I won't recapitulate all of Chap's remarks. He especially thanked Dick Saslaw first for talking him into the race, and then for ensuring that he would not run out of resources down the stretch, when, as he said, people were suddenly discovering (thanks to the attack ads from the other side) that he was a bad person.
Chap raised over a million dollars, which may sound incredibly until you consider this - according to Saslaw, the total amount Tom Davis dumped into Jeannemarie's race was over 900,000!!
That last figure should make it clear the Davis is not running for reelection. First he drained his coffers defeating Andy Hurst last year, and thus had little excess with which to run for Senate, even had he not faced a convention faceoff with Gilmore. And now he has drained much of what he had raised since then to unsuccessfully try to help his wife keep her seat. That was one piece of news.
Second, in conversations with several people, my perception of the effects of Republicans using illegal immigration as a tactic were confirmed - it worked in some places, not in others, and is likely to continue to be used as a weapon because they have so few other issues. Some, including Dave Marsden's wife, thin k Corey Stewart may try for the Lt. Gov.'s slot using precisely that as an issue.
If Connolly gets into the 11th district race, which seems likely if Davis is not running, then it may well be a 4-way primary. Andy Hurst is seriously thinking of getting in the race. He has had a lot of people urge him to, he is still interested in elective office, he believes he can easily raise the money. That could make the 11th the most contested House seat in the nation in the primary cycle.
There was good food - Greek. There were good drinks, including Yuengling on draft (my choice). There were good people - a lot of Dems, who of course we assume are good people. And I had a good time.
I have no idea of the value of this report, but I thought - what the heck, I didn't see Lowell there, so I thought I'd give it a shot.
The only problem is - I have no idea under what diary topic this should be listed, so I did not make a choice.
Peace.
$900K? Is that possible? I've seen figures of around $450K, but nothing as high as that. Doesn't matter; Tom won't run.
Even working the polls in PWC on Tuesday people were talking about how Corey was saving his money to run for Lt. Gov. That should be fun.
BTW, I'm from PWC, and I'm glad to hear that some officials have noted that immigration worked as a tactic in some area elections. Washington Post articles, and even commentors on this blog, have stated that the evidence shows otherwise, but I believe that is a generalization. I believe that, if you ask most any voter in Prince William County, they'll tell you they either voted for, or against, Corey Stewart because of his stance on immigration.
Another BTW -- Several very good sources say Stewart wants to run for governor, not lt. governor, and will try to exploit the illegal immigration issue for his purposes. The man needs to be stopped.
I too would be very happy to know that Andy Hurst would be running for the 11th again. I like Leslie when it comes down to Gerry or Leslie, but Andy actually was such a breath of fresh air, unbought, energetic, progressive to a tee, and just a great speaker.
I would have a hard time between supporting Andy and Leslie, but then again, I'm in the 8th anyway. But, I'll still be giving my money and time to them next year. Moran certainly won't be challenged seriously, unless it's in a primary.