Gillespie won by landslide over Hill at 2014 Virginia Republican Convention

Ed Gillespie at 2014 Virginia GOP State Convention. Photo by Lynn R. Mitchell.

By Lynn R. Mitchell

At the 2014 Virginia Republican State Convention in Roanoke, Ed Gillespie soundly defeated Shak Hill for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, and then went on to come within a whisker of toppling incumbent senator Mark Warner. Final results were Warner 49.2 percent; Gillespie 48.4 percent; Sarvis 2.5 percent (see How Gillespie nearly slayed Warner).

Monday after Ed Gillespie’s name began circulating for governor after Mark Obenshain announced he was not running, radio host John Fredericks wrote the following false comment on his Facebook page:

Gillespie barely beat back a woefully underfunded convention challenge for U.S. Senate in Roanoke in 2014 by Shack Hill — who raised a little over $20,000 and ran what amounted to a Mail-Chimp campaign.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. Here are the facts with the numbers to back them up. Ed Gillespie won by a landslide over Shak Hill (and the other two candidates), as noted at the time by blogger Justin Higgins who attended the convention and asked, “Just how badly did Gillespie beat Hill?”

Virginia’s new Senator Stooge

By John Fredericks
Guest Post

Ralph Smith: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Election!
Virginia’s General Assembly prides itself on being populated by ‘citizen legislators.’ The implied meaning of that is the legislature is the people’s deliberative body. The people select its members. That’s why what is going on in Roanoke County-centric Senate District 19 is so troubling.

You see, outgoing Republican Sen. Ralph Smith has cynically rigged the system to ensure his hand-picked successor – tenderfoot legislative aide David Suetterlein – would have no formal GOP challenge for the nomination.

This brazen maneuver compels me to ask some uncomfortable questions.

Since when do the political elites and power brokers pre-determine election outcomes by gaming the system in a way that denies voters expressing their will?

Is this the new “Virginia Way?”

#2: Media & bloggers from RPV State Convention 2014

By Lynn R. Mitchell

Justin Higgins (JHPolitics) with the LynnRMitchell.com crew (Alex Davis, Kurt Michael).