Posted on 03/09/2005 1:15:35 AM PST by advance_copy
When Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. announced last month that he would run for governor of Virginia as an "independent Republican," challenging the party's nominee for the job, he said he remained as much a part of the Republican family as his father before him.
This week, a Republican committee chaired decades ago by Potts's father formally disowned him.
In a unanimous vote Monday evening, the Winchester City Republican Committee declared that it no longer recognizes Potts as a member and called on him to resign his Senate seat.
Across the state, the Republican Party apparatus is working to formally rebuke the four-term senator for declaring he will bypass the party's June 14 primary and try to get his name on the Nov. 8 general election ballot as an independent. He would probably face Jerry W. Kilgore, the former state attorney general and leading Republican in the race, and Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the probable Democratic nominee.
"You can't have it both ways. You can't be an 'independent Republican.' And he has to take responsibility for that," said Kate Obenshain Griffin, chairman of the state party and a member of the Winchester committee.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Good news. Thanks.
Warner never personally ran as an independent. We really need to get beyond 1994.
This today from the Times-Distress...
Kilgore says he won't raise taxes for roads
Gubernatorial hopeful backs some projects; cites other funding
BY TYLER WHITLEY
Jerry W. Kilgore, the likely Republican candidate for governor, said yesterday that he will not raise taxes to pay for the state's transportation program.
While endorsing some multi-billion-dollar transportation projects -- a third crossing at Hampton Roads, widening of Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia and another bridge crossing the Potomac River -- Kilgore said he would use general fund dollars and tolls and rely more on public-private partnerships to build new roadways.
BTW, Congrats!
I haven't had a chance to read all the papers yet this morning - but this is sounding rather promising...........but I get the impression Potts has such an ego that he will ignore the writing on the walls.
I am very leery of any campaign promise.
Winchester Republican Committee Denounces Potts
By Charlie Jackson
The Winchester Star
March 8, 2005
More than a week after Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester, announced he would run for governor as an “independent Republican,” the ripple effect continues.
The Winchester Republican Committee on Monday passed a unanimous resolution stating it “no longer recognizes Potts as a member of the Republican Party of Winchester.”
“I think the surprise was that it was unanimous,” the committee’s secretary, Vince DiBenedetto, said. “Going into it, we were trying to gauge sentiment. This is a committee where [Potts] has some friends, so we didn’t know if there would be support for him.”
The committee called upon the Republican Caucus of the state Senate to remove Potts from the chairmanship of the Committee on Education and Health.
According to a resolution approved by the committee, Potts was called on to resign his Senate seat “so that his constituents may elect a senator who represents their views.”
Members of the committee said other localities across the state were looking to Winchester for the best way to proceed in lieu of Potts’s announcement that he will oppose the GOP’s presumptive nominee, former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore.
Tom D’Amore, Potts’s political consultant, said on Feb. 25 he expected backlash from Republicans following the senator’s announcement.
Another local GOP group, the Winchester, Frederick, Clarke Republican Women, reacted in similar fashion following Potts’s decision to run for governor, condemning the senator’s choice and rescinding an offer to speak at its meeting last week.
“This is a senator who less then two years ago won a very close primary and called on Republicans to rally around him, and we did it as a party,” DiBenedetto said. “We rallied around him and he was re-elected in large part because he is a Republican.
“It seems bad form to live by rules of party unity and then, when it doesn’t suit you, you just cast people off. It feels like a betrayal.”
Yeah... Warner's the reason Potts thinks he can get away with it.
Thanks!
There's more work to do though. The board of supervisors thinks they now have a free hand to raise property taxes. They don't, as far as I'm concerned. They have a lot of 'splainin' to do before I'll concede the need for any tax increase.
As I've said many times before, raising taxes should be the last resort not the first resort.
I will always associate the phrase "investments" with increased taxes with Clinton. I don't know if he started it but that's when I noticed libs using that code word.
You need not be leery of promises by Jerry Kilgore. He won't make a promise he does not intend to keep.
Kilgore learned a lot under George Allen. When running for Governor, Allen made four specific promises. He walked into office with a plan for each specific one.
He promised to abolish parole. With Kilgore's help, he did.
He promised to reform education. He introduced the Standards of Learning.
He promised to reform Welfare. He did.
He promised to cut taxes, and was only stopped by the RAT General Assembly.
When Kilgore says he won't raise taxes for transportation, you can believe him.
Whatta novel idea...a politician you can trust...MUD
You beat me to it!
FReegards...MUD
Now if we can just get these "Republicans" to stop their current binge of taxing and spending...
I'm learning, I'm learning!!!!!!!!!
This is good news - especially if they can force him out of the chairmanship of Education and Health where he hasn't exactly been showing esteemed leadership.
These things need to be nipped in the bud or they will continue to fester. By chopping him off now they are doing their best to make sure he is a non-factor in the governor's race.
If they had waited any longer in doing this, this traitor to his party would have gotten more press and therefore a larger following. If he would have been able to strip just a few percent of the republicans away from Kilgore it may be fatal in what could shape up to be a very close race.
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