Owing to a long-planned vacation out of the country (childishness to the contrary notwithstanding, "NoVA Scout" was not with us; I am more particular about the company that I keep), and the dispatch with which the event was planned and occurred, the Youngs missed their first Prince William County Republican Convention in more than a decade. Congratulations to Corey Stewart on a resounding endorsement from his fellow Republicans. I am thankful that our two votes were not necessary to make the difference.
Charles has a brief analysis of the event here. Craig Vitter has a number of analyses of the race over at his eponymous website. Ben Tribbett's comments are now "below the fold," and apparently went there before I got back in the country, so I neither know what he said, nor its quality, though I suspect that his analysis was sound, as usual (excepting the fact that he is in the bag for R2D2), even for a Democrat. Even Vince was magnanimous, though his more peurile and less courageous contributors have been uncharacteristically quiet, save for "NoVA Scout," who offers a discussion which, as one would expect, lends credence to the theory that he is Chairman Sean in its fawning and wailing and gnashing of teeth over his pending departure.
I haven't seen this elsewhere, so it's worth noting here:
The biggest news out of the competing nominating contests is in the fact that nearly twice as many people participated in the GOP nominating contest (411 or 413, depending upon whom you believe) as participated in the Democrat nominating process (211). This dismal showing among County Democrats cannot be attributed solely to the timing of its Convention in the summer vacation season, as Republicans labored under the same handicap. That is, unless the Democrats --- as the party of surrender and appeasement --- can be equated with the cheese-eating surrender monkeys of France, who are notorious for vacationing in August.
The most interesting aspect of the relative reporting is that one finds the Washington Post to have reported this news with less bias than our own local Potomac News. Not unexpected, mind you --- the recent direction of the Pot. News increasingly demonstrates the left-wing biases of its management --- but interesting, nonetheless.
While casting Stewart's resounding victory --- 69% of the Convention vote --- as "a rebuff of the pro-growth policies championed by Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chairman Sean T. Connaughton," the Washington Post reports the fact of the relative numbers relatively closely, mentioning the dismal Democrat numbers before noting the number of GOP delegates attending the Convention. Of course, the same day as the Convention, the Post offered an expectedly fawning editorial (actually on the editorial page!) about Chairman Sean and his imminent departure, virtually ignoring the rate of tax-bill growth and noting his eleventh hour effort to "cap" tax-bill growth at "only" 5.9%. Never mind that, while County population has grown by only 30% during his tenure, County spending has grown by 114%. I guess utter surrender to the desires of a bureaucracy to engage in a spending spree is what the Post means when it dismisses those urging a more measured course as "the zealots in his own Republican Party who couldn't abide his determination to govern pragmatically." No, WaPo, what we couldn't abide was his failure to lead and to take control of County spending.
Of course, the Pot. News took a different tack, burying the relatively dismal showing among County Democrats far within its story. There, one cannot help but notice that, while Keith Walker mentions the 413 (I have no explanation for the difference in the numbers) delegates at the GOP Convention in the same brief paragraph discussing Stewart's speech, one has to read twelve paragraphs farther into the story to learn that only 211 Democrats were delegates to that Convention. And one has to do the math one's self to learn that the GOP is relatively more unified (Stewart received 69% or 70% of the delegate votes) than the Democrats (Pandak received 134 of 211 votes, or 63%) in their choice.
Sadly, given my experience with the Pot. News and the honesty (or lack thereof) of its management, it's probable that Republicans can expect more of the same in the months to come.
2 comments:
The Credentials committee announced 411 credentialed and approved delegates.
On the floor, we approved two delegates who had been rejected by the credentials committee because their voter registration could not be confirmed.
So there were 413 delegates finally approved.
We also had a fair number of visitors.
Keep in mind that the Dems nearly did not have a convention at all... Pandak was committed to moving her employment from Fredericksburg to PWC and did not file until the 11th hour. There was essentially a 3 day campaign to get folks (who thought there was only one candidate and there would be no convention) to the convention.
Post a Comment