If you count party nomination contests, between City Council and the General Assembly the guy has won 5 contests in the last 4 years.

I would have to say that makes him a pretty formidable candidate. Matt, you say he dosnt like to knock on doors? On election night I asked him how many he knocked this year. The answer - just under 10,000 doors.

That may not be quite as many doors as Rishell, but when you come off as a likable person like Miller its pretty hard to beat.

I don’t necessarily think that Miller is a strong candidate; he was completely funded last year by party PACs and leadership and he doesn’t have time/doesn’t like to walk neighborhoods and knock doors in any substantial number.

I think that if he was in a district that was more evenly divided he would have a very difficult time. He kind of has a Fred Thompson vibe to him; seems like there are other things he would rather do than campaign during campaign season.

I agree with Turn PWBlue that Rishell’s shot was the special election but she didn’t understand the importance of the immigration issue well enough and she didn’t truly understand her vulnerability on that issue. If she had, she would have won in ‘06.

DPVA is fixated on the 52nd and they continue to pump good money after bad. Taylor, Barg, and Brown (the last 3 candidates) were horrible. Barg and Brown had no field game and relied completely on direct mail, and Taylor refused to personally walk the district. While the poll numbers suggest the 52nd is a pick-up opp for Dems, the Dems will not take this seat until Frederick leaves on his own accord, or they find a candidate with little baggage and a lot of energy and organizational skill. Jeff is too good at raising money and interacting with the citizens to lose and the Dems don’t understand this. They look solely at the numbers and fail to realize that personal connection at the local level is more important than preference for up-ticket races. DPVA and the PWCDC look at these things in a much too simplistic way.

I knew this race was lost back in June when Chris Brown called me and told me that his campaign manager was the young girl who ran Barg’s field op in ‘05. He was so excited to have a “professional” from Richmond working for him.

She was incompetent in ‘05 and then ran the Democrats to their worst defeat in this district since George DeLimba.

Recycling the same bad people and bad ideas will not work - is that the definition of insanity? I started laughing out loud when I got mailers from Brown using the same rhetoric from ‘03.

DPVA is run by monkeys.

Steal my parking place, I have words with you, and I don’t care if you are Mother Theresa. Does you HOA not have a tow service?

My daughter lives in Stonington and they are the parking Nazis over there. It really is overkill.

Do you even have a HOA over where you live?

There is always the box of nails trick for stolen parking spots. Oooopppps.

Your feelings are shared by many. Reasonable people are being pushed to their limits. I would not be surprised if normally law law abiding citizens start to retaliate in frustration. It is a sad state of affairs.

Perhaps they should try to stand for something other than bashing immigrants.”

NO ONE IS BASHING IMMIGRANTS. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE BEING BASHED AND RIGHTLY SO!

“And speaking of hapless, Virginia Republicans lost control of the Senate for the first time in 12 years, and were all but wiped out in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County. Virginia Republicans have lost their way by embracing the tax and spending agendas of successive Democratic Governors, and the result has been more and more Democrats in office. Perhaps they should try to stand for something other than bashing immigrants.”

Prediction - Manassas and Manassas Park to go blue in 2008 if HSM takes over nomination process for local candidates.

Matthew

Matthew

There is also the fact that it takes a special person to go out there and have the proverbial crap kicked out of them day in and day out. Elections have become far too uncivilized.

The local party has a long way to go if it is going to be a viable political entity in this county.

Thank you for a fair assessment of the situation. You can always be counted on to dispense with the rhetoric and speak the truth as you see it.

Yes, I am big Redskin Fan, just saw Dolph’s post and will contact her in the AM. Long night last night, need some sleep.

I left a message on the previous thread for him to come to this one. I guess if he is not here, maybe we will hear from him tomorrow. Almost time for shut eye for me. I stayed up too late last night trying to keep track of election results. I wanted to wait for Stonewall. Thanks for doing a great job!!!!

Both parties have the distinct problem that their leadership by its very nature is going to fall at the more extreme ends of the political spectrum and as a result will alienate the actual people who vote because they fall somewhere in between. Add to that the daunting task of raising the incredible sums of money it seems to take to run a campaign and you severely limit those who will run to the independently wealthy or the die-hard party ideologues. So much for the citizen legislator.

Are you out there?

Billy Boy, if you are out there, I have a question for you. Maybe it is something we can wholeheartedly agree on. Are you a Redskin fan? And if you are a Cowboy fan, I would rather not know about it. Okay.

WOW! Who’s sounds bitter, angry, and sounds like a left wing loonie?
….perhaps you’re just a little angry because Rishell lost so badly last night?

au contraire manassascity resident. Like many in the district I split the ticket and voted for Colgan/Miller. I’m no left winger. I found the negative campaigns runs by FitzSimmonds/Rishell so much alike I wasn’t going to vote for her. Her mailings were discusting and if you got one of her phone calls you knew she lied even more than in the mailings.