2016 GOP, Democratic presidential debate schedule

By Lynn R. Mitchell

The third Republican debate — titled “Your Money, Your Vote” —  is Wednesday night, October 28, 2015, at 8:00 Eastern Time, from the University of Colorado in Boulder (CNBC).

Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina, and Rand Paul will participate in the two-hour debate.

At 6:00, four additional Republican candidates — Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, and Lindsey Graham — will debate. They have polled at lower than 2.5 percent so are not allowed to debate with the Top 10. I am surprised once again that Virginia’s former governor Jim Gilmore has been excluded from this group.

Joe Biden says no to presidential bid

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Announcing from the White House Rose Garden, with President Barack Obama by his side, Vice President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will not run for president in 2016.

This has been the burning question for a long while but feelings by many who listened to him after the death of his son were that he and his family were not emotionally ready to mount such a campaign. As he often said, they were still working through their sorrow. It is interesting that Obama stood by his side as Biden defended Obama’s record of governing and noted that Democrats should stand by the Obama record.

Déjà vu with shades of blue

By Lynn R. Mitchell

In 2009 Virginia Republicans faced a possible blood bath between their top two state officials. Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling and Attorney General Bob McDonnell both had their eyes on the gubernatorial race, and long-time activists, volunteers, and supporters were dreading the split a battle between the two could do to the party. As a result, Bill Bolling stepped away from the plate, leaving the nomination for Bob McDonnell, and a unified Republican Party went on to sweep the Top 3 state offices with Bob McDonnell winning governor and Bill Bolling reelected as lieutenant governor.

Fast forward to 2015 and the news that both Democratic Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam and Democratic Attorney General Mark Herring have indicated they will run for the gubernatorial nomination (see Ralph Northam confirms he’s running to become next Va. governor):

Lunch with Polly Campbell … surprise presentation of RPV resolution

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Polly Campbell stood Friday on the front porch of the historic and stately Mimslyn Inn overlooking Luray and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She and I had made plans for lunch but she didn’t know a couple of friends would be joining us and that she was to receive a commemorative resolution from the Republican Party of Virginia honoring and thanking her for more than 50 years of service to the party. She was also actively involved in the Page County Republican Committee during those years. (See Polly Yager Campbell … growing up in the shadow of Shenandoah National Park.)

A Commending Resolution in Appreciation and Gratitude to PAULINA “POLLY” YAGER CAMPBELL
For 50 Years of Service to the Republican Party of Virginia

This photo is of Governor John Dalton and Polly circa somewhere around 1979. These two were Young Republicans and lifelong friends. When they began working within the party in the early 1960s, the Democratic Byrd Machine was in control of Virginia but the generation that included Polly and Governor Dalton saw that change as they worked to bring the Republican Party into relevance.

From Encyclopedia Virginia: “Although the Daltons hailed from the western ‘Mountain and Valley’ region, where Republicans tended to be centrist in their political outlook, John Dalton became a leading advocate in the 1970s for a party-building strategy that stressed recruiting conservative converts from the ranks of former Democrats. In this, he was allied closely with Richard D. Obenshain, the Republican state chairman, and with Byrd-Organization Democrats such as former governor Mills Godwin. Godwin exited the Democratic Party as its more liberal faction gained control early in the 1970s, and ran for governor again as a Republican in 1973. Dalton joined the Godwin ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor, and the pairing helped to cement an alliance between the Republican moderates from the west and the conservative former Democrats in the eastern two-thirds of the state. Dalton simultaneously cultivated ties to the state’s moderate-conservative business establishment and projected a youthful, energetic appeal to the state’s fast-growing suburban areas.”

‘Let me see your credentials!’ A look at Ohio’s voter registration by party and why Virginia needs it

By Patrick Haley

“Get that spellbinder’s credentials,” shouts Mayor Shinn in the popular musical, The Music Man, when the con man professor Harold Hill comes to River City, Iowa, to start a boys’ band.

Richmond, Virginia, isn’t River City, but in the aftermath of the recent Eric Cantor versus David Brat election, we hear many calling to see ‘the credentials’ of some of the primary voters.

Let me share my credentials with you.  My wife, Brenda, and I lived in Virginia for twelve years before returning to our native Ohio in 2007.  We lived initially in Staunton, a charming small town nestled within the Shenandoah Valley, and later we lived in Henrico County.

I was Chair of the Staunton Republican Committee and was very active in Republican politics throughout our time in the Commonwealth including working for Congressman Bob Goodlatte and former Governor Jim Gilmore.