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, November 11, 2005

On To 2006

Now that Tim Kaine is our next Governor and Creigh Deeds very well may be our next Attorney General, we need to look forward to 2006.

My Congressman, Rick Boucher, will be running for a 13th term, and will ikely face opposition. Potential nominees include Bill Carrico, Kevin Triplett, and a Kilgore (I've heard both names). As always, Republicans will make noise like they'll defeat him, and then they'll get somewhere between 35%-41%. Period.

The battle royale will be for Senator George Allen's seat. Allen will be running for a second term, as a warm-up for 2008. We need to stop him before he can get to Iowa. Who can we do that with? According to the last poll, the choice seems to be State Senator Phillip Puckett of Russell County. Other popular choices were Delegate Jackie Stump, Chap Petersen, and James Webb. But other than Webb, not many people are really seiously thinking about running. So who should it be?

I also want to say thanks to the folks over at Raising Kaine. I think they were instrumental in motivating the base to help elect (soon-to-be) Governor Kaine. I think they should continue in the same vein and do the same for the 2006 Senate nominee as the did for Kaine.

I also think that folks who are supporters (I count myself in the group) of Mark Warner for President, should start getting out the word about his success in the state's fiscal fiasco, and his ability to win elections in red states (and get people elected in red states).

Happy Veterans' Day!

-Neal

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Allen will win reelection, unfortunatly. Hes too popular and isnt a bad poltician

Muy big focus is on Phil Angelides and his run for governor, cant wait till Ahnuld goes down

Neal said...

Allen isn't popular as conventional wisdom says--his approval rate is 49% (as opposed to Senator Warner's 58% and Governor Warner's 75%), and, if there is a anti-incumbent/anti-Republican tidal wave in 2006, not only can America get rid of Arnold, but Allen too.

Anonymous said...

Yeah very possibly, but as far as i know theres no strong candidate whos announced or who is poised to annouce-i dont know for sure, after all i dont live there-but if Puckett and maybe webb dont run i see there being little chance of a victory. Even if they do i dont know how popular Puckett is

Neal said...

With Puckett, I can see a kind of coalition coming together--He got 97% or so of the vote in Southwest Virginia in the primary for Lt Governor.

If he can do half that well (like 55% or something) and hold on to Democratic strongholds, he could pull it off.

Anonymous said...

well i hope he does. I just see Allen as too formidable of a politcian and not unpopular enough to be defaeted, but you never know Puckett could do it

Ben Kyber said...

Neal,

I want to get a "Young Voters for Warner" organization going...

You interested?

Neal said...

Definitly interested (Especially since 2008 will be my first presidential election, as it will be yours, and I'd love to vote Warner for presient first time around).

Ben Kyber said...

Can you e-mail me so we can get something worked out. I want to start by getting a representative in every Congressional district in VA.

I hope you'll be the Fighting Ninth rep...

atdiemokid@yahoo.com