Posted on 04/28/2009 1:48:19 PM PDT by GOPGuide
A new poll gives Terry McAuliffe a double digit lead over Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds, his Democratic rivals for Governor.
But a majority of likely Democratic voters who responded to the News7 SurveyUSA poll say they may still change their mind.
But the bad news for all of the Democrats, Republican Bob McDonnell leads each of them in general election match-ups, though Deeds is closest with a difference of five percentage points.
Here is a look at the results:
Asked of 409 likely Democratic primary voters
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 4.9%
If the Democratic Primary for Virginia Governor were today, who would you vote for? (candidate names rotated) Creigh Deeds? Terry McAuliffe? Or Brian Moran?
22% Deeds 38% McAuliffe 22% Moran 18% Other / Undecided
Asked of 1396 registered voters
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 2.7%
Regardless of what you told us about the June 9th primary, thinking ahead now to the GENERAL election in November... If the only two names on the ballot for Governor of Virginia were Republican Bob McDonnell and ... Democrat Creigh Deeds, who would you vote for?
44% McDonnell (R) 39% Deeds (D) 17% Undecided
Asked of 1396 registered voters
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 2.7%
What if the only two names on the November ballot were ... Bob McDonnell and Democrat Terry McAuliffe?
46% McDonnell (R) 39% McAuliffe (D) 15% Undecided
Asked of 1396 registered voters
Margin of Sampling Error for this question = ± 2.7%
What if it was Bob McDonnell against Democrat Brian Moran?
46% McDonnell (R) 34% Moran (D) 19% Undecided
The three Democrats are debating at the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research in Danville Tuesday night. There's just six weeks until the June 9 primary.
News7's Joe Dashiell will have highlights from the debate in Danville on News7 at 10 & 11.
You are the buffoon. Frederick was elected by 60% of the convention vote. If he is to be removed, let the grassroots do it, not some central committee of elitists. I bet if Jeff were to run at the end of May, he would be reelected. I sat in on a Prince William County GOP meeting that passed a resolution unanimously that Jeff should be retained as chairman. You sound like a Specter Republican who cannot believe that someone would even consider running against him in the primary. Don't the grassroots have a right to express their opinions and select their party chairman?
So, if in all your ideological pureness you can stand the thoughts of Governor McAuliffe and daily visits from Bill Clinton, Paul Begala and James Carville, and if you want to validate the legacy of the Eyebrow ...then go ahead and stage your little hissy-fit.
Call it what you want, but to us it is a matter of principle. I could care less about the results if the Rep party becomes another wing of the Dem party. McDonnell is not perfect. I am not incredibly enthusiastic about him or his candidacy. But is hs mostly solid on the issues. But this is bigger than petty disagreements and intra-party squabbles.
We heard this same BS as to why we should support McCain. McDonnell supported the putsch against Jeff. He and his ilk started this food fight in the run up to this campaign where Reps have a golden opportunity to win. Instead, they decide to divide the party among elites and the grassroots. Et tu, Brute?
I hope McCauliffe or Moran is the nominee, I think Deeds would give McDonnell the toughest fight.
Warner and Kaine are carpetbaggers and they did fine. It plays well in NoVA, where one-third of the voters live.
That's all I need to read. You're not worth arguing with.
But they don’t have a Rochester accent like Terry, and they aren’t on video saying they’re from the “real New York” (upstate).
>I hope McCauliffe or Moran is the nominee, I think Deeds would give McDonnell the toughest fight.<
I have far less problem with Deeds than I do the others. McCauliffe is the most likely to pull out every dirty trick in the book to win and we’ve got to be on our toes to beat him. Chain the cemetary gates shut if Terry gets the Democratic nod.
McCauliffe can also raise all the money he’ll need and then some.
If you can’t distinguish between getting 85% of what we want or the alternative is slicing our own throat, I don’t know what to tell you. But you pull that 3rd party crap, Hoss, and as far as I and the rest of us are concerned, you’re working for McAuliffe’s election.
