Virginia Beach GOP Mayor Endorses Mark Warner for Senate

As the race for the Virginia U.S. Senate seat nears a close we are again seeing moderate Republicans jump ship and endorse the Democrat candidate Mark Warner.  Why?  Because the GOP challenger is an extremist and carries huge amounts of negative baggage - including lobbying for Enron and foreign governments - and sane Republicans want no part of him.  Some of those endorsing Warner are Republicans I knew years ago in my GOP activist days who seem to realize that today's Republican Party of Virginia has become something toxic.  Blue Virginia looks at Mayor Sessoms endorsement of Mark Warner:

ALEXANDRIA - Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms, a Republican, today announced his endorsement of Senator Mark Warner for re-election. Mayor Sessoms joins former U.S. Senator John Warner, former Suffolk Sen. Fred Quayle, former Virginia Beach Del. Bob Tata, and many other Virginia Republican elected officials and business leaders in endorsing Mark Warner's re-election. John Warner, Fred Quayle and Bob Tata have never endorsed a Democrat before.

In his endorsement, Mayor Sessoms cited Mark Warner's bipartisan approach to finding commonsense solutions for Virginians and focus on implementing policies that help Virginia Beach. 

"Mark Warner knows the Virginia Way. And when he takes that to Washington, D.C. he will put it to good use and get people to work together for the betterment of this great country," said Mayor Sessoms. "In addition, he knows the needs of the military. He sees their sacrifice daily and he will stand up for them and fight for them and make sure they get what they need to be successful. That's why I'm supporting Mark Warner for re-election to the United States Senate."

"Will Sessoms is one of Virginia's great leaders and I am proud to have earned his support for my re-election," said Senator Warner. "I will continue to work with anyone, Democrat or Republican, to repeal sequestration, to support our military men and women and veterans, and to find creative solutions to strengthen the economy of Hampton Roads and Virginia."

Expect rants over at Bearing Drift and other far rights outlets!!

Will Ed Gillespie Be the First Victim of McDonnell's Giftgate?

Gillespie with the Chimperator

Make now mistake about my views.  GOP Senate candidate Ed Gillespie is a sleaze bag with sleazy lobbying efforts extending all the way back to his days as a lobbyist for Enron.  Add to that the fact that he is pro NRA and anti-gun control, "pro-life", anti-gay, and wants to gut the social safety net and repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and he is a frightening specter for many Virginians.  Equally troubling is his habit of speaking to GOP extremist groups behind closed doors barred to the media.  Obviously, such conduct suggests that Gillespie is saying things and pushing agendas that he doesn't want the larger public to hear.  The good news?  So far Gillespie is trailing significantly in the polls and some believe his poisonous agenda is being harmed by the fallout from the criminal conviction of former governor Bob"Taliban Bob" McDonnell.   A column in the Richmond Times Dispatch looks at the campaign race to date:

Encouraging polling notwithstanding, Ed Gillespie could be the first casualty of the McDonnell scandal.

The previous week, a poll by Christopher Newport University showed Gillespie behind 22 percentage points. Needless to say, following the release of the Quinnipiac poll, the Republican noise machine was set on giddy.

What Republicans aren’t acknowledging is that Gillespie could be trailing by at least 12 percentage points, if you include the poll’s margin of error, plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

But the continuing absence of Gillespie-friendly super PACs suggests the out-of-state money and media moguls don’t see the Virginia campaign as close. Remember: Gillespie had a hand in the creation of one of the biggest and baddest, American Crossroads.

Politics is expensive enough without throwing good money after bad. And Republicans just don’t have it to spend. Notwithstanding their uncertain odds on holding the Senate, Democrats have remained competitive in crucial red- and purple-state races — Virginia is not among them — because of an impressive cash surge.

Gillespie has a more significant problem, one overshadowed by Quinnipiac’s head-to-head findings: His support among Republicans is soft — 15 percentage points weaker than Warner’s standing among Democrats. In other words, there’s a passion gap.

One explanation may be that Gillespie, a millionaire Washington fixer who parachuted into Virginia politics, isn’t well-known even among fellow Republicans. Warner’s 3-to-1 advantage in television advertising doesn’t help either.  

Plus, for five weeks the McDonnell trial blacked out nearly all news coverage of the Senate campaign, making it tougher for Gillespie to tell his story.

Another possible factor in Gillespie’s lag: continuing suspicion among tea party and libertarian Republicans for the party’s establishment wing, of which Gillespie is a gold-plated example. He was a lobbyist, a White House aide and high-profile hand-holder to candidates, including a future governor in a hurry: Bob McDonnell.  The McDonnell scandal only confirms for tea partyers and their fellow travelers what they already believe: that mainstream Republicans are bought and paid for.

