Posted on 05/07/2019 3:56:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
LEXINGTON, Va. -- Clare Perry considers herself a Democrat. Grayson Pearce is a Republican. She's from Richmond, and he's from Virginia Beach. Despite holding opposing political values, they both have the same question: What is the matter with Virginia?
In particular, what's wrong with its politics?
A few months ago, in a cascade of disgraces, both Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to having worn blackface. Then, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two women.
Now the stories have seemingly disappeared from the front pages, or any pages, of the local news outlets.
For both Perry, 20, and Pearce, 19, the fact that all three controversies were left drifting in the wind is mind-boggling.
"Honestly, I'm stunned, and I'm stunned it went away so quickly," Perry explains. She's more bothered that Fairfax has skated.
For Pearce, there's a personal angle: He worked on the campaign of Northam's opponent, Ed Gillespie. But it also stings, in part, because it reflects poorly on the state he loves. He says: "It is heartbreaking. It sucks. There's nothing about it that's good. Especially not for Virginia."
Both readily agree that if Gillespie had faced the same accusations any of the three men in power did months ago, he would be long gone.
University of Virginia political analyst Kyle Kondik says Northam remains in office for a number of reasons: "For one thing, Fairfax is even more toxic than he is, and the accusations against the lieutenant governor help insulate the governor. But I also think the governor surveyed the political climate and determined that he was better off staying in office than resigning. Northam did, in fact, face a lot of pressure to resign, but he weathered it and decided not to step aside in spite of it."
Northam could not have been forced from office short of impeachment, which is a step the legislature decided not to take.
Though he largely won on anti-Trump anger, he is now less popular than the president in the state, according to the latest Wason Center for Public Policy poll.
Both parties seem to be struggling with leadership voids. The Republicans haven't won a statewide election since 2009, and the Democrats have three statewide officeholders who are all damaged to some degree.
"The environment for the fall campaign is in flux," said Kondik. "On one hand, the Democrats are banking on the white-hot, anti-Trump intensity that fueled them in 2017 and 2018. On the other, they are hamstrung to some degree by the weakness of Northam and Fairfax, and there also were some questions about Democratic turnout without a major statewide race on the ballot."
But there's still plenty at stake. Kondik said: "Democrats need to net two seats apiece in the state Senate and state House of Delegates to elect a unified Democratic state government, which would be the most liberal state government in Virginia history."
Those gains will be easier if a new court-drawn House of Delegates map that unwinds a Republican gerrymander is indeed in place for the fall. But it's not a certainty that they can or will capitalize.
You have to think of Virginia voting patterns as several different regions, and the political divide in the state as being primarily east versus west.
Kondick said: "The eastern part of the state contains its so-called 'Urban Crescent,' the major population centers of Northern Virginia, Greater Richmond, and Hampton Roads. The western part of the state is largely rural, with some smaller cities and college towns serving as blue pockets in what is otherwise a red sea."
The Urban Crescent has been becoming more Democratic, and the western part has been becoming more Republican. There are many more votes in the eastern part of the state than the western, so this trade-off has worked out well for Democrats.
Pearce said that as an aspiring political operative, he thinks the Republicans' focus in his home state is that geography outside of the cities, just before the rolling hills of the farmland.
"You have to focus on suburbia, especially women, white women. And really, there's a great opportunity, especially for where I'm from, Hampton Roads, a great opportunity to target minority voters. There are so many minority voters in Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth, and they're all stuck in the same rut. Democrats are just counting on them because of the color of their skin. I think that there's a great opportunity for votes there, but if Republicans can't win suburbia, there's no path for them in Virginia," he said.
"Even with the scandals," he said.
The exact two factors that transformed California.
Virginia is blue because northern Virginia has been gorging in the Federal teat for so many years that gov. employees and employees of gov. contractors have invaded everything 50+ miles from DC - and all those nursing and growing fat on the Federal milk are heavily Dems.
Our state has been invaded & raped by leftists.
We need a clean separation of Northern Virginia from the rest of us. Hey, we’ve got West Virginia, North & South Carolina, why not North Virginia?
Set the rest of us free.
Only trouble is Roanoke, Charlottesville/Albemarle Co., Richmond are also Dem hotbeds.......but they are not large numerically.
> Hmm that is interesting coming from someone (You) who is from South Carolina and not Virginia.
I only spent a decade in Virginia immediately prior to fleeing the swamp for South Carolina, in the process being the key player that got Eric Cantor tossed out of office, know many of the key players in the Virginia GOP personally, was a delegate to quite a few conventions and was an officer in a local VAGOP group, and can name quite specifically individuals such as Shaun Kenney and Brian Schoenemann who exhibit the qualities I described, but other than that I probably don’t know much about it.
The answer is simple.
It has been invaded by illegals and FedGov Deep State Lemmings over the past two decades.
Virginia GOP is staffed and operated by Bush League Republicans.
Same as Democrats, but they wear R jerseys to fool people, like Flimsey Grahamnesty does in SC.
Name sounds familiar but didn’t know him no.
I went from NoVA to upstate SC. I had had it with the ruthless nature of urban life and in particular the kind of people who live in and around DC and the all-permeating corruption of the swamp in general. I now live in a quiet place where nothing exciting happens and people are polite to each other and life is much nicer.
Ah now I see why you ask. No I had no direct association with the Brat campaign, but if you know that gentleman you can ask him of the significance of “Alexis Rose Bank” and The Bull Elephant site to the campaign.
The VA Governor is term limited( on 6 yr term ) so the impeachment impetus is highly reduced
If you were from Virginia, you’de know that a Virginia governor can serve only one 4 year term in sucession
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is an elected constitutional officer, the head of the executive branch and the highest state office in Virginia. The Governor is popularly elected every four years by a plurality. Although there is no life-term term limit, the governor cannot serve consecutive terms.
I know two of the four. Don’t really want to be more specific in a public forum.
Ummm, the democrat party owns the corrupt press lock stock and barrel... This story WOULD NOT have disappeared IF there had been an "R" by any of the names...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.