Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Caddigan v. Stewart for GOP Nomination

Well, according to Ben Tribbett and Vince Harris, Maureen Caddigan will run for the GOP nomination for PWC Board of County Supervisors Chairman.

If true --- while I respect Ben, Vince might just be making it all up --- then this virtually guarantees a Stewart nomination (Ben only calls it "Lean Stewart"). As I have said elsewhere, Maureen does not travel well outside of the Dumfries District, where she is no doubt "all that," as those who have dared to stray from her orbit --- yours truly included --- learn quickly. So it is entirely doubtful that she could win the GOP nomination, much less the County.

Actually, it seems to me that the former is even less likely than the latter. After all, simply having an "R" next to her name will garner her votes from those who don't know her.

Oh, to be sure, there are those who are spinning this as a Connaughton move. Who knows? They might even be correct. But it is difficult for me to believe that Connaughton is a puppet master here, particularly considering that Maureen supported Chairman Sean's opponent in 1999, Democrat incumbent Kathleen Seefeldt. It is equally difficult for me to believe that Republicans will not remember this fact and hold it against Maureen.

If growth is the issue, and Republicans are dominant in PWC, then it is looking very good for Corey Stewart. Maureen Caddigan is most assuredly in the tax-and-spend mode of Sean Connaughton, and she was tax-and-spend before tax-and-spend was cool, working hard for a "meals tax" twice rejected by voters in referenda (Chairman Sean was MIA in those battles in the mid-Nineties). So I can agree with Ben on one thing: she is definitely a "moderate" in the Chairman Sean mold. That is, she wants the GOP label for its electoral power, but spends like a Democrat.

It will be interesting to see how serious County Republicans are about protecting the GOP "name brand."

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