It was already stated Frederick was removed due to incompetence. I said already that being a Conservative alone doesn’t automatically qualify you to lead a party. You seem to think it does. What you need in VA is someone successful like SC’s Katon Dawson, probably the best state party chairman in the country.
And if you think I’m about selling out Conservative positions to mimic Democrats, I submit my 8 years of posts here to disavow you of that right off the bat. I LIVE next door to that “illegal” problem, and you’d better believe they don’t come much more unapologetic on that issue than I.
I’ll reiterate to you again, this party has done a HORRIBLE job at selling its message outside of the post-1960s constituencies (and it ain’t exactly doing a bang-up job with the ones that are). They don’t go into the Black/LEGAL Hispanic communities, they don’t walk the streets, they don’t actively recruit or FUND the candidates, and they sure as hell don’t even ASK for their votes. And we act surprised when their votes go overwhelming for the rodents. When it comes to politics, just like it comes to clothes and education, one size does NOT fit all. And you’re not going to be able to pull off a racial appeal to White people, either, because Whites don’t vote as a bloc (nor should we be about appealing “exclusively” to White voters).
And you are not worth listening to. You don’t know sh*t from shinola, which is why the Rep Party has become the stupid party.
Kaine has a upper midwestern accent.
But he’s not video claiming to be from “the real New York.”
Well said.
That's the same line that was used against people who didn't want to vote for McCain. It isn't going to work this time.
It was already stated Frederick was removed due to incompetence. I said already that being a Conservative alone doesn’t automatically qualify you to lead a party. You seem to think it does. What you need in VA is someone successful like SC’s Katon Dawson, probably the best state party chairman in the country..
That is pure BS. You don't know the facts, I do firsthand. Your arrogance is only exceeded by your ignorance. FYI: Fredericks is an Hispanic, not that that should matter.
And if you think I’m about selling out Conservative positions to mimic Democrats, I submit my 8 years of posts here to disavow you of that right off the bat. I LIVE next door to that “illegal” problem, and you’d better believe they don’t come much more unapologetic on that issue than I..
That lesson has not been learned by most Rep politicians. Political correctness and fear of a backlash have cowed and intimated them.
They don’t go into the Black/LEGAL Hispanic communities, they don’t walk the streets, they don’t actively recruit or FUND the candidates, and they sure as hell don’t even ASK for their votes. And we act surprised when their votes go overwhelming for the rodents.
We do, but it doesn't work for many different reasons, the most important of which is that they are generally more dependent upon government. They favor big government. The Republicans’ Hispanic Delusion
Thanks, but I stand on what I said 100%. Don’t pull that McCain crap, either. He was less than useless. My state carried his sorry ass across, even though he damn well didn’t deserve it.
As for you, sir, you want to keep an incompetent party chairman and more than that, deliberately incite a civil war over it in an election year, all to the benefit of the Democrats while they laugh all the way to Richmond. You keep up your stance, and you’re doing nothing but working for the McAuliffe team. You ain’t gonna win anything but permanent minority status for the rest of your lifetime (and you’re what, 70 ?) while those of us far younger than you will be having to clean up YOUR mess long after you’ve gone to the boneyard.
Oh, and, btw, anybody that EVER calls me ignorant to my face, especially on the subject of politics, and the price I’ve paid for being a principled Conservative will be in need of serious dental work. Have a nice day.
You live in MA, I live in VA. I am personally familiar with all of the details surrounding this issue. You are not. Yet you have the chutzpah to say that Jeff is incompetent. Do you even know why he was removed or Jeff's responses to these trumped up charges? Who started the food fight and when.
