zero-downside situation, a no brainer. Pulling the lever that puts the incumbent Democrat out of office is the correct move tactically and strategically.
It’s Bush leftovers, the Hagars in particular, as in Barbara Bush Hagar, they would rather lose than put up a candidate that stands against illegal aliens and for the rule of law and the citizens.
Not when the party is shooting them in the back like they did to Cuccinelli.
Cuccinelli came as close as Gillespie did in his Senate run.
Gillespie is a Cheap Labor Express Republican and I won’t vote for him.
There is no incumbent. One of the brilliant things the founders did was make VA Governors one term wonders, they cannot run for re-election.
Gillespie is a variation on the Dole/McCain/Romney “whose turn is it?” strategy. His RNC experience should serve him well! [/s]
Commie Red on Commie Red. Death to these false Newspeak colors !
It’s the same GOP strategy of only nominating amnesty candidates, Bush I, Dole, Bush II, McCain, Romney, except on the state level.
Deny the citizens any ability to stop the illegal alien inundation and to restore the rule of law.
They don’t care if they lose as long as the Cheap Labor Express keeps running.
Oh right, this is a Governor’s race.
Still, the same logic applies. The absolute worst case for the citizen is a quisling GOP legislature cooperating with a corporatist “moderate” Democrat.
Take the chance the leftier one will get in, because the legislature is less likely to team up with him against you.
Hagar is Jenna. Barbara is not married.
The rest of Virginia is still conservative so our legislature has been uncooperative with Clinton’s Bag Man and will not cooperate with either Democrat that gets in.
Northern Virginia has made it almost impossible to elect a Republican statewide.
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