Posted on 02/25/2005 9:46:33 PM PST by advance_copy
RICHMOND, Feb. 25 -- Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester) announced Friday that he is running for Virginia governor as an "independent Republican" and will mount a populist, pro-investment campaign against the two major party candidates.
Potts, a senator for 14 years, said that he remains faithful to the principles of his party but that the GOP's rightward drift has put it out of line with the thinking of most Virginians.
"I believe that Virginia is a moderate, middle-of-the-road state," said Potts, 65. "That's where I am."
He vowed to turn back one of the most popular political promises in recent Virginia history by allowing local governments to reinstate the car tax. He said the rollback of the tax has been a "fiasco" that has starved the state of millions of dollars needed for education, health care and public safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")
what a loser
RINO's will do this more and more often over the next several years to throw races to Democrats. RINO's cannot stand conservatives winning.
honestly, what is the deal with rino's? Do voters just not pay attention in the primarys?
Where can I contribute to his opposition?
You're right about the VA Senate. Heck, Potts is a symptom of that disease.
but that the GOP's rightward drift has put it out of line with the thinking of most Virginians.
He will be surprised then when he ends up a LOSER!
Wow. I never heard of this guy but I imagine with stands like this he must be wildly popular.
/sarcasm
The VA GOP has not drifted right. Potts is a leftist. He's pro-tax, anti-gun, and pro-abortion. The only reason he keeps getting re-elected is he calls for open primaries as the nominating process, and all the D's in his district come out to vote for him, since VA doesn't registery voters by Party affiliation.
We're working on trying to get party registration and closed primaries here in VA now. As a member of the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee, I supported and voted for a measure that will hopefully lead to it. We know we can't get it through the state senate with people like Potts and Chichester there who will do whatever they can to keep the Ds voting for them in primaries. We're hoping that some recent legal precedents elsewhere in the U.S. will get the courts here to enforce our constitutional right of freedom of association by granting us the right to hold closed primaries which will necessitate party registration.
Reminds me of that "moderate" Republican who ran as an independent to keep Oliver North out of the Senate in 1994.
I hope and believe that Kilgore will be more successful than North.
Kilgore shouldn't have to face some other factors that confronted North: a high-ranking incumbent GOP turncoat, John Warner, got the RINO (Coleman?) into the 1994 race and used all his power to back the RINO, and the liberal monopoly media went to war against North. (The WP ran hit piece after hit piece against Oliver North, culminating with a hit piece a few days before the election that seemed to come from the anti-North campaign literature of the lunatic Lyndon LaRouche.)
Now I know that the media will favor the Dem in this year's VA gov. contest, but I don't think that they will be as strident as they were against North. Also, the liberal media will be less effective than they were in 1994. Talk radio and the internet, much more powerful than in 1994, can help overcome media bias as proven in Bush's reelection against an outrageous stream of lies, half-truths and distortions of the media.
We continue to work on that. But the Governor's race is this year.
The Senate races aren't until 2007.
Kilgore ping.
You are correct. There are many more things going in Kilgore's favor.
There was a lot of negative press against Oliver North and the convention fight was pretty hectic for him to win the nomination. And yes, it was Marshall Coleman (2 time statewide loser) that ran against North and Robb.
Kilgore got more votes in 2001 than either Warner or Kaine. And he's got the best fund raising apparatus out there.
The more I think of this, the more I think the strategery is to make Kaine look more moderate. Potts says he's in this to win.
I can't believe even he is that delusional.
It will be either Kilgore or Kaine. And we've got to fight like heck to make sure it's Kilgore.
This was the number 1 topic at the county Republican's Women Committee meeting this morning.
They are very concerned about Potts taking votes from Kilgore, instead of from Kaine.
Encourage them to:
1) Keep that concern
2) Spread the word that Potts will take votes from Kaine.
That was one of the ideas I floated at the meeting this morning and it was something not many of the others had thought of, but it made sense to them.
That's what I'm fixing to do.
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