Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Surveying the Scene After Vacation

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by

James A. Bacon
in

I’m back after a refreshing week at the Outer Banks. The political landscape looks a little different from the one I left ….

Jerry Kilgore being in trouble for not debating seems to have vaporized in the summer humidity, while everyone is now all a-twitter over perceived problems in the Kaine campaign. “John Behan,” outed by the Washington Post while I was away, has a nice summary of the Kaine situation over at Commonwealth Conservative.

I suspect more is being made of Kaine campaign problems than is really there. The proliferation of blogs and comments on blogs magnify small dust-ups and natural disagreements. Still, being unable to capitalize for more than a day or two on the Kilgore debate story before your own campaign woes become the story is an indicator that something is amiss. National news trends–Supreme Court vacancy and terrorism–seem to favor Republicans right now and that helps Kilgore.

Third party gadfly Russ Potts seems to be flailing around a bit, too. He’s suddenly going to have a transportation plan before he’s elected and, in a bid to peel off some one-issue voters, is now a champion of gays being allowed to adopt. While I agree with his position, where has he been on this? Potts apparently wants to be the eclectic candidate–one who is experiencing all sorts of conversions now that he’s on the ballot statewide.

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  1. Virginia Centrist Avatar
    Virginia Centrist

    National news trends–Supreme Court vacancy and terrorism–seem to favor Republicans right now and that helps Kilgore.

    THe ’01 gov. campaign showed that terrorism doesn’t really have much of an effect on these state and local races.

    As for the Supreme Court issue…it all depends. If people think Roe is in jeopardy (which is isn’t) then this will help the dems. If people think this is a fight over partial birth abortion/parental consent (which it really is), then the Republicans will win that battle. Since it’s an emotional issue, so the facts don’t really matter as much. I think it’s a wash as far as VA goes.

  2. TheModerate Avatar
    TheModerate

    The gay adoption issue will no doubt get more attention than it deserves. Potts really doesn’t have much to lose by supporting it because he’s not going to get any votes from extreme conservatives anyway. Kaine on the other hand stayed on the fence and will likely suffer for it, albeit not a lot, because it exposes a rift between him and his base.

    As far as adoption goes in general, it would be nice to see more kids adopted. However, given all of the new reproductive techniques available today many people who would have otherwise adopted can now have children. Factor in the litmus test couples and individuals must pass in order to adopt and your potential pool of eligible parents is diminished greatly. So, it is very much a Catch-22 situation – especially for the kids living in the orphanage.

    Perhaps the most interesting comment I took from the article was this from Potts, “I think there’s just a tremendous overemphasis on all these social issues when, in fact, Rome is burning: We have the worst transportation challenge in America, we have all these other core services that need to be funded and we come down here and spend endless hours debating morals and religion.”

  3. James Young Avatar
    James Young

    “themoderate’s” post demonstrates how the radical Left is attempting to dismiss anyone who doesn’t buy into their far Left agenda as “extreme conservatives.”

    Isn’t it funny how the far Left continuously dismisses the considered wisdom of millenia of human civilization as “extreme”? Methings they doth protesteth too much.

    A “moderate,” he or she ain’t.

  4. TheModerate Avatar
    TheModerate

    James:

    Your thoughts on the issues at hand, i.e., adoption, transportation, and the obsession with social issues in the state capitol, would make for a much more enlightening discussion.

    By the current definition, “a conservative he ain’t”. That’s for sure.

  5. Salt Lick Avatar
    Salt Lick

    Did you bring us some beach sand, Will? ‘Cause we’ve been kinda crabby lately.

    Welcome back.

  6. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    I’ve had a case of the ‘demo crab’ bloggers of late.

    Those pesky little insects!

    Oh! Back to the topic of discussion — Gay adoptions.

    Obviously, candidate Russ Potts is attempting to appeal to core Democratic voters.

    ~ the blue dog

  7. Lovell Reiley Avatar
    Lovell Reiley

    It’s increasingly clear that Russ Potts is likely to hurt Kaine more than Kilgore … giving the folks in the Dem Party that Kaine treats as if they have no alternative, a place to go.

    Potts is now the only candidate in the race for Governor who supports the right for a gay couple to adopt a child together. Kilgore believes that being gay disqualifies you as a potential adoptive parent; Kaine supports allowing single gay people to adopt, but not couples. Kaine would reserve the right for two people to adopt a child to a man and a woman who are married.

    The Kaine campaign’s attitude toward GLBT supporters is they’ll vote for Kaine because they don’t want Kilgore to win. I’m increasingly hearing gay voters (and choice voters among others) say that they’re going to vote for Potts because, frankly, they don’t see much difference between Kaine and Kilgore on their issues.

    More trouble ahead for the Kaine campaign whose strategy and tactics look more and more each day like those pursued by Chap Peterson in his nomination fight. Looking at Kenton Ngo’s (750 volts)map of Chap’s “strength” on primary day, Chap’s strategy yielded more than 20% of the base vote in only 11 of 134 jurisdictions. There was no “intensity” to his support anywhere in the state.

    It seems to me that Tim needs some intensity among his base voters in order to ensure the necessary strong Democratic turnout he’ll need to win. Where he thinks that’s going to come from given his strategy of running to the (far?) right, I don’t know.

  8. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Lovell, last time I checked Potts is against School Choice, so why would “Choice” voters support him? Or perhaps you meant “pro-abortion” voters?

  9. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I dunno James. THe premise of calling your views on gays “extreme” is that they’re out of the mainstream. Would you argue that they are not?

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