Registration for the Blogs United conference is open. Once again, Christopher Newport University hosts us at the David Student Union Nov. 21 from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. (doors open at 8 a.m. - breakfast and lunch provided).

This year’s conference features Rep. Rob Wittman, political beat writers Anita Kumar, Kimball Payne, Ryan Nobles, and Julian Walker, as well as Scott Hirons from the House Republican Campaign Committee. Additionally, Rep. Glenn Nye, Greg Scanlon of the Democratic Party of Virginia, Sen. Jim Webb, and Governor-elect Bob McDonnell have been invited. We’ll also review the election season, the latest legal issues facing the “new” media, and what’s new in technology.

Regardless of your political stripes, Blogs United always is a good and informative time. It’s also for everyone - not just bloggers.

Look forward to seeing you at CNU in two weeks!

Creigh Deeds liked the idea of opting out of Obama’s health care plan.

Glenn Nye didn’t want it to get even that far.

Nye announced today he’s a BIG no vote on Obama’s health care takeover, like he was on Obama’s budget and Obama’s cap and trade bills.

Is Nye switching parties? I’m going to go to the Republican breakfasts more often, since I think I’m more likely to see my Congressman there than at a Democrat one. He’d