From his blog- Ox Road South:
Victory YesterdayIt's 1:00 pm on Wednesday, November 7th. I am in the office trying to catch up on files that have been neglected for the past few weeks.
We won last night by a margin of 55.1% - 44.6%, out of 46,000 votes cast. The strength of our showing combined the expected (large margins in Fairfax City and Braddock) with the unexpected (a sweep of all four precincts in the Town of Vienna). We were competitive in the whole district, only losing five precincts out of forty-five.
I give the credit to my hard-working staff and volunteers. They never stopped making phone calls, hitting doors or putting up signs. They did it all.
I had a chance to speak to the Democratic audience at the McLean Hilton last night. The tape is here and here.
It was a great moment for me and my family. The Richmond Times Dispatch put my shoes on its front page today. The Washington Post even mentioned my name in its article.At some point in the next few days, I will post my analysis of this race. In the meantime, here are the precincts that I door-knocked beginning on February 10th and continuing thru November 5th:
Camelot (won), Ridgelea (won), Woodson (won), Old Creek (won), Olley (won), Long Branch (won), Oak Hill (won), Laurel (won), Robinson (won), Villa (won), Vienna #1 (won), Vienna #2 (won), Vienna #6 (won), Wolf Trap (won), Westbriar (LOST!), Freedom Hill (won), City #3 (won), Vienna #4 (won), Thoreau (won), Lake Braddock (won), Penderbrook (won), City #4 (won), City #6 (won), and City #1 (won).
And that is how the 34th was won.
Ah, good times...
Chap has always been an amazing and hard-working campaigner. Nobody outworks Chap. He even taught Webb a thing or to--and God knows Webb needed the lesson.
What next? Perhaps the whole holding-up-the-shoes thing could become a Virginia tradtion? Leslie needs to pick out some suitable footwear NOW.
From yesterday's WASH POST blog:
Kicking (or Shooting) Her When She's Down?
State Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R-Fairfax) has been taking quite a beating in the public domain since she lost resoundingly to Democrat J. Chapman Petersen in last Tuesday's election. The Democratic-friendly blogs have been crowing over her defeat, and the de facto blow that the loss represented for her husband, U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, who devoted much of the last two months, hundreds of thousands of dollars in his campaign money, and a fleet of his political staff to saving his wife's political career.
The beating is coming from the other side today, when the gun-rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League will hold a party to celebrate Devolites Davis's loss. In an effort to win in an increasingly Democrat-leaning district, the one-term senator campaigned in part on a promise to enact further gun controls. She also angered gun-rights activists by appearing with New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who praised her push for greater gun controls.http://www.youtube.c... or Bananarama version at http://www.youtube.c...). 'Na na na naaaa, na na na naaaa, hey D D, good bye!'"
Those who pay attention to such things will remember that the Mason government building is where gun-rights advocates staged a gun raffle in May to protest Bloomberg's campaign to target Virginia gun dealers who make it easy for criminals to obtain guns used in crimes in the city. The event became a showdown between gun-rights advocates and relatives of victims killed during the Virginia Tech massacre, which had occurred only weeks before.
11/16/2007
A story unfolded on last Tuesday's Election Night that you simply
won't hear reported in the mainstream media. It's a story of
arrogance and power, but it has a happy ending.
In Virginia, the week before Election Day, New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg arrived to endorse State Senator Jeannemarie Devolites
Davis. Why'd he make the trip? Solely because of Devolites Davis's
support for gun control. This was big news, not just in Virginia,
but around the country. CNN even interviewed Bloomberg and Devolites
Davis about the endorsement.
Something tells me CNN won't be having Bloomberg and Davis back on
the network to talk about what went wrong, but the results were not
what the pair was hoping for. On Election Night, Devolites Davis
watched as her opponent was elected handily, and the biggest anti-gun
election campaign of the year went down in flames.
Maybe this will be enough to convince other politicians that
Bloomberg-style gun control isn't a winning issue-not in the Virginia
suburbs, not in D.C., not anywhere. Americans may want change, but
they don't want more gun control laws that do nothing to stop violent
criminals.