Virginia House of Delegates Special Election December 17, 2002 (and you thought we were finished!)

WP ^ | November 20, 2002 | Lisa Rein

[Ligeia]

Excerpt

The 40th District House seat opened this month, when voters elected James K. "Jay" O'Brien Jr., a Republican who held the seat for 11 years, to the state Senate. Voters will go to the polls Dec. 17 to choose his replacement.

[Ligeia]

The 40th District includes Centreville, Clifton and Fairfax Station.

Hugo ran unsuccessfully against Del. Vivian E. Watts (D-Fairfax) seven years ago and "said he has raised about $60,000, far more than his opponents," according to the article.

Email from the Tim Hugo campaign

Virginia State Senator Ken & Teiro Cuccinelli cordially invite you to attend a reception for Tim Hugo Republican Candidate for the VA House of Delegates, 40th District with special guest, U.S. Senator Rick Santorum

Tuesday, December 3, 2002
6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
6801 Mount Olive Court
Centreville, Va. 20121
$40 for the 40th or $50 per couple
R.S.V.P. to Meredith at 703-766-0635; Meredith@ Cuccinelli.com

See what you can do to help! Tim Hugo for Delegate

Are you in the 40th District? Find your polling place

[Ligeia]

I decided it's better to have the Tim Hugo thread over here. Virginians won't think to check the Campaign Forum since Election Day has passed. How is the campaign going?

[VaFederalist]

There is a fundraiser this Wednesday, December 3rd with Senator Rick Santorum as the special guest. It will be at the home of new State Senator Ken Cuccinelli in Centreville. Contact meredith@cuccinelli.com

Speaker designate Howell will host a fundraiser in Richmond on Thurday the 5th.

Website: http://www.timhugo.com

There will be lit drops the next two Saturdays, December 7th & 14th. Great chance to meet like-minded individuals.

This is a conservative district. Mark Warner only came close in 1 precinct out of 11. The worry here is the two independents taking votes away from Tim Hugo. Both indies are conservatives (from all appearances) who got outorganized & outmoneyed by Hugo so they decided to do things their own way. Got to win this one, can't let Markie Warner pick up a seat he doesn't deserve.

[Ligeia]

Got to win this one, can't let Markie Warner pick up a seat he doesn't deserve.

Amen to that. Thanks for the info on the independent candidates. I didn't know if they were Greens, Libertarians, Constitution Party or what. The newspaper articles haven't said other than they opposed the tax increase. No rest for the weary!

[JackOfVA]

Yep, we live in Clifton and will be doing what we can to put Tim Hugo into Jay O'Brien's old seat. I hope he does as well as Jay did.

Jack

[Ligeia]

Good luck! Hopefully the independents won't be organized enough to syphon off enough votes to elect the lib Dem. From what I know of Hugo's reputation, he qualifies as a conservative. If anyone knows the current Dem/GOP split in the Virginia House and Senate, please post. I know we have the majority in both but don't know by how much.

[Angelwood]

Bumping the thread. Not my district this time.

[Ligeia]

Oops, sorry, Angelwood. Thanks for the bump!

[fieldmarshaldj]

The GOP has about 2/3rds of the seats in the House and a smaller majority in the Senate.

[Ligeia]

Thanks for your help. I went to the Virginia General Assembly website. If I counted correctly, we have 64 out of 100 Delegate seats (assuming we hold this one) and 23 out of 40 Senate seats. Amazing!

[JackOfVA]

If you want to do a count, here's the data:

http://legis.state.va.us/House/Delegates.htm

Select Senate or Delegates and then for each By Affiliation.

Jack

[Ligeia]

Thanks! I'm one step ahead of you ;^)

[JackOfVA]

Saw that you beat me to it as soon as I hit the Post key!

Gotta be quick on the keys to beat you!

Jack

[Ligeia]

Thanks! I decided I was being lazy and should find the information out myself. Besides, I have a link to the General Assembly on my profile page. Not like it was a huge task. BTW, even though you're not listed on the FR Virginia page, check it out occasionally as we post pertinent info there.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Sure thing. Also note that there are 2 Independent Conservative members of the House that are de facto Republicans. We will probably increase the number of Senators in the next election due to favorable redistricting, too. It's unfortunate, though, that all those numbers are wasted on an ineffective Democrat Governor. No doubt Virginians are waiting until they can get some effective leadership with the next Governor, Jerry Kilgore.

[sultan88]

Tim Hugo Bump!!

[Ligeia]

I'd forgotten about the two conservatie independents. Do you live in Virginia? You seem to know well informed about goings on in Richmond. I don't know if Twodees will chime in or not, but he did a good job of convincing me a good use of a conservative Assembly is hamstringing the governor and having gridlock. At least until Jerry Kilgore moves into the Executive Mansion.

[Ligeia]

Tim Hugo Bump!!

That's right! We want a 66 out of 100 majority. On to victory!

[fieldmarshaldj]

"I'd forgotten about the two conservatie independents."

I know one of them is Watkins Abbitt, Jr. His daddy was a long-time pro-Byrd (that being Harry Flood Byrd, Sr.) Congressman (W.A., Sr.). He was a Democrat until this past election and would ordinarily be a Republican, but I don't think he'd have the heart to do that to daddy ! Of course, we all know the other one is the now-acting Speaker Lacey Putney. I wouldn't mind seeing Putney remain Speaker, but only under a Republican Governor. We need someone to play hardball with Warner, and Putney is too much of a gentleman.

"Do you live in Virginia? You seem to know well informed about goings on in Richmond."

Tennessee, but I try to keep well-informed far beyond my state.

"I don't know if Twodees will chime in or not, but he did a good job of convincing me a good use of a conservative Assembly is hamstringing the governor and having gridlock. At least until Jerry Kilgore moves into the Executive Mansion."

Absolutely. That's the only positive. Unless Warner wants to govern like a Conservative GOPer, he ain't gonna get much done at all. Now I hear he wants to sack the one-term limit on the Governorship (of course, he wasn't the first), but I think it's a bad idea. Having just the one term means they don't have to concern themselves with reelection and can proceed full-speed with their agenda (assuming it is acceptable). If they do a good job, perhaps, like Mills Godwin, they'll be returned again to the position after 4 years out. I think it works just fine.

Commenting on one other thing, I do believe the next Governor's race is going to get mighty ugly. The Lieutenant-Governor, Tim Kaine, who is probably one of the most leftist candidates elected to anything statewide in a long time, is the son-in-law of Abner Linwood Holton, Jr., the 1st GOP Governor of the state since Reconstruction elected in 1969. Holton is a RINO leftist supremo himself, and will pull out all the stops to get Kaine into office (as will Warner). But Kilgore will run, hopefully, an unapologetic conservative campaign, as he did last time, which should cinch it. It's unfortunate that internecine battle between Hager and Earley so needlessly damaged us. Both gentlemen could've taken a term as Governor (Earley first, then Hager). I liked Hager at first, but didn't like his classless conduct after he lost the nomination and went RINO. I sort of soured on Earley a bit, too, over vouchers/school choice. I'm hoping that Kilgore will not wimp out on some of these issues.

[Ligeia]

I'll have to respond to this tonight when I have more time!