The Post Still Can’t Engineer A Primary Battle
By Greg L | 6 January 2010 | Gerry Connolly, Fairfax County, US Congress, Prince William County | 14 Comments
Since the Washington Post hasn’t managed to engineer a primary battle in the 11th District yet, it ran yet another story today which basically announces that Pat Herrity has not decided to contest Keith Fimian. This time unnamed “Republican officials” (as opposed to the WashPo’s editorial board) are credited with “pressuring Herrity to announce his bid soon or risk falling behind in fundraising.” On the heels of urging Bob McDonnell to raise taxes once again and laughably characterizing Dave Marsden’s ineffective and inconsequential tenure as somehow “distinguished,” you’d think the Post must realize it has burned every last bridge to Republicans and would forego trying to influence candidate selection for Virginia Republicans.
Yet they soldier on in their pathetic attempt to tell Republicans who they should support.
I like Pat Herrity a lot. He’s a very good man, and among the very best elected officials to serve in Fairfax County in decades. I just hate to see him apparently manipulated by the Washington Post into serving the Post’s political interests like this. Every few weeks the Post is running a story that basically says that Herrity is not running in a previously rare non-news as news twist on journalism, trying to drum up some level of support for someone to run against the candidate they seem to fear the most — Keith Fimian. The more they do this, the more they can seem to tease out a very few quotable sources to talk about how well Herrity would perform against Gerry Connolly.
Herrity probably would, if he wasn’t starting a campaign months late and competing in a primary against a candidate endorsed by the House Minority Whip and just about every Republican elected official in the district. If the Post really thought Herrity was such a great candidate to take down Gerry Connolly, you have to wonder why these non-news stories weren’t being run last summer after Fimian launched his 2010 campaign. That would have given Herrity the time and traction to run a strong campaign, instead of trying to push him into being a late entrant in the race. Heck, if I were the political operations czar inside the Post and I wanted to ensure my buddy Boss Connolly got re-elected, the way I’d do that is precisely by trying to goad Republicans into a late-developing primary battle among popular candidates that would involve Eric Cantor endorsing one of the choices before the nominee is selected.
The Post is the only “news” organization talking about this (other than those following the Post’s lead here) and the outcome they’re clearly hoping for is to protect Gerry Connolly and his cratering approval numbers. No one should be listening to the Washington Post, as they have gone so far beyond journalism into becoming an outright political operation for the Democratic National Committee. With every thinly veiled attempt to influence political outcomes in Virginia the Post sheds their credibility faster than a cheap stripper discards her clothes.
UPDATE: CCC has her thoughts on this, which I think are spot-on.
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The Post is hardly the only venue for speculation about a Herrity run. It has been a subject of intense interest on a number of Republican blogs for weeks. Complete with accusations that Herrity is a liberal and a RINO by the usual lunatic elements.
Personally I don’t think it is a good choice for him and I don’t think he will run. I think he will run for Chairman. If I am wrong and he does get in, I think he is better than even money to win the primary.
I question your assertion that Connolly (or the Post) would view Fimian as the stronger opponent. You may like Fimian and perceive him as being further to the right politically, but that doesn’t make him the stronger candidate in the general election. He isn’t. Herrity would be stronger against Connolly.
I don’t know many Democrats who would prefer to run against Herrity rather than Fimian.
[Ed note: I didn’t say the Post believes Fimian is a stronger candidate, I think they just dislike Fimian to the point of irrationality, and love Gerry Connolly.]
Your entire premise presupposes that Pat Herrity is swayed by the whims and reporting of the Washington Post. I doubt that highly. If he makes the decision to run, it’ll be his own decision.
I don’t imagine Herrity would be influenced directly, but I do think the Post believes it can influence a lot of people around him to then pressure him (unwittingly) on the Post’s behalf.
This is the same publication that pressured JMDD to turn into a gun control nut in order to save her seat, and we see how that worked out.
The comment that the Post fears Fimian is laughable. The Post does not fear Keith Fimian, I really dont think Gerry Connolly does either.
I hope not, “Local.” And if he doesn’t, in the climate the Obamorons have created, he’s a fool.
Greg, your logic is so flawed its not even funny. Your basis is that somehow the big media giant influences people to then influence Pat. Does that sound a little odd? I don’t think the advisers Pat listens to are swayed easily by an article by some low paid staffer at the Washington Post.
I think the Post should endorse Deeds one more time. I think one more time ought to do the trick!
The post has been trying to influence elections for years. Remember “macacca” running every day in the paper for a whole month? How about the thesis story about Bob McDonnell? Now they’re hyping carpetbagging Dave Marsden as some sort of legendary elected official after he’s been an embarrassment for years and nearly got defeated in a House race against a relative unknown.
It would surprise me not a bit that they’d be manufacturing a candidacy in the 11th district just to cause Fimian to burn through campaign cash in a primary. “Yeah, let’s see if we can get people to call up Herrity and encourage him to run! If Herrity somehow wins the nomination and loses the congressional race, we’ll likely prevent him from challenging our girl Bulova! Either way we win!”
Makes me want to take a dump in a Washington Post vending box…
But again, this entire scenario is dependent upon Herrity (or his advisors, to widen the conspiracy a bit) giving a good honest damn about speculation reported by the Post.
So Herrity stated that he “wanted to run” but had not decided whether he would. Maybe his handlers can tighten those strings a bit and push him into the ring. If Herrity reluctantly makes up his mind and decides that he really, really does want to run and the WaPo endorses him, the RINO necklace will be snapped tight. Meanwhile, Fimian continues to raise money and collect endorsements.
Seems Herrity has not publicly endorsed Steve Hunt. All the other mainstream conservatives have. Maybe an oversight, maybe Herrity is not a conservative.
Doc, Pat Herrity just *hosted* a teletown hall for Steve Hunt. I don’t know where you get your facts from, but you may want to double-check them.
The Herrity bashers seem to care less about facts.
LI:
“Herrity Bashers = lunatic fringe.”