We have ‘middle of the road’ serving conservatives in Va. They often start out ‘movement’ conservatives, but then hit the middle road. Don;t know why that is.
In fact our liberals are ‘middle of the road ‘ too!
That’s why Kaine will lose the Senate race to Allen.
Jim Webb, who ustakinda be a Republican ~ almost a Conservative Republican, ran as a Democrat for the Senate and won.
Parts of Virginia where they still pray for the quick return of the Confederacy turned out to vote in vast numbers for Webb. He also got the black vote. Rational people voted for his opponent, but Webb won.
I can bring out the "Oh, no, say it's not so" crowd by referring to Webb having been put into office by KuKluxers ~ who usually don't vote here and haven't for the last 3/4 of a century. But that's how it happened. They don't vote for Conservatives so if you want the KuKlux vote you have to go for the middle!
Webb had no couth so he did. You should have seen McAuliffe try the same trick with the Democrat Gubernatorial primary just 3 years ago. He was pitiful, but he wanted that same margin of victory Webb got.
I think sometimes Mc Donnell thinks those guys will vote for a Republican if he can stir their interests in removing the heavy hand of government from liquor sales!
I"m sure he's figured that out by now ~ they want their likker, but they ain't votin' fo' no gol darned Republican.
Over on the other side, balancing all that bit of craziness, we have Doug Wilder. He's a black man, but as I saw several decades back, if he'd been a white man in Ohio or Indiana he'd been a Republican!
Doug has his own faction and can throw an election one way or the other if he wants to. I think Obama has him convinced that it's time to get him out of government but the Republicans threw him a curve with this Romney thing.
Some Mittbots claim Wilder is coming their way, but now that he's seen that the real Conservatives are not simply going along with Romney, he hasn't made a move.
We'll see
I think it's possible for a real Conservative Republican to win office in Virginia but he'll lose Tidewater and Northern Virginia if he trashes federal government employees ~ an habit these guys fall into ~ but something you really can't get away with in Virginia if you want to win.
I don’t find any disagreement with you on the subject of politicians, my friend.
We’re not cranky enough any more. Wait until the federal budget cuts come. We live off the fat of government more than most states, so we’re comfortable with status quo - and politicians get rewarded for it. When that changes and state government has to make tough decisions, that will make our state politics interesting again.