I agree the fix was in for Ed. It was pretty obvious the GopE was going to put him in. One of the clips at the convention for Gillespie before he spoke was him getting along grand with Chris Mathews on Mathews show. Them laughing ect.
Not only that. The night before the vote, Friday, there was a big GOP gala dinner with Paul Ryan as the keynote speaker. Ryan proceeded to say that he endorsed Ed Gillespie for senator. The audience was shocked and silent. It was supposed to be unity affair, not a partisan one. I guess someone forgot to tell Ryan that there were three other candidates in the race and the vote had not been taken yet.