Rumors are being spread that the unit chairs were “threatened’ by certain members of the tea party. This is so unbelievable it is almost funny. This is another attempt by Tucker and his crew to find justification for their vote in support of the chosen candidate Robert Hurt. If the unit chairs were so afraid of the “tea baggers” then why were they in such a good mood before the meeting started? Mocking the grassroots and laughing, hardly acts of people who have been threatened.
If you want to talk about heavy handed actions, what about Watkins refusing to allow filming of the meeting, only after Hurt’s man LaCivita speaks with Tucker after a person starts setting up his camera. and then later throwing out one of the other candidates campaign manager for filming. What did Tucker have to hide?
This whole event was a farce from the start with Tucker supposedly calling the sheriff because he expected trouble. Trouble from a group of people who over the last months have protested at Perriello’s town halls and office without any hint of problems. It is obvious to anybody that Watkins is a spin artist of the first magnitude. Watkins could be the Joseph Goebbels of the 5th district.
21 Comments
BRG, not sure what meeting you were at, but your interpretation of events are not exactly correct and in some instances completely made up. I am not sure what your goal is – but if you think you are going to divide and conquer, it is not going to happen. As a conservative I believed in what the tea party movement started out as. But now, eh, not so much. The message has become jumbled and at times inflammatory. That is not my goal. My goal and my main focus is getting our current congressman out. You will never find any one politician that everyone will like. It appears that you are attempting to instigate some sort of major friction within our party. I hope conservative republicans do not fall for it. This party could be rejuvinated and come out stronger and for the better if your energies were focused on pulling everyone together instead of trying to tear us all down. Not sure exactly if you are even conservative. Hard to tell by the words you speak at times. I hope you will rethink and reconcentrate on the issue at hand and in case you forgot, it is unseating Tom Perriello. This must occur before we can even think about those two lame senators and the presidency.
ROT5th makes some excellen points.
Too much rumor, not enough fact. I would rather we not make the GOP the enemy.
I saw them mocking tea party mbers, that is a fact. Ticker not only said he was calling the sheriffs dept after he saw them gathering in the parking lot, but they gave a “heads up” to the sheriffs dept on Thursday about us being there. Those are not rumors. Furthermore, while I totally agree we need to rid ourselves of Tom Perriello, we don’t need a rep that isn’t interested in listening to his/her constituents.
Well here in Nelson, our Chair stayed on the fence before the vote. She sent emails out that never suggested how she would vote. Then after the “secret vote” she wrote that she had made it clear to everyone that she was for a Convention. She was not clear to everyone, I spent time talking with her on the phone and sending emails to her explaining the pros & cons of Convention vs. Primary. Others within the Committee also tried to get her to commit but she stayed on the fence and actually was concerned about all the phone calls and emails she was getting concerning this vote. All she had to do was commit and most of the communications to her would have stopped.
After the vote she continued not to realize or understand how strong people felt about a convention. After exchanging a few emails with her she finally suggested she was confused so I wrote the following:
“Ok lets put this confusion to bed.
I’m stating that you are wrong if you think you were clear to everyone in the NCRC (Nelson County Republican Committee) how you were going to vote last Saturday. I don’t have any emails from you that even suggests, how you were going to vote. During our phone calls you didn’t tell me how you were going to vote. I asked you a couple of times how you would vote and J****** (name withheld for privacy) asked you too. You didn’t answer either of us. That’s why he wanted to get more NCRC members to email and call you. Read your emails, I have a couple times, and you never stated how you would vote. Then you wrote after the vote: “I thought I made my position pretty clear with everyone I spoke with that I supported the convention in this particular scenario.” No you didn’t make your position clear!
Because you were not clear is why J****** and I called and talked with other Committee members to voice their opinions. Not one person called or emailed back to me that you had taken a position. Nor did you answer my emailed question about the vote. In your announcement you didn’t state how you voted after the 5th District Chairs Meeting.
Last week after we cancelled the meeting due to the weather you didn’t announce how you would vote. If you had, J****** and I wouldn’t have wasted our time calling others to voice their opinions to you.
I hope you understand where I’m coming from now. These are exciting times and some folks would suggest dangerous times for our Commonwealth and Country. The folks that thought that they weren’t ever needed in Politics are waking up and wanting to stop what is happening in our Country today.”
(end of conversation)
She has not replied since I sent this a couple days ago (12/14). At this time I feel she knew Tucker was calling a Secret Vote. I’ve seen Tucker plan this scenario before with my own eyes, he knows Roberts Rule, very Very WELL!
Was the 5th District Convention ever a possibility? IMHO NO, not with the RPV calling the shots.
Let me say at the outset that I am not our unit chair here in Lunenburg.
However, many committee members told me that they preferred a primary because they felt the primary winner would be the one with the best campaign funding & staff. To my knowledge, these people have not met any of the announced candidates & have no notion who they would support in the primary.
I hope to stop commenting on this subject because it gives support & comfort to Perriello.
we want to whip Perriello. that is our objective. keep your eye on the ball.
NO, it is not my objective to “whip Perriello”. It is my objective to elect a Candidate to Congress that understands the U.S. Constitution and will follow it! I think others feel the same way I do. I know I’m tired of voting for the lessor of two evils.
Please read my opinion piece regarding the lesser of two evils in the comments section of the ‘good ole boys draw a line in the sand.’
No evil is acceptable.
sorry kelly, but simply getting Perriello out of office is not enough for me. cardinal crossing is correct… now is our time. either we settle or we turn the country around. those are our 2 choices. not D or R.
