The VA-01 Democratic Committee has handed the November election to the Republicans.
Let’s explain.
VA-01 was gerrymandered to make it a safe Republican district. It’s shaped like a barbell – two fat ends with a skinny middle. The western end is along I-95, an hour or so south of DC, encompassing Fredericksburg and its environs. The eastern end is the Norfolk-Newport News-Hampton-Virginia Beach metropolis, home to the Navy’s Atlantic Fleet. Sandwiched between these two heavily-populated areas are we simple country folk in the Virginia Northern Neck where the wild turkey, deer, tractors, and boats outnumber people 2 to 1.
The district is Republican but it has not always been so.
VA-01 went 51 – 48 for McCain, a fact that should make this a real possibility for a Congressional pickup in 2010. In fact, given the right candidate VA-01 could turn blue.
That won’t happen in 2010 because the insiders in the VA-01 Democratic Party have decided to commit suicide.
Two Democrats were competing for the nomination to oppose our incumbent Representative Rob Wittman, Republican, wimp, vulnerable.
One candidate is 27-year-old mother and small businessperson Krystal Ball. And, no, I did not make up that name – that’s her name.
Here’s her website.
The other candidate is 25-year Army veteran Scott Robinson. Scott was raised in rural Northumberland County, in the midst of VA-01.
Here’s his website.
VA-01 is home to nine major military installations: Quantico Marine Corps Base in the west, and the enormous naval installations around Norfolk in the east. Depending on whose figures you believe, active and retired military make up 20 to 30 percent of the VA-01 voters.
At age 27, Ball has no military experience. No member of her immediate family has served. Robinson, on the other hand, walks into an American Legion Hall or a VFW Post or an NCO Association meeting and immediately commands the place.
Their platforms are almost indistinguishable.
So, you’re asking – what’s the problem? The problem is that Krystal Ball is now our nominee.
It seems that while Scott was out shaking hands and drinking coffee at the Legion Halls, VFW Posts, coffee shops, doughnut shops, and places where real people work and live, Krystal was busy schmoozing the party leadership at wine-tastings. And it worked. Scott withdrew on 30 March.
The "professional" campaigners are telling the Old Redneck to sit-the-fuck-down and shut-the-fuck-up because they know what they’re doing. Of course, these are the same people who gave us Creigh Deeds.
Meanwhile, here are a few points to ponder about Krystal Ball.
- 88 percent of her donations have come from OUTSIDE VIRGINIA.. Scott Robinson’s donations were 45-55, in-state, out-of-state.
- Krystal Ball has hired a LA (as in Los Angeles, California) PR firm to run her campaign. Of course, a crowd from LA no doubt is fully in touch with us folks in VA-01.
- The long knives are already out, hacking her to pieces. And the campaign has not yet begun.
http://rappahannockrepublic.wordpress.com/...
http://rappahannockrepublic.wordpress.com/...
http://www.ontherightinva.com/...
Now, in the interest of full disclosure:
- The Old Redneck supports Scott Robinson – donated a good bit of $$ to Scott.
- The Old Redneck is retired military – 30 years in the Army.
- The Old Redneck is an FDR-Harry Truman Democrat.
VA-01 is home to an active, vocal, and fairly-well organized Tea Party mob. The name Catherine Crabill may be familiar to some of you Kossacks – she’s the certified, batshit-crazy nutcase who, in a speech to a Tea Party lynch mob last year proclaimed "If we don’t win at the ballot box, we’ll take it to the bullet box." Here’s her website. This woman makes Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin look absolutely sane.
Crabill has announced that she is going to run against our incumbent Republican and this is why the "political professionals" in the VA-01 Democratic Party are banking on Krystal Ball – they think Crabill is going to split the Republican vote and Ball will waltz into the seat.
Meanwhile, it’s questionable if Crabill will even be on the Republican primary ballot. She has until 9 April to file and as recently as last week she was telling people in the western end of the district that she can’t afford the filing fee. She has sent representatives to several Republican caucuses and they’ve been ignored. Last November Crabill ran against our local Democratic rep to the Virginia General Assembly and the state Republican Party refused to support her in any way.
Our "professionals" are smoking something funny if they think Crabill will be a factor in November. But, they are the professionals -- who gave us Creigh Deeds.
The Old Redneck, while not giving up the fight, is betting that we’ll lose VA-01 by something like 65-35. It could have been a contest. But what does an Old Redneck know about anything?