Do you know that this movement to remove Jeff started almost from the day that Jeff was elected? I was there. Hager and company were absolutely stunned by the results. And Jim Gilmore was barely nominated as the Senate candidate against Bob Marshall. It would have taken two delegates from a small county to have given the nomination to Marshall. And there have been some credible reports that there was some hanky panky in altering the results to help Gilmore. The grassroots are fed up with the good old boys running the party.
We have been losing elections for years and not just since Jeff took over 9 months into his chairmanship. Jeff has raised more money than his predecessors and applied 21st century technology to tie Reps together in the state. None of this matters to the good old boys who what to get rid of the 33 year old Hispanic guy. About one-third of the 50 or so people who went to Richmond to demonstrate for Jeff against the central committee's actions were minorities who took it personal about Jeff's removal. These are the very people you are pontificating about that we should attract.
You keep up your stance, and you’re doing nothing but working for the McAuliffe team. You ain’t gonna win anything but permanent minority status for the rest of your lifetime (and you’re what, 70 ?) while those of us far younger than you will be having to clean up YOUR mess long after you’ve gone to the boneyard.
If nothing is done to change our immigration policies, the Dems will be the permanent majority regardless. Unless the GOP grows a pair it is going to continue losing and watch the red states go purple and then blue like Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, and Arizona. When folks like me go to the boneyard, there will be no Republican party, just another wing of the Democrat party filled with people like you who will compromise principle and what is best for this country to be in power.
Oh, and, btw, anybody that EVER calls me ignorant to my face, especially on the subject of politics, and the price I’ve paid for being a principled Conservative will be in need of serious dental work. Have a nice day.
Yeah, you are a real tough guy. You are ignorant and I would be happy to tell it to your face.
absolutely not true. And I can provide the documentation to prove it.
and applied 21st century technology to tie Reps together in the state.
provided exclusively as "in kind" services from his own company.
And, as late as last year Frederick admitted "I don't read the blogs."
He goofed up the Twitter message about the Senate changeover.
RPV provided little to no help to our candidates in special elections.
And that's off the top of my head.
And as for the grassroots you keep mentioning. They're the ones who elected the State Central Committee that removed Frederick. How come those thousands didn't rally in support of Frederick?
>McCauliffe can also raise all the money he’ll need and then some.<
He’s already doing commercials in the Roanoke market at least.
Dear Republican Friend,
Less than one year ago, thousands of our party’s activists and volunteers attended the 2008 State Republican Convention in Richmond. It was at this gathering that I was overwhelmingly elected chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV).
At that Convention, my message of a Republican Party that would be driven by the beliefs and convictions of the grassroots carried me to a clear and convincing victory. I won nearly 60% of the vote, carrying 8 of Virginia’s 11 Congressional districts. As my four immediate predecessors had each been initially elected by the members of the RPV State Central Committee, I became the first Chairman in 12 years to initially win election at a convention, and the first in 16 years to win a contested convention.
Regardless of whether you voted for me or even attended the 2008 Convention, I want you to know that I’m proud that I have honored the commitment to refocus our party’s priorities on the grassroots, as opposed to the top-down approach we had taken for so many years to disappointing – and sometimes disastrous – results at the ballot box.
I’m further proud of the achievements we’ve made at the RPV in less than 10 months. We have aggressively communicated a consistent conservative message in the mold of Ronald Reagan; surpassed the Democrats in the use of technology; and established field-representatives in every area of the state to serve our local Party units.
Despite an extremely challenging national environment for Republicans, RPV raised over $1 million during my first seven months as Chairman to support our candidates and grassroots efforts. And, those monies were in addition to resources provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC), where combined, led to RPV spending an unprecedented $5 million on behalf of our candidates last year.
More recently, we have actively assisted the resurgence of our party in special elections, where our candidates have made great strides in districts Barack Obama won by large margins.
All of this was accomplished in less than a year, in large part because we changed the way RPV did business and listened to the voice of the grassroots.
