Stimpson snubs VFRW event

Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (R-10th CD)

 

By Daniel P Cortez

One would think with the power of the woman’s vote in Virginia, one time Stafford Supervisor Susan Stimpson who’s attempting to unseat Delegate Bill Howell in the June 9^th primary, would have at least left a calling card at the Virginia Federation of Republican Women’s Convention over the weekend.

Sadly for the tea party loyalist, there was no card and no message of sponsorship, unlike her opponent.  Stimpson was just a no-show.  But that did not stop several hundred Republican women from gathering at the Hilton in Short Pump, Va., to foster common goals of advancing conservative principles and candidates.

Still it’s amazing to this independent observer that Stimpson would “snub” such a powerful group of women.  Now I’ll give it to Stimpson that she found it more critical to actually be out campaigning.  But what ever happened to courtesy?  Yeah, there’s that tea party attitude I’ve come to know.

Compassionate words and deeds define new conservative leadership

By Daniel P. Cortez

The indefatigable Susan Allen, former First Lady of Virginia, co-hosted an open-to-the-public function this past weekend in Northern Virginia to benefit “Our Military Kids.”  It was a huge success to raise money benefiting our wounded soldiers and, specifically, the children of veterans whose parents face the financial difficulty of being deployed.

I was proud to be a co-sponsor, being a Vietnam veteran and having a military kid myself.  Recently-elected Congresswoman Barbara Comstock was also present to provide her support.

Another gallant cause by the extended Allen family.  And it was a family event as by her side was husband George, the enormously popular former Virginia Governor and U.S. Senator.  And it didn’t hurt to have support of his brother Bruce, president of our beloved Washington Redskins.

Political and media hypocrisy laced with hope

By Daniel P. Cortez

After several bedridden weeks battling the flu and then watching the President’s State of the Union Address, I’ve realized Stafford voters need inoculation from Democratic political hypocrites and elitists’ moral turpitude. Fortunately, actions by former Governor George Allen and wife Susan provide hope for Virginia Republicans  struggling for unity.

Raising conservative angst was President Obama’s depiction of a booming jobs market in our record deficit economy and free community college at taxpayer expense. While socialistically invigorating to Democratic partisans, they remain troublesome to Republicans and Independents.

Virginia Republicans look to the future

Linwood Cobb and Eric Cantor

By Lynn R. Mitchell

It’s the Top 5 state offices: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, two U.S. senate seats. Add to that president.

Virginia Republicans saw all those offices turn over to Democrats the past few years including the back-to-back loss for president that marked the first time Virginia carried a Democrat for president since the 1960s.

Frustrated at the string of losses and looking at the 2016 presidential election looming right around the corner, more than 100 Republican activists gathered Saturday in Richmond from as far away as southwestern Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley, Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Southern Virginia, and the Richmond area. Representing every congressional district and looking to the future during the day-long event, they met in a casual atmosphere to hear positive messages from respected leaders and to network with fellow activists.  The message was one of how to grow the party and work together, how to reach diverse communities, and how to move forward to once again win statewide and presidential elections.

Republican victories provide opportunity for outreach with RPV

By Daniel P. Cortez

Nationally as conservatives revel becoming the majority party in the U.S. Senate, Virginia’s Republicans eye new minority and independent converts with the right leader.  Tenth District Congresswoman-elect Barbara Comstock and her new-found national prominence achieves such status as did Stafford Congressman Rob Wittman, surprising no one with his landslide reelection to a fourth term.  But what will the RPV do?

An Independent political perspective: Vote your conscience … but vote

By Daniel P. Cortez

Tomorrow brings the dawn of another election day. Another opportunity to send a message to candidates “the people choose so they may be better served.”

After the concession calls and victory speeches, political drama continues, hopefully, with new players. These men and women regardless of voter turnout become the people’s representatives. And the term is “representative” … not dictators. Granted many won’t get the message. But we can say later we knew them before they became omnipotent.

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.”