So, Jerry Kilgore's really proud of himself today for collecting 34,121 petition signatures. And we here at RaisingKaine.com would like to take a moment to congratulate him on his momentous accomplishment. Except for one little problem: the big news today was not Kilgore's 34,121 signatures, but the fact that his Republican opponent for the nomination, Warrenton Mayor George Fitch, also collected enough signatures -- almost 16,000 -- to be on the June primary ballot. That's right, Jerry, don't look now but you've got competition!What makes Kilgore's 34,121 signatures even LESS impressive relative to Fitch is that: 1) Kilgore has been running his campaign for significantly longer than Fitch; 2) Kilgore had 1,100 volunteers collecting signatures versu 88 volunteers for Fitch (which means that Kilgore's volunteers collected about 30 signatures each, while Fitch's volunteers managed to gather over 110 signatures each); 3) Kilgore has benefitted from the full weight of the Virginia Republican Party behind him; 4) Kilgore has had a gazillion dollars more to spend than Fitch; and 5) Kilgore has started with far greater name recognition than Fitch. With all that, Kilgore only managed twice as many signatures as George Fitch? Wow, that's really impressive!
The bottom line is that, just as in baseball, it doesn't matter if you win by 1 run or 10 runs, it still only counts as 1 win. So, Jerry, you received twice as many petition signatures as the guy best known for his role in the Jamaican "Cool Runnings" bobsled team story. The net result of all your effforts? You're on the ballot. But so is he. Pretty funny, ain't it?
Meanwhile, while you've been running around the state trying to get fewer signatures than the attendance at tonight's
So, enjoy your big petition signature "victory" while you can. It may be the last thing you have to celebrate for a while.