Frederick is very good at saying NO to taxes but what has he accomplished to imporve the transportation problems and funding them in VA. The same goes for Marshall and the other one in PWC.

I belong to FCRC. Have for years. I had to beg a couple friends to renew and not give up. They didn’t want to renew after last November’s fiascos. It’s not because they don’t like the County leadership (we like Jim just fine), it’s because they got frustrated w/ how the candidates didn’t cooperate with each other w/r/t volunteers on election day and how we had candidates with no core message in common. The Democrats can pull together. Republicans pull apart. No point in having a party if we’re not willing to compromise sometimes.

Jeannemarie blew it, but I believe it was because she ran to the LEFT of Chap. You can’t out-Dem a Dem when you are a Republican. She’d have held on if she had made a couple concessions to the right. Money can’t save you, when you’ve lost your way. She came out fighting, with a negative message, from that start when she should have tried to campaign on what she had done right. That all got lost in the he said/she said hub bub over who published whose personal information.

You can’t make everyone happy, but when you are a Republican and you have some large Republican interests groups telling you that you’re dead wrong on an issue, then you at least owe them the time of day. Or you lose. You lose your people and you don’t win over Chap’s people. Jeannemarie had upset the Second Amendment advocates she needed, but she wasn’t willing to go to them and ask forgiveness or at least understanding for where she had strayed from the fold. Some assurance of “I won’t do that again” helps, even when you have strayed. There is arrogance in power. And then you lose power.

Some other candidates in Ffx County did not get the attention or respect they deserved, while we watched Jeannemarie’s campaign crash and burn before us. Lower down the food chain, we barely held on to John Frey’s office (he never did any harm that I know of, yet we barely held on) and we lost the at-large school board spots for our endorsed candidates, including the incubment, Steve Hunt. The one bright spot was Patrick McDade, running for Bob Horan’s venerable seat. He did damned well, even though he lost it, because he was a relatively long shot and he had positive energy. He was all about what he could do for you and me, which should be the mantra of anyone seeking our votes. But I don’t think he got enough support from the party and I wonder if he’d ever consent to run again. Our best pick up locally on election day was Pat Herrity to the BOS! I consider him a pick up because Elaine McConnell was too comfortable in her job and no longer willing to stand up to Gerry’s Machine.

Hager? Frederick? Pah! Guess I will have to decide. Too bad there is no choice behind Door Number Three.