Posted on 11/24/2008 10:21:34 AM PST by rabscuttle385
The State Board of Elections has certified challenger Tom Perriello as the winner over Republican Congressman Virgil Goode.
The board today certified Perriello as the winner by 745 votes in the 5th District congressional race. Goode is entitled to a recount if he chooses.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Count until the Democrat wins -—
Do you believe this is the case with this particular election? 745 votes is a pretty good spread for a close election.
Yeah, I do. It’s easy to stuff an extra couple of thousand ACORNS in the hopper when someone turns their back.
I even had the Democrat party tell me here to leave the parts of the ballot blank that they thought would be close races, so they could fix it if needed later.
another victim of the Top Of The Ticket Not Being A Republican Syndrome.
Turnout occurs based on the top of the ticket candidate almost exclusively. And considering how exciting McCain was to actual Republicans, plenty of them decided not to show up in Goode’s district while the ACORN crowd showed up for their Messiah. And we lose another seat to simple political realities:
1. The guy at the top IS the leader of the party - like it or not. In virtually every race below that, the guy at the top is STILL the reason voters show up.
2. If you don’t plan for victory, you should be prepared for defeat (McCain didn’t plan on winning and had no GOTV)
3. Leaders inspire. Leaders Lead. When nobody leads, there is no place for followers to go. And thus there are no followers.
4. The GOP has to defeat the DNC candidate AND the MSM is every election. (previously, the MSM pretended to be independent of the DNC but they didn’t have to bother this time)
Not smart to admit to a major felony like tht. But no one ever said democRATs were smart.
Dang. That is pretty bold. I just find it amazing that both sides think the other cheats. The Democrats think we cheat by electronic machines and courts. We think that they cheat by stuffing ballots, deceased folks and perhaps counting. I guess blame has been made for years and years and will never end.
Well, since it was just he and I, what can you do. Who is going to believe it anyway.
The particular election they wanted me to “leave blank” were for Judges, there were more than 2 candidates. I had the wife call the same office and ask them who to vote for, she got the same answer, just leave them blank, they are all good.
Doesn’t take much to fill in the gaps.
BTW, a good strategy when trying to figure out who to vote for in these no-Party affiliation races is to call the two parties and ask. Sort the results to your liking. Been doing this for many moons.
Dems steal anotther close one....................................................................
Damn it, and damn those worthless paleocons bittercons and useful idiots who choose to stay home.
I tend to agree with you. Do we even know whether ACORN registered any voters in this congressional district? Blaming all our electoral woes on ACORN is simply dumb (and inaccurate) and until we stop doing it then Republicans are never going to address the real reasons why we lost and get back into power.
Up in Minnesota, statistically speaking Franken still has a slightly less than even chance of beating Coleman — i.e. it could easily happen for uncontroversial reasons — yet I expect that if it does happen then everyone around here will be wailing that the only explanation can be the election was stolen from us (by ACORN again, no doubt).
Other recounts have been happening all over the country in Congressional and State elections. Plenty of them are being won by Republicans, but I guess nobody mentions that because it goes against the general thesis that we only lose close elections because the other side cheats. But guess what? This isn’t kindergarten any more.
There were lots of reasons to send a message to the RINOS by staying home...Kosovo, no veto deficits, Saudi Arabia/Turkey love fest...until Palin came on board and then there was less reason to stay home.
for me, the main issue for holding one’s nose and voting “my friends” McCain was the Supreme Court...we shall see the scope of the disaster to come.
Yes, ACORN absolutely recruited in this district. Goode’s district includes Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. Very liberal - lots o’ college students.
Those precincts were where pierello won.
I am devasted with this loss. Other than Eric Cantor, there is no one representing my viewpoint in government anymore.
Richmond ping.
This loss is breaking my heart. I voted for Goode when he ran against Chuck Robb in the primaries, lo these many years ago. I’ve been a big fan of Goode’s ever since.
A recount is defintely in order
Almost a 50% increase in Dem voters in Charlottesville.
Charlottesville vote 2004 Dem 11,088 Rep 4,172
Charlottesville vote 2008 Dem 15,705 Rep 4,078
"Women at VMI?, What's next, men at UVA?"
It’s the dramatic change in the UVA vote this year that stinks.
That’s just too much.
I once had a Democrat old-timer tell me all kinds of tricks they played on the Pubbies locally, as we sipped lemonade on her front porch. She thought I was a Dem.
Allowing liberals to defeat conservatives in Congress sends the wrong message. It tells the party to move left. It is slitting your throat to make a point.
Most times I register as a Democrat, to throw them off the scent trail. Then when I talk to the Rs they think I am switching... Works out fine.
I’m all for going back to the 21yr old vote, unless you are in, or have been honorably discharged from, the military.
If that is what they learned from this fiasco then they learned nothing.
The GOP must return to its roots on fiscal responsibility and small govt. And it must move rapidly to the right on military moral and social issues. Enough of patty cakes with terrorists and getting Euroweenies to play along.
Enough of building sand castles in the socialist sandbox.
On the plus side, I was pretty much dead on with my Senate predictions (even when many others were saying Maine was "competitive", Craig's foibles would put Idaho in play for the Dems, Sununu can win re-election in NH, etc.). The only mistakes I made was thinking Dole was safe in NC and Al Franken would get crushed in MN.