Unfortunately, many of the same Party insiders who overwhelmingly opposed me last year have decided to wage a campaign to overturn the results of last year’s State Convention and remove me as State Party Chairman. Because they never supported me, my removal has been a consistent focus of theirs almost from the moment I took office.
Because I would not step aside, this group served me with a list of “charges” as a pretext to vote me out at a Party meeting to be held April 4. Disappointingly, several of these individuals have already declared their intentions to remove me at that meeting regardless of my response to these charges. In effect, they have decided to prejudge what is supposed to be a fair and deliberative process.
As I have stated from the beginning, I will not abandon the chairmanship and break my pledge to the rank-and-file Republicans who elected me less than a year ago. The votes and decisions of the thousands of the Party faithful who attend our conventions, where we select our party’s nominees and elect our Party’s leaders, must be respected. Overturning them because the results do not fully comply with the choices of long-time Party insiders would be a violation of the trust the Republican Party must hold with its own conservative base. Elections should mean something, after all.
Below you will find a summary of my response to the “charges” against me. A comprehensive response containing much greater detail accompanied by supporting documentation is being sent to every member of the State Central Committee (SCC). These are the seventy-seven individuals who will vote on my Chairmanship on April 4.
As you know, one of the media’s favorite story lines in Virginia this decade has been Republicans fighting Republicans. Whether it was a battle between Republicans over car tax relief in 2001; over a massive tax increase in 2004; or, more recently, over transportation funding, many of our state’s editorial pages are delighted when we’re battling one another.
I regret having to write you on this matter. Even though those working to remove me as Chairman have fought this battle largely in the media, engineering almost a news release per day, it was my hope I could respond to the charges without distributing them to a large audience. My hopes for discretion in this matter and my plan to restrict my responses to these charges only to the seventy-seven members of the SCC were dashed last week when my critics turned them over to the Associated Press.
From the moment I read the “charges,” I have maintained they are false and without merit, and that one day soon I would respond to them thoroughly and convincingly. That day is today.
With these charges swirling in the media, I believe it is very important you be kept fully informed as to what is going on in your Republican Party. I make no apologies for standing against these efforts to remove me or the changes I’ve made within our party to give greater authority and input to the grassroots. Those seeking my removal are asking me to abandon the promises that earned me the chairmanship so that they can take us back to the way things used to be. In my opinion, that would be a disaster.
I do not take it personally that some want me to step down so we can return to the old way of doing things. After all, very few of them ever supported me, and many of the elected officials in Virginia endorsed my opponent’s campaign. But, I do take offense when a small minority seeks to nullify the voices of so many, once again turning our party into a rubber stamp for its long-time insiders.
For years, the Virginia Republican Party had been run from the “top down”, with consultants and lobbyists providing far more input into the direction of our party than the grassroots. The result? Republicans supporting tax increases in 2004; 11 seats lost just this decade in the House of Delegates; and control of the Virginia Senate now in the hands of Democrats.
This is the same mentality that cost us United States House and Senate, where Republicans strayed from their core beliefs and ignored the grassroots, “spending” their way to minority status in a body that is now a rubber stamp for Barack Obama. Our nation and our commonwealth are just too important to go back to the old way of doing business.
I’m disappointed some in our party want to fight old intra-party squabbles. But, they will not distract me from our efforts to build our grassroots, oppose the egregious liberal agenda of Barack Obama and the congressional Democrats, and do everything I can to ensure we prevail in the 2009 elections to make Bob McDonnell our next governor.
To the hundreds of you who have written, called or emailed your support on behalf of our quest to change the Republican Party of Virginia, I want to thank you for your strong encouragement and words of support these last several days. Rest assured, we're fighting for the future of our Republican Party and our commonwealth, and we will not back down.
Sincerely,
Jeff Frederick
provided exclusively as "in kind" services from his own company.
Charge 1:
Failure to transmit, in a timely manner, online contributions made to the Republican Party of Virginia and processed by his own company. Withholding 7% of online contributions made to the RPV for a period of weeks during the summer of 2008 after repeatedly assuring the Executive Committee that he was not using his company as a vendor for RPV.
