A. Gene Hart is seeking the nomination to challenge Matt Lohr for the House of Delegates, District 26. Hart is a Harrisonburg attorney who graduated from UVA Law School and is a veteran. Hart has just started raising campaign contributions and putting together an organization.
Rumors persist that Democrats will field candidates to challenge Chris Saxman and Steve Landes. Guess potential candidates sense the blue tide rising!
The Sixth District Democratic Committee meets tonight and there is rumor of a potential candidate to challenge Bob Goodlatte in 2010 will speak. The echo chamber has the name of Drew Richardson bouncing off the walls. You'll recall that Drew joined the 2008 nomination battle against Sam Rasoul rather late in the game. He got little traction among party activists, in fact, some of the tactics he and his rookie campaign manager used angered many. Rasoul left the door open to another run... for something. So, if Richardson or someone else announces tonight, it will be a shot across his bow, a warning that he's already had his run at the office.
In a related story, Rick Howell, a former member of the Sixth District Committee, used his pen to smack Sam Rasoul after the fact. Howell, who claims to be a Democrat, worked tirelessly to undermine Rasoul since before he was nominated. I suspect the publication of this half baked commentary on the same day that the committee expects to hear from a candidate is more than just happenstance. It would be very interesting if Rick appeared at the meeting - some on the committee are hinting at a resolution booting him from the party. Bigger gonads than Democrats in the U.S. Senate?
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Sorry, Belle, but if the sound you are hearing from that echo chamber is that I will be announcing a candidacy at a meeting this eve, it's time to check the echo chamber. I, like you, will be more than interested to hear if someone else does make such an announcement.
"...I suspect the publication of this half baked commentary on the same day that the committee expects to hear from a candidate is more than just happenstance...."
A former mentor in the FBI once told me to "Never suggest conspiracy in public before you have excluded coincidence in private."
Belle,
We had a good group of educators both Monday night in Lexington and Tuesday night in Amherst who have concerns with what is coming out of the General Assembly. We had an extremely productive discussion on iniatives that might make our education system better and I look forward to continuing this discussion over the coming months. Thanks for "breaking" the news.
Drew: good advice, but I still think the column was intended for the first meeting of the committee after the election. You are right about the echo chamber sending mixed messages. There was an individual from the Harrisonburg area who expressed interest in running. But, it wasn't you.
Jeff: Congrats on kicking your campaign off in a very positive way. Meeting people face to face, getting to know them and the issues first hand is an excellent start.
My guess (I haven't asked him) is that Rick Howell might well have not been cognizant of the fact that the 6th District committee was having a meeting last night nor that it would have a guest expressing an interest in running for office.
My further guess is that he had planned on writing the piece for some time, but that the timing of the column's appearance was dictated by what was a convenient time for him to write following the election and the Roanoke Time's internal decision(s) on if and when to publish.
With regard to the latter issue, I do have some experience, i.e., submitting op-ed columns to MSM (newspaper) editorial boards. My personal experience runs the gamut. I have submitted pieces that were never published, pieces that I expected to be published the next day and which were published 3 weeks later, and pieces that were published sooner than expected.
I suspect if Mr. Howell is even aware of this discussion that he is flattered that you believe he could manipulate an editorial process and related decisions to coincide with a particular event.
With regard to the gentleman from Harrisonburg, I look forward to hearing more about him.
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