Or did the vaunted news organization of the News and Messenger simply fail to inquire during their reporting that this alleged freak might be an illegal alien, or choose not to report that he is?  On it’s face, this story either demonstrates a blatant violation of Virginia law, or obvious selective reporting by our local media.

You decide.

(more…)

Andy Harrover’s bid for mayor against Hal Parrish had been characterized as an old-guard versus new-guard contest, but it really wasn’t.  It was a contest among two established candidates where the argument to kick Hal out wasn’t really driven home.  Parrish had the opportunity to somewhat uncharacteristically fire back with a strong broadside during his speech to seal the deal, and earn nearly two thirds of the weighted delegate votes as a result.  Unseating Parrish was going to be a longshot under the best of circumstances for Harrover, so this doesn’t really come as much of a surprise.

The surprise of the morning was Ian Lovejoy’s tremendous performance.  With the backing of Delegate Jackson Miller, conservative stalwart councilman Marc Aveni, and the unabashed support of the Tea Party, Lovejoy cruised to a huge victory with about 61% of the weighted vote.  I’d expected he’d do well, but coming out as the top vote getter is a vastly rare accomplishment for a convention candidate in this setting.  Ian has gone from contender to kingmaker in one day leaving the convention wisdom on Manassas election politics in complete ruins.  This outcome rocks the “establishment” and demonstrates at least for now there’s a power shift going on in Manassas politics with conservatives on the rise in a complete reversal of what happened in 2008.

The incumbents battled for the scraps, all running within about ten to fifteen votes of each other in an unusually weak performance for incumbents in the city.  Jonathan Way and Mark Wolfe squeaked by, leaving a visibly shocked Sheryl Bass slightly behind.  The difference here seemed to be the palpable anger of the convention delegates towards the school board, and Bass being a former member of that board she got caught in the crossfire as each candidate’s speech seemed to throw plenty of rocks at the school board and decry the underwhelming performance of the city’s schools and the effect that has on real estate values and the quality of life in the city.  Charles Patullo didn’t even register, even after having Xerk White (who has endorsed independent candidates over Republicans in the past) give his nomination speech.

Watch out incumbents on the school board.  There’s a freight train coming your way.  Fast.

With one conservative independent (Jerry Carman) and likely a Democrat competing against this slate of council candidates in May, the general election looks like it’s going to be a lot more interesting than the typical ticket punch for GOP candidates.  Way and Wolfe have some ground to make up in here before they can feel in any way comfortable, and if challengers from outside the party run strong campaigns they could quite easily come up short in the general election.  It’s up to conservatives to seal the deal here, and they might have one more surprise in store for us before this election is over.

(more…)

My experience with Wolfe is that he’s been strongly in favor of cracking down on illegal immigration, so this comes as quite a surprise.

UPDATE: Virtucon reports on other violations of the law.  This is not Mark Wolfe’s week.

(more…)

With Virginia’s Republican establishment blog Bearing Drift heaping scorn on Marshall on the same day Marshall officially announces his candidacy, I have little doubt George Allen is very concerned about his political future. To me, that’s good. A primary that does little more than anointing a candidate on the basis that they’re owed it holds scarcely any interest from me.

A couple of observations on these races:

(more…)

(more…)

It would hardly be the first time.

Another political Sucky, this time proving it doesn’t take a lot of money to make an awful political ad. Dianne’s song about why she should be elected is either a knowing parody or an unknowing train wreck, and the strongest evidence points to the latter.

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

With apologies to Dave Barry, here we go…

(more…)

(more…)

Maybe Virginia Democrats simply don’t have much in the way of alternatives.  Or perhaps they’ve finally discovered a sense of humor.  If it’s the latter, I thank them for a good laugh that made my season a little brighter.

Unless you have a high paying government job, and even if you do, you are probably well aware that the majority of American’s are deeply impacted by the ongoing devastation to the United States economy since President Obama took office.

While overall the unemployment rate hovers close to 9%, minority unemployment remains consistently near 15% and these figures show no indication of significant improvement in the near future. Meanwhile, the current administrations lack of a positive Energy Policy is not only hamstringing companies that could add much needed AMERICAN JOBS to the economy; it is also compromising our long term national security and unnecessarily delaying our economic recovery.

(more…)