Cross posted at Buckeye State Blog
Geoffrey Sea, aka "Ohiobama", seems to be hell-bent in suggesting that '08 Independent candidate David Krikorian is the only real Democrat in the race and that State Representative Todd Book, former House Assistant Minority Leader, somehow is not really a Democrat.
I've seen him write it too many times to let it go. Clearly, this is someone who needs a reality check. If you ignore the simple fact that Krikorian ran as an Independent, not a Democrat, in the last election, there are plenty of reasons to say why Krikorian is not a Democrat.
* As recently as January 2009, Krikorian was still attending local Republican party meetings in the district.
* Krikorian's campaign committee has donated money to the Virginia Republican Party and accepted money from Bob Barr's PAC.
* Former State Representative/COAST member Tom Brinkman (R) doesn't endores real Democrats.
* Real Democrats don't issue press releases bragging about how House Minority Leader John Boehner "supports" your plan to repeal the capital gains tax.
* Democrats don't support repealing the capital gains tax since such a repeal only benefits the richest Americans in our society.
* Real Democrats don't support ending the Community Reinvestment Act.
* Real Democrats don't describe themselves as "Reagan conservatives." Just last election, Krikorian ran as the true conservatives alternative to Schmidt.
* Krikorian tried to spin his '06 donation to Vic Wulsin as not support for the Democratic Party's candidate, but solely for his opposition to Schmidt.
There's also the fact that Krikorian raised virtually no money in the district last cycle, which indicates he'd be a poor candidate as well.
Look, just about any Democrat who wins that district is not going to be a hard-nosed progressive. Paul Hackett wasn't even a progressive on most issues. Vic Wulsin was a real progressive, and she did as well as anyone can expect given the district.
But David Krikorian is no progressive. He's more like '06 Democratic convert Steve Black. His political conversion in two years seems to be entirely borne out of personal political necessity and he seems hell bent to say anything and everything to harm the likely Democratic nominee, thus making it difficult for that nominee to unite the party to win.
His reckless rhetoric so far in the race is as embarrassing as Black's was, especially when Black tried to awkward take back what he said about Wulsin.
Krikorian's antics during the last election has made it difficult for any Democrat to trust him. Most believe he split the anti-Schmidt vote and thus, wound up hurting Wulsin. Him campaigning around saying Wulsin was "too liberal" didn't help either.
Now he and his supporters want to march into the Democratic Party and question Todd Book's party bona fides? That takes some nerve.
If Krikorian was truly interested in seeing Schmidt voted out of Congress, he'd drop out and endorse Book. Because there is no way Democrats are going to nominate Krikorian given this record. None.