You then go on throughout your article and berate Mr. Payne for leaving. You questions Stolle’s behavior, call him a dimwit and then allege with absolutely no evidence that this guy is stealing condifdential information from one campaign to bring to another - in this case he has left to work for a moderate Democrat who seems to be more Republican than most Republicans are nowadays.

Maybe Payne is concerned with the good of the Commonwealth of Virginia or maybe he just wants to work for someone that he feels better about. Seriously, it is so clear that attitudes like yours have lead to the Republican’s loss of ontrol of the Congress. People like you need to wake up. Payne may have realized that the Republican Party was leaving people like him behind. If you spend more time figuring out why he left and less time with your conspiricy theories, perhaps you could help improve your party.

Care to speculate on why they keep letting him run? If I were a Republican, I would be howling like a stuck pig if he were allowed to run again. I just don’t see this individual as a mainstream candidate.

C’mon Greg, this is a stretch, even for you. And as for you above comment, if you really want to split hairs then lets talk about some of the Republican candidates that you supported in this election cycle who abused the trust of their constituents…namely Corey Stewart and the two mailers that he sent out regarding the immigration resolution and the mailer about the proffers in which he lied about a BOCS vote that hadn’t even taken place yet, and when it did take place the vote failed even though Stewart told everyone that it had already passed….yes, that’s really trustworthy, Greg. Unfortunately for PWC, Stewart did get ahead for abusing the trust of this County.

I agree with Rob; it is wrong to assume that Stolle’s aide was feeding secrets to the “enemy.” perhaps he just wanted to further his own career. and unlike you, Greg, there are a lot of people out there who are politically moderate and can work on both sides of the aisle. And to say that his supposed feeding of secrets to the Democrats cost Fitzsimmonds and O’Brien their elections is absurd…I can’t speak for O’Brien, as i don’t live in his district, but as far as Fitzsimmonds, he lost because he was a bad candidate, not because stolle’s aide may or may not have been feeding information to mark warner. you cannot prove any of this and therefore you need to stop making such false accusations.

Different legislators rely on their legislative assistants to do different things. Some may be the secretaries you describe, but other legislative assistants are involved in policy, are involved in campaigning, and are insiders even down to advising about tactics inside the caucus. That’s not to say that Will Payne was one or the other.

Thats funny, I don’t care who you are..

They are people hardly in a position to be included in high level campaign and policy strategy sessions on the statewide level. Heck, Stolle himself probably has a hard time getting in on those conference calls.

At least this guy made a clean break rather than slinking around and carrying tales.

And to Anonymous @ 11:26, so what if he takes his knowledge, skills and abilities elsewhere? It’s his prerogative to do so. Is it undesirable because it costs the Republican party an able body, or because it gives one to the Democrats? If you’ve determined by now he’s untrustworthy, surely you’re better off to be rid of him.

This is why I’ll be an indepedent forever. Partisan politics will override principle and common sense everywhere it’s found.

Why do republicans and GOP donors spend money on these guys only to have them turn around and work against us.

I don’t think Stolle or Payne feed Warner any information
which cost Republican seats.

You’re assuming that there was an abuse of trust or that Will disclosed confidential information while considering the post in the Warner campaign, but you have nothing on which to base that assumption other than your own worst expectations. But on the other hand, as you yourself observe in your 8:57 comment, you don’t get anywhere in politics by doing that. If the Warner campaign expected Will to do that, and I doubt they did, Will wouldn’t have done it anyway. While the first statement is an assumption as baseless as yours, the second is based on years of knowing Will Payne.

You’re taking an even bigger leap by attributing this to Ken Stolle. Stolle doesn’t like Jim Gilmore, but he’s hardly alone in the Virginia GOP on that point. But Stolle didn’t tell Will to do this, and Stolle doesn’t have control over his employee’s actions any more than any other employer would. So how is Stolle to blame, other than your eagerness to find fault with him?

On the other hand, someone like Stall’s former campaign manager, Pat Murphy, directly abandoned the Stall campaign and went to work for the enemy. Now if you’re looking for someone who had access to confidential information and could have cost the Senate GOP a conservative caucus member and a majority-preserving vote, blame him.

What about John Hager, who joined the Warner Administration? Like it or not, he’s still chairman of RPV.

Simply put, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill on this simply because you don’t like it. And while you’re entitled not to like it, there are still going to be people who remain friends with Will because they know that he did not abuse their trust and they know that politics isn’t the most important thing in life, and neither is the political party or candidate your friend supports.

I hope Stolle’s colleagues in the Senate appreciate his boy helping them to the minority.

BTW, the explanation is very convincing. Oh, the Dems have control of the Senate going into redistricting, but he put a smiley face on the email - it’s OK.