IMHO the filming is a distraction issue; the problem I have with Tucker is the secret vote!
If people were threatened, then where is the police report? It is against Virginia Law to threaten someone with bodily harm. I’m not a Lawyer but I believe the courts call that assault.
I’m the reverse. Filming should have been allowed, and a secret ballot was fine.
I don’t know enough about the sheriffs thing to comment at this point.
“You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Abraham Lincoln
A secret vote allows Chairs from each County to possibly fool us into how they voted. A public vote wouldn’t have fooled anyone. Each Chairman would have to be responsible for their actions/vote to their own Committee and County.
Why the private vote? IMHO to allow some chair’s to fool their Committee. The private vote wasn’t statesmanship, it was pure politricks IMHO.
1) A convention would have kept Democrats from voting in a Republican Primary.
2) A convention would have brought grassroots, new and old to the convention together.
3) A convention would allow all Candidates to debate and speak to each other and the Delegates.
4) If my Candidate was voted out in the first round of votes I wouldn’t have left, I would have selected the next best Candidate.
5) As Mature Adults we would vote until the best Candidate was approved by the Majority! This would have created the largest grassroots following IMHO and then we would have folks from all over the 5th working for the one Candidate.
6) With a Primary we have 6 months of campaigning against fellow Republicans; a waste of monies and time.
These 6 months will be carefully monitored by Perriello, I’m sure.
Wow. This is becoming a spectacular meltdown.
Expressing displeasure and discussing pros and cons does not equal meltdown. We are trying to pursuade and inform each other. I’m hearing good arguments that a primary is not the ‘end of the world’. Just re-orienting my brain to the new reality.
Cardinal, you say:
2) A convention would have brought grassroots, new and old to the convention together.
3) A convention would allow all Candidates to debate and speak to each other and the Delegates; and
6) With a Primary we have 6 months of campaigning against fellow Republicans; a waste of monies and time.
A primary still has the ability to bring people together. This primary will be won at the grassroots and anyone who thinks otherwise is misguided.
A primary still allows for debate, just because we dont have a convention doesnt mean we wont have debate, are we not debating on this blog are the candidates not “debating” when they attend events together. Further, i am sure a formal debate will be attempted. A primary also ensures that the candidates travel the district and talk to their constituents, not just those who are delegates. After all who ever wins will represent all of the fifth.
A convention would also still have republicans campaigning against one another. Verga has already gone super negative for how early it is in the race. One more month of campaigning wont affect this. As to the money, the candidates will now spend more money and get more name recognition in the district. Yes, some money would be save by the counties, but someone still had to pay for a convention.
I agree that a primary or a convention would bring folks together but not in the same numbers IMHO. I also agree that the Grassroots is the key. Normally the convention would be setup just a few months from now not 6 months.
The big difference is the Primary has a Winner takes All, single vote format. One Candidate can win with less than 20%. I think the Convention would have aligned more folks quicker to a single Candidate. Oh BTW I heard one Candidate already dismissed the Southside and is looking at large population centers like Charlottesville and Lynchburg. He only needs 20%. I also understand that Bob Hurt will go to his Va. Senate District and fire-up his established base.
As for debates, many issues will be diluted by the press, each Candidate has a responsibility to verify the information the press presents as facts before commenting! With a Convention, Delegates & Candidates would hear the debate with their own ears.
From what I’ve been told the Convention is much cheaper to hold than a primary. Delegates would all share in the cost. With a primary the Counties and Cities must pay for the Election.
This is all mute since we are in a primary, but next time…
Again, getting away from the goal. Since you bring up “lessor of two evils” lets just touch on that. Even the worst of those candidates would be better than what we have. This in-fighting is exactly what the pundits have predicted. Stop attacking the republicans. Remember what and who the issue is here. So what that the guy couldn’t film – who cares? So what if it was a secret ballot – who cares? We don’t ask you to tell who you voted for when you go to the polls. There was nothing illegal, unethical or outside of Roberts Rules of Order about that meeting. This is strictly over one candidate and how it didn’t go that candidate’s way – and you know who I’m talking about. This whole thing smells of “I didn’t get a convention like I demanded” “whaa whaa whaa.” Again I would like to emphasize a convention would be filled with a small percentage of the voting population of the district. While I admit some comments on here grate on my nerves, it is good to have this forum and let opinions be heard. Perhaps we can all open eyes to something new at one time or another.
I have the feeling this threatening is probably overblown- that said I just want to move on with the decision for a primary.
OT. Bill, do you have any interest in combining this blog and the JATP blog? I just noticed I’m missing a bunch of posts and bloggy discussion goodness. It would be nice if we had “one stop shopping”. Cuz, you know, it is very difficult to move a mouse over to an icon and click the button. :^)
I just noticed the Rutheford/Olberman post. Getting a little national attention?
Seriously though, there are probably folks not checking both sites. Just a suggestion…
Thanks.
Hey BRG, ever think about putting up an online poll to gauge early support? Obviously it wouldn’t be scientific or anything, but it might drum up some interesting numbers/comments. Add a “None of the above” option as well. Maybe even a “Stick with Perriello” option too?
Or perhaps other people would rather a poll like this be done on a more “neutral” website.
Why is that you have yet to shoot down what Watkins sent you or tell us you checked it out and he was telling the truth. Something looks mighty fishy here and your reputation for honesty is at stake.
The only thing I can confirm is that no one was physically threatened, this according to Tucker Watkins who said there are more ways to threaten someone then with physical violence. Other then that no one is willing to make any comments on the record. It is up to each individual to decide what that may mean.