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sounds like it is time to look at the voter records and see who is living on campus and where does their tuition bill goes to.
This is a ticking time bomb. If those students claim Virginia as their residence, then technically, they should pay in-state tuition. Most public universities charge much higher tuition to out-of-staters. With $3.2B in state budget cuts pending, universities will have a much deeper hole to dig out of when all these students start claiming in-state residence.
Ultimately, Kaine bought and paid for this election with college tuition dollars.
Damn, I hadn’t heard this. Every loss counts, and this is a loss for our House Reps. Let’s get those last two Senate seats for the GOP. No way Al Franken should be allowed in the Capitol Building, let alone work there.
Goode is asking for a recount!
Actually, I would agree with that sentiment.
Plenty of UVA students (myself not included) voted in the Fifth District this year. [I voted in my home jurisdiction, the Tenth District, in Northern Virginia.]
The problem is that the GOP has allowed politicized “social issues” to eclipse its small-government message.
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Well, there you go again. As usual, you just don't get it.
The only thing that keeps the GOP competitive is social conservatism. On economic issues, the USA has turned left, with majorities of voters seeking handouts and labor union largess. The Republican party can never compete with that, and so must win votes elsewhere.
Part of McCain's failure was that he made little effort to draw distinctions with 0 on social issues. It also hurt that McCain himself has always distanced himself from socially conservative causes.
An articulate, consistent, committed social conservative can still win the presidency, whereas a RINO cannot.
Yeah, that’s how Buchanan won the 2000 election... oh, wait....
McCain lost because he did not articulate strongly enough the social issues that Conservatives agree on. Those social issues plus the small govt. message would have gotten him easily elected.
One more thing: had McCain come out strong and said as a maverick he would fight against the bailouts he would have won. The American people have not yet become a proletariat...there is still time to turn that nightmare around. But McCain is no maverick..he is a wimpy liberal who panders to the right.
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I partly agree with you there. Yes, a real Rat will always beat a pseudo-Rat RINO. Obviously I disagree with your implication that social conservatism is not "legitimate."
Social issues were not part of the national debate a generation or two ago. So, yes, social issues were not historically a part of the conservative agenda--but they are a legitimate part of it now because the left turned degenerate, whereas before they were merely socialist.
If the electorate turns left on economic issues, it is impossible for the GOP to win without giving voters other reasons to vote for them.
The VA-05 has been the same since 2002. I think that Goode lost because (i) Obama brought out a huge turnout in Charlottesville and its suburbs, (ii) Periello campaigned as a conservative Catholic that supported faith-based initiatives, and (iii) Goode got bad publicity from his controversial statements regarding Muslim Congressman Keith Ellickson.
Oh, I forgot a fourth reason, the large black turnout in the SE part of the district.
Please share those stories with us. We may all learn something.
Good! He's one of the best IMO.
I was told that Goode ran a commercial against Perriello that backfired badly and portrayed him as a cross between an illegal and a Mohammadan bomber (picture the infamous Time mag photo that doctored O.J.’s photo to make him look Blacker). Inexcusable loss.
Guess that Goode wasn’t “good enough”.
I couldn't agree more.
And it must move rapidly to the right on ... moral and social issues.
While we must not abandon the party platform on these vital issues, I believe we need to cool it a little bit if we're going to rebuild the party and win the next couple of elections, and we really NEED to win the next couple of elections.
Let me show you what I mean. Suppose Sarah Palin is our 2012 nominee, and it's a repeat of the Florida 2000 recount. She wins the election, and kicks Obama out of the White House, by 527 votes in Florida. Then you find out that about 20,000 people who voted for Palin in Florida were gay. Are you going to try to disqualify their ballots?
We need all the votes we can get. Once we get them voting for Republicans, we can deal with the rest later.
Indeed..and that seems to be the mindset at the moment..
I was thinking the same thing on Election Night as I saw the numbers come in.
Now, it is acknowledged that Charlottesville is chock full of liberals but the rest of the district is southside Virginia - as conservative as it gets.
The numbers from the rest of the district should have been enough to carry Goode thru to re-election.
There’s gotta be some other reason (or reasons) for his defeat.
This is a devastating loss. For that conservative an area to be represented by a liberal is sickening.
As spoken by “Tyke”. :-)
The votes of everyone are welcome. The GOP needs to go back to being the party of philosophy and principles not special interests like the Demos. BTW-I know of no conservative who wishes ill for “gays” - - treatment and reflection can go a long way to emerging from that horrible lifestyle. And that goes for all horrible lifestyles - gay or straight.
There was a huge dem GOTV effort in Charlottesville). The city’s polling places were packed—lots of students. Every single car/truck/building/bench/sidewalk within city limits seems to have an Obama-Warner-Perriello sticker on it. I believe the city is growing in population compared to the rest of the district. Those are all I can think of.
Let’s not lose hope guys. If a big part of this vote is due to the UVA vote or big-city vote, then that vote will be way down in 2010, which should be a pretty bad year for the democrats anyways given how bad the economy is going to tank.
I hope Goode stays around to run again in 2010, it will be a prime pickup as long as the Republicans in congress stay principled.
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