Also, the Republican right alienates the party’s shrinking number of moderates. They’ve been gravitating to Warner since 2001, when he successfully ran for governor. Their continuing support burnishes Warner’s record of bipartisanship.

That nearly two in 10 Republicans, according to Quinnipiac, favor Warner raises the bar for Gillespie. Defeating Warner was always going to be tough. It’s tougher if Gillespie can’t count on a strong, unified Republican base.

Finally, the passion gap may be exacerbated by something many Republicans never believed would happen: A governor — a Republican governor — would be found guilty of corruption.

The episode threatens to damage the GOP with swing voters. It’s demoralized the party’s rank-and-file and thrown Republican elective officials on the defensive on ethics, an issue they’ve ducked for years.

Fair or not, Gillespie, as the consummate D.C. insider, was always going to be suspect on ethics.

Gillespie’s checkered employment history is emphasized by Warner and his allies, including a super PAC that’s already spent $1.4 million on commercials blistering Gillespie as a hired gun for corporate abusers, including gone-bust Enron.

As Gillespie returned to that revolving door — most recently, as a Senate candidate — he was among those counseling McDonnell on ways to control the crisis that was destroying his governorship. Gillespie was chairman of the McDonnell gubernatorial campaign.

Tucker Martin, McDonnell’s communications director and currently a consultant to Gillespie . . .  At one point, Martin was shown an email that included a possible statement to the newspaper in which McDonnell, who as a defendant claimed to be estranged from his wife of nearly 40 years, expressed his loyalty to Maureen.  Among those copied on the email was Ed Gillespie.

Former GOP Senator John Warner Endorses Mark Warner

One Virginia Republican who represents what the GOP once was is former U.S. Senator John Warner who I was lucky enough to know back in my days as a GOP activist.  Of equal importance, John Warner never hesitated to reject a GOP candidate that he deemed too extreme and harmful to Virginia.  Not surprisingly John Warner was often condemned by the extremists at The Family Foundation and among other Bible thumper circles.  Now, the likely GOP candidate seeking to challenge incumbent Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat and no relation to John Warner, is Ed Gillespie, a former Enron lobbyist, RNC Chair, and George W. Bush minion.  Added to these unattractive resume entries is the manner in which Gillespie has been courting the nastiest elements of the Christofascists in Virginia.  The upshot?  Former GOP Senator John Warner has endorsed Democrat Mark Warner for reelection this November.  The Virginian Pilot has deatils on this welcomed endorsement.  Here are some highlights:

Former Republican Sen. John W. Warner, never bashful about defying the Virginia GOP establishment, endorsed his Democratic successor's re-election bid Monday.

Warner told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he is supporting Sen. Mark R. Warner, who is being challenged by former Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie in November's election. The Warners are not related.

"There are times you must, I think, recognize that certain individuals are superior in their talents and in what they have done and can potentially do for your state," John Warner said.

The endorsement comes 20 years after John Warner riled the ascendant conservative wing of the state GOP by backing independent candidate J. Marshall Coleman instead of Iran-Contra figure Oliver L. North in the campaign against Democratic U.S. Sen. Chuck Robb. The year before, he had declined to endorse Republican home-schooling advocate Mike Farris for lieutenant governor.

This is the first time John Warner has publicly backed a Virginia Democrat, although he has also recently donated to the campaign of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn in Georgia.

He praised his successor for following in his own tradition of seeking bipartisan solutions.
"Mark Warner, if I may say with a sense of humility, like John Warner crosses the aisle and makes things work," he said. "We come from the old school. The Senate works best when there's collaborative effort between the two parties."

John Warner said it's important to keep the incumbent because he's had six years to learn how the Senate works and start to build seniority. The former Navy secretary and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman also said Mark Warner "is absolutely solid in his commitment to national security."

Eighteen years after handing out "Mark Not John" bumper stickers to all who would take them, the senator said he is grateful for the support of a former opponent who later became a close friend.  "John Warner is the gold standard in Virginia," he said. "I learned a lot of things from John Warner, but the most important is Virginia always comes first."

University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said the endorsement should give Mark Warner a boost among middle-of-the-road voters who have been abandoned the GOP. In last November's elections, Virginians rejected an extremely conservative Republican slate and gave Democrats their first sweep of the top three state offices in 24 years.

"The premier effect will be a television ad that will underline Mark Warner's broad appeal, at least to moderate Republicans. How many of those are left, I can't tell you," Sabato said. "The Republicans have lost not only moderates, but also a lot of moderate conservatives."

John Warner is indeed the gold standard - especially compared to most of today's Congressional Republicans.   Like John Warner, I could not in good conscience support Oliver North.  If there were more Republicans today like John Warner, perhaps fewer people like myself would have fled the GOP in disgust.