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

Monday, December 05, 2005

Gate City's Comeback Kid? Je ne pense pas ainsi.

There's talk now (and on some Virginia blogs) that Jerry Kilgore may want to attempt a political suicide comeback in 2006, by running against 9th District Congressman Rick Boucher.

Boucher has been in office since 1982, when he defeated long-term incumbent Republican Bill Wampler. Boucher is regularly re-elected with around 60%. His previous opponents have been:
1982-Rep. Bill Wampler
1984-Jeff Stafford
1986-no opponent
1988-John Brown
1990-no opponent
1992-Garrett Weddle
1994-Steve Fast
1996-Patrick Muldoon
1998-Joe Barta
2000-Michael Osborne
2002-Jay Katzen
2004-Kevin Triplett
2006-?

Kilgore wouldn't get a free pass in a primary. Both 2004 candidate Kevin Triplett and Delegate Bill Carrico are likely candidates. A convention battle that pits social conservatives (Kilgore) against fiscal conservatives (Triplett) and then throw in law-and-order conservatives (Carrico) is just asking for trouble. There would be no way to beat Boucher even if the 9th district GOP rallied around one candidate (case in point, 2004 and 2002).

I would love to see a Boucher/Kilgore race. Boucher needs to have a little fun every two years. And somebody like Jerry Kilgore would be killed in a debate, if both could agree to one.

Thoughts?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

kilgore is stupid enough to do it

Neal said...

That's what I'm banking on.

There are probably folks who could make it close with Boucher (by close, read "within 10%"), but that would be somebody like William Wampler. Not a guy who's never held local elective office, and just lost a high-profile race.

Anonymous said...

I have been wondering the same thing about Jerry Kilgore - how did he make it that far?

Seems like he would be a better fit doing title exams and drafting Wills - not prosecuting.

Neal said...

It's one of those questions that we'll never know the answer to.

But we'll often wonder.

Anonymous said...

Jerry has been doing polling (that's likely old news by now) to determine his chances of unseating Rick. It doesn't sound like the results have been encouraging.

Brian: "Seems like he would be a better fit doing title exams and drafting Wills"
Umm, ... No. He wouldn't.

Neal: since this post is called "Gate City's comback kid?" and you mentioned elsewhere that you were interested, at this time, Rex McCarty is planning on running for office again in 2 years' time. And again, the aim will be Terry Kilgore's seat.

Neal said...

I think (hope) that Rex will have a better shot at it next time around, since Jerry Kilgore won't be on the ballot.

And if Willie Mae Kilgore is out of office, then his chances will greatly improve...