Purple
Republicans regained control of the State Senate in yesterday’s elections, and in the process now have the power in both houses of the General Assembly and all three statewide offices.
Looking at the results from Tuesday’s state elections that way, then, you’d think, Well, going to be tough for a guy named Barack Obama and a guy named Tim Kaine to win in Virginia in 2012. You know, because they’re Democrats, and Democrats are the minority party in Virginia these days.
Funny thing there – this new normal is based on Republicans gaining exactly two seats in the State Senate. And since all 40 seats were up for re-election in the 2011 cycle, that means a gain from 18 seats to 20, with Democrats dropping two to go from 22 to 20. Read more
The County Quartet
Tracy Pyles is frequently criticized for not being able to play well with others. That’s a fair observation. Also fair would be the observation that Pyles thinks the current majority on the Augusta County Board of Supervisors is taking the county in the wrong direction, and playing nice isn’t going to get things moving in the right direction.
This is what the 2011 Board of Supervisor elections will come down to, in my view. Do you like the way things are going in county government? If so, you’ve got excellent candidates to choose from in the four contested races on the ballot on Tuesday, for starters in the race for Pyles’ Pastures District seat, where he is being challenged by Jim Warren, a well-spoken small businessman. Read more
Who I’m voting for in the 20th House
I’ve known Dickie Bell for more than a decade. And the Dickie Bell that I know, I like a lot.
This other Dickie Bell, the one who comes across as a hard-core social and fiscal conservative, I don’t know him that well, but I understand what’s going on there. Back when Dickie first got the nomination to run as the Republican nominee for the 20th House District seat in 2009, he was about as close to the political center of the long list of candidates as you could be and still be considered a Republican.
He could have viewed his ultimate blessing by the party hierarchy as an endorsement of his approach to politics, but decided instead to run to the right after having secured the nomination. A curious move, indeed, but it’s hard to criticize – he won the November 2009 election with more than 70 percent of the vote in a district that includes Democratic-leaning Staunton. Read more
A press release from the liberal media
IVORY TOWER, N.Y. (Nov. 3, 2011) - Ahem. We demand an apology, and we demand it now.
Seriously, no playing around. This Herman Cain thing is the last straw. Seriously, as if we wouldn’t want a presidential race with two African-Americans. You think we in the liberal media don’t get all lathered up over that prospect? Give us credit for being the liberal media.
So now that it’s clear that no, it wasn’t us that schemed up the sexual-harassment claims against Cain, and that in fact it was an operative for a rival Republican presidential candidate, well, yeah, we’re upset. Read more
Congrats, UVa., now … don’t go
The good news: Virginia’s surprise win at Miami last week has the Cavs in position to become bowl-eligible for the first time since the 2007-2008 season. At 5-3, and with winnable games at Maryland this weekend and at home against Duke on Nov. 12, UVa. seems a lock to get to six, and who knows … neither Florida State nor Virginia Tech seems unconquerable this year, so we could be talking decent bowl this year.
Now to the bad news: Bowls are a losing prospect no matter where you play, and yes, I’m talking even if Virginia were to run the table all the way to the Orange Bowl.
According to the book Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series, Virginia Tech suffered a loss of nearly $2.2 million on its trip to the Orange Bowl in 2009, all because of requirements in bowl contracts that schools have to buy gobs of tickets at face value when nobody pays face value for tickets anymore, and because of add-ons to the game experience like the required lengthy stays that programs and their traveling parties need to make at official bowl hotels at top-of-the-line room rates. Read more
Cain’s turn?
It was Mitt Romney. Then Donald Trump. Then Michele Bachmann. Next up was Rick Perry. Now it’s Herman Cain’s turn to set the pace for the GOP presidential field.
Cain holds leads across the country in polls conducted by Public Policy Polling – in eight states of the nine that PPP has surveyed in the past two weeks.
And even in the one state that Cain trails in, Nevada, it’s only by one point, and he’s gained 21 points in Nevada since July there. Read more
Could conservatives unify to upset Allen?
The short answer: It would be a long shot. But right now it’s a much longer shot that anybody in the rest of the crowded GOP Senate primary field will be able to knock off frontrunner George Allen.
Allen has been running consistently in the upper 50s to mid to upper 60s in the polls for the Republican nomination and is in a virtual dead heat with Democrat Tim Kaine in polls looking ahead to the 2012 general election. Tea Party stalwart Jamie Radtke has the lead in the race for second, but Radtke hasn’t been able to consistently crack the 10 percent barrier. Read more
Little things
Little things. Three interceptions. A fake punt that extends a drive that later results in a touchdown. Another punt downed inside the 1 that leads to another touchdown.
Little things can be and usually are big things in a game pitting two evenly-matched teams.
“You’ve got to do better. You’ve got to make those plays. You’ve got to get the coverages. You’ve got to stay onsides. It’s different things like that. We just wanted to reemphasize that preparation for this week’s upcoming opponent has to start in a film room, the practice field and everything that they do to rededicate themselves. These are close games, but you can be on the other side of a close game by just executing,” UVa. coach Mike London said after his team’s 30-24 home loss to Southern Miss Saturday night. Read more
Willingly spending too much
That’s what Waynesboro City Council is about to do. Again.
Monday night, City Council is set to vote on a proposed $50,000 appropriation ordinance related to the development of a city economic-development website and associated marketing materials.
I know personally that the city could save at least $14,000 on the project. I know because my company, Augusta Free Press LLC, submitted a bid to do the work that was $14,000 below the bid approved by the city.
Atlas Advertising, based in Denver, Colo., was awarded the project after submitting a $30,750 bid to do the work, which encompasses the development of a city economic-development website, a mobile version of that website, an eight-page brochure and four information sheets.
If that sounds like a lot of money for that kind of work, it is. Augusta Free Press LLC bid $16,100 to do the project. Read more
Sad, sad, sad day
“It’s, like, four outside!”
Not 4 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 degrees Celsius.
Just … four.
That’s how I’ll remember my friend Lisa.
She was the sunniest person I think I’ll ever know, and I’ve been thinking that one through a lot of late. We’d fallen out of regular contact in recent years, as often happens with friends from high school, but I knew her well enough from back then to be able to judge if she had a sort of dark side, and I never saw it, not once. Read more