Response to Charge 1:
While waiting for a newly contracted vendor to complete work on a new RPV website and for a new online donation vendor to complete its setup requirements, the Chairman established a “place holding” website through his own firm, GXS Strategies, Inc., also using its online donation company and subsidiary, ChargedContributions.com, for a period of 91 days. In return for a 7% discount fee, it was expected that ChargedContributions.com would cover all incidental expenses related to any transactions, including payments to merchant banks and credit cards.
Key facts:
· This “place holder” approach was immediately successful. Under the previous chairman, the Party raised only $2,000 online for the first five months of 2008 combined. After the Chairman and RPV staff set up an efficient, yet temporary system, the Party raised over $21,000 online in just three months at no cost to the Party. The funds collected by the RPV website were deposited into a non-interest bearing escrow account for distribution to the Party. Distributions were made on 8 July and 1 October.
· The “place holder” page automatically reported contributions to the RPV employees’ responsible for fundraising supervision, and, providing redundant transparency, the entire account was accessible to RPV employees.
· Of the $21,135.00 in contributions collected for RPV by ChargedContributions.com, the company retained 7% of the total, or $1,479.45, to cover incidental expenses and required remittances to merchant banks, credit card companies, and an online processing service. After fulfilling obligations to merchant banks and credit card companies, ChargedContributions.com retained a maximum total of $581.62 to cover other incidental expenses associated with the credit card collection process.
·In order to fully comply with Virginia campaign finance disclosure law regarding the work it did on behalf of RPV in constructing the “place holder” website and donation page, GXS Strategies, Inc., of which ChargedContributions.com is a subsidiary, reported an in-kind contribution to RPV in the amount of $17,717.61 on 8 September.
· Far from withholding money from RPV to benefit himself, Chairman Frederick’s company provided free services to the Party in an amount that was 30 times greater than the total of the alleged monetary compensation received by his company.
· All records, documentation, and filings verifying this information and detailing these transactions can be accessed via the Virginia Public Access Project, The State Board of Elections, the Federal Elections Committee, and internal RPV documents.
To summarize Charge 1, the Chairman’s company donated $17,717.61 in-kind to the RPV. During the period this company was used, RPV netted $19,655.58 from its online donations. The Chairman’s company provided interim services for 91 days, and the Executive Committee and RPV staff had a full accounting of the fundraising.
And that's off the top of my head.
You are just parroting some of the garbage manufactured by the elitists who took Jeff down. These are trumped up charges without substance or substantiation.
And as for the grassroots you keep mentioning. They're the ones who elected the State Central Committee that removed Frederick. How come those thousands didn't rally in support of Frederick?
I was one of those who elected SCC members. Two of my three members voted for Jeff, i.e., Joanne Chase and Howie Lind. They were at the meeting and reported that Jeff destroyed the charges made against him. They were baseless. When you have the elites like McDonnell, the five VA congressmen and a number of county chairs joining in, the outcome was never in doubt. If Jeff was so incompetent, why not let the delegates decide at the end of May and use the same process that elected Jeff. Why overturn an election?
And I find it truly Orwellian when people like you blame Jeff Frederick for dividing the party when your side initiated this food fight in the midst of the run up to the vital 2009 elections in Virginia. Do you and those of your ilk have a death wish for this party?
Thanks for spamming me with Jeff’s PR defense I’ve already seen a dozen times.
You know, you’ve read little of what I said. I told you the whole thing was a mistake and handled badly. That doesn’t negate Frederick’s shortcomings.
I never blamed Frederick for dividing the party. Not yet anyway. He was counseled private on numerous occasions and ignored the counsel. When it went public, and he knew the die was cast, he decided to fight anyway.
I will grant you that McDonnell should have stayed out of it. Cuccinelli did an excellent job of doing just that.
