Keep your calendar clear for the evening of Tuesday, June 5th. Details to follow.
Wolf Crushes, Feder And Connolly Win
By Greg L | 10 June 2008 | Virginia Politics, US Congress | 6 Comments
No real surprises in today’s primary elections, but the margins of victory weren’t what I expected. Wolf utterly demolished McKinley, Feder beat Turner, and Connolly defeated Byrne by a greater margin than what was expected.
Frank Wolf delivered an absolutely crushing defeat to Vern McKinley in today’s primary election, garnering more votes and a greater margin of victory than Jim Moran delivered on the invisible candidate Matt Famiglietti. McKinley wasn’t even competitive in one precinct in the 10th District, where Republican voter turnout was a relatively decent 3.9%. McKinley was clearly not ready for prime time, and his harshly-negative campaign, carried on largely through independent proxies probably harmed his chances rather than improved them. Perhaps with some experience (particularly in public speaking), McKinley can build a political resume by shooting for an office a little more realistic, and at some point be in a position to start making a contribution.
Judy Feder had a surprisingly strong challenge from Mike Turner, beating Turner 62-38%. Feder had the name recognition of her 2006 challenge of Frank Wolf behind her and a tremendous money advantage against a political neophyte with very little name recognition. The very low turnout of 1.8% shows that 10th District Democrats weren’t really engaged in this race. That Turner got 38% of the vote might lead one to believe that Democrats aren’t entirely sold on Feder’s ability to take on Frank Wolf, which probably is a pretty accurate observation. Feder got absolutely smoked by Frank Wolf during an election cycle that was enormously favorable to Democrats, and this cycle doesn’t seem to be shaping up to give her any advantages over what she might have had in 2006. Nominating Judy Feder pretty much assures that Republicans will retain the 10th District.
Gerry Connolly soundly beat Leslie Byrne in a big fight (turnout was a decent 5.4%) and by a margin considerably larger than what many expected, which is probably as much a blow to the Democrat “netroots” as it must be to Byrne. Just about every left-of-center blog in Virginia not only endorsed Byrne, but utterly went to war for her. NLS’ sixty or so part “Gerry Connolly Sucks” series and Raising Kaine’s constant bashing of Connolly seems to have had zero effect on this election, although it will provide plenty of ammunition for Republican nominee Keith Fimian and his supporters through November. Now that 11th District Democrats have spent a considerable amount of money delivering bruises on each other, Connolly limps away from this bruising battle with a considerable win.
Looking forward, Wolf will likely deliver a repeat thumping on Feder, and Fimian and Connolly will most likely be competitive. Whether Fiminan or Connolly has the upper hand at this point isn’t clear, but Fimian has a money advantage while Connolly will be busy shaking off the “Gerry Connolly Sucks” meme that will probably play better with Republicans and Independents than with 11th District Democrats. I’d imagine the initial advantage rests with Fimian.
The opinions expressed here are solely the views of the author, and not representative of the position of any organization, political party, doughnut shop, knitting guild, or waste recycling facility, but may be correctly attributed to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. If anything in the above article has offended you, please click here to receive an immediate apology.
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed. You can also pingback or trackback from your own site.
6 Comments
Views: 1051
Loading ...
I’ll bet that Ben Tibbet was crying like a schoolgirl when his girl got waxed. Boo Hoo Ben!
I haven’t seen anyone talk about how irrelevant Jim Webb and his endorsement of Leslie Byrne was yet.
NLS and Raising Kaine RK were acting like Webb’s endorsement of Byrne was as God himself had spoken!
Frank Wolf: Long standing, reliable, honest politician for Northern Virginia. Congratulations. Fiscal discipline and personal integrity still count for something — some places.
In November the results: Connolly: 58.4%, Fimian: 41.0%, fringe lunatics: 0.6%. This will be a massacre and the Ds pick up a house seat and a senate seat in the Old Dominion.
Listen, girlfriends, you had better watch what you say about Benjie and his goddess Leslie Byrne. Ben is going to get angry and then sic Joey on you. First Joey is going to sit on you, and then Joey is going to eat you up! Do you understand me? EAT YOU UP! THen Benjie is going to “smear” you with “fresh Twinkie”
connely will crush the pathetic republican running against him.
The tenth hasnt turned quite yet, So Wolf will beat Feder, but it wont be a blowout.
2008 is a bad year to be a republican!