Never be afraid to stand with the minority when the minority is right, for the minority which is right will one day be the majority. - William Jennings Bryan

Friday, June 03, 2005

Politickin'--Bristol Style

Monday, June 6th begins an 8 day buildup to primary day here in Virginia. The Bristol Democratic Party will hold its general meeting at 7:00 on the 6th in the court chambers at city hall. I'm planning on going with a friend of mine who's also interested in helping. I've had to wrestle with a personal political decision for a couple weeks.

The candidate who appears likely to win the primary for Lt. Governor is State Delegate J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen of Fairfax. Petersen has raised over a half-million dollars and has a great energetic campaign style. His campaign people have been trying their best to recruit me for weeks, and I've finally succumbed.

I do wish Phillip Puckett would win the primary, and I do think he would be the most electable, and I do think that he is the most "governor-like" of the four candidates, but he just hasn't run much of a statewide campaign. He's completely ignoring southside and northern Virginia, and you really can't do that.

Chap's western campaign manager, a guy by the name of Jason, will be at the meeting on the 6th and will give me and Kristy marching orders for primary day. We will likely be handing out information and brochures around voting places, which is always fun.

This is exciting; last time I did something like this, it was for the wrong side.

On Tuesday the 7th, I'll be attending a rally for Phillip Puckett here in Bristol (Yeah, I know...playing both sides of the game. So sue me). Phil is a great person and I wish him the best of luck on the 14th.

That's all for now. Oh, and did I mention, Nationals WIN AGAIN!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why not support the candidate that you know would be the most electable in November? Why not support the candidate that will help Southwestern Virginia the most? I know for a fact that the Senator Puckett has spent a large amount of time and energy east of the Appalachians. I also know that he is the first candidate to air television ads in the major markets. Go with your heart and not your gut.

Neal said...

I'll tell you, Phillip Puckett is a great man, and I'll really be happy if he does win. I'm really hoping though to get in on the ground floor with Petersen if he wins. I hope to someday get into politics and it could help. If Puckett wins, I'm already in. I've even got my Puckett bumper stickers ready to go.

Neal said...

Clarification--I do hope Petersen wins, but I wouldn't care if Puckett won. I definitly think though Petersen is very electable.

Anonymous said...

Phillip Puckett is also electable. BTW, what has Chap done for Southwestern Virginia?

Anonymous said...

Well, Chap has done a great many things for SW Virginia. In particular - first elected offical in the state to support putting the statewide data back up center in Wise to create a software enginering program, he is a proponent and advocate for the Coalfiel expressway, he has supported the Governor's opportuinity fund to aid in economic development for all Virgina's regions, he supports efforts to increase broadband and cellular technoliges in rural areas. But more than that, he understands that the role of a Lt. Gov is not to just serve any one region of the state but to fight for the state as a whole.

Chap is also the only candidate with a statewide Campaign. Even if Sen. Puckett were to win by a 4-1 margin in the 9th, it will not make up for the fact that he has no support in the metro areas of North Virgina, which will probably cast more votes in the primary than the 5th, 6th, and 9th CDs combined, or in Hampton Roads area, or the Richmond Metro.

Neal said...

I'm not saying it would be impossible for Puckett to be elected--just really unlikely. With the current state of the Democratic party in our state, we need to get the candidate who will campaign the hardest and has the best chance of beating the republicans.

Anonymous said...

"With the current state of the Democratic party in our state, we need to get the candidate who will campaign the hardest and has the best chance of beating the republicans."

We now have neither....