But the bottom line is that vindicating Jeff Frederick, who despite a very spirited defense was a flawed chairman [his “unprecedented $5 million” netted us the biggest electoral feat in Virginia in decades], is not worth four years of Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran or Creigh Deeds as Governor.
I sent it to you and to fieldmarshaldj. It is not spam and it responds to the phony allegations you made about Jeff's in-kind contributions and the amount of money he raised. I didn't include Jeff's response to all 10 charges.
I never blamed Frederick for dividing the party. Not yet anyway. He was counseled private on numerous occasions and ignored the counsel. When it went public, and he knew the die was cast, he decided to fight anyway.
Who counseled him? And who made it public? This was a well-orchestrated campaign to remove him. It started from almost the day after he was elected. I went to the Don Huffman Advance in December and it was already well-known that the long knives were out after him. I am glad he fought, because it has demonstrated what we are up against as a party. It is the grassroots versus the elites. The convention will be interesting to say the least.
You know, you’ve read little of what I said. I told you the whole thing was a mistake and handled badly. That doesn’t negate Frederick’s shortcomings.
You never said it was a mistake. This is what you said, YES, the whole Frederick Affair disgusted me. It was mishandled from the get go. But Frederick is also a buffoon. Big difference. A small elite shouldn't undo elections after 10 montns, especially one that had been the first contested one in 16 years. What message does that send to the grassroots?
I will grant you that McDonnell should have stayed out of it. Cuccinelli did an excellent job of doing just that.
McDonnell showed poor judgment as did the VA GOP congressional delegation. I let Frank Wolf know that face-to-face. Bolling, Foster, Cuccinelli, and Brownlee all announced they were not going to take sides. Of course, McDonnell is running uncontested while the others all have challengers. I personally let Ken know he should have supported Jeff, who is a personal friend of his.
But the bottom line is that vindicating Jeff Frederick, who despite a very spirited defense was a flawed chairman [his “unprecedented $5 million” netted us the biggest electoral feat in Virginia in decades], is not worth four years of Terry McAuliffe, Brian Moran or Creigh Deeds as Governor.
Blaming Jeff for what happened in November is ludicrous. The VA GOP has been in decline for years. Kerry won Fairfax County for the first time in 40 years in 2004. Jeff was trying to correct the mistakes of the past. He had only been on the job 6 months. This is like blaming Bush for 9/11.
Jeff had no role in selecting McCain, the self-described Maverick, as the Presidential nominee. Jeff didn't decide to have Gilmore run against Mark Warner. Jeff had nothing to do with the rapidly changing demographics of VA--See my post #29. And Jeff had nothing to do with the amount of money McCain raised and how he used it. McCain had 10 offices in VA and Obama had 62. Obama didn't take public financing and he was was rolling in money. Obama made VA a major battleground state. And it will continue to be one as the demographics change and NoVA becomes more and more like Cook County in Illinois when it comes to statewide and national elections.
Jeff won as delegate from a heavily Dem district. Recently, the election of John Cook and the close losses by Herrity and the seat vacated by Brian Moran show a slight resurgence of the party in NoVA. Personally, I think the good old boys sense that the GOP might be on the ascendency and wanted to kick Jeff off the horse before it reached the finish line so he couldn't claim the credit. But their actions could have a serious backlash. Amy Frederick has withdrawn her name to run for Jeff's old seat. She is in many ways a better candidate than Jeff--a terrible loss to the party.
You reap what you sow. I hope those of you who believe that Jeff was a "buffoon" and "flawed" find a better party chairman. Hopefully, it won't be Tom Davis or George Allen, names I have heard bandied about. And maybe we should drop this pretense about being a democratic party allowing the grassroots to decide who will be their chairman by elections at the convention. Just convene the Central Committee and annoint whomever you want--Soviet- style. It might be time to form a conservative party in VA and let you moderates see how well you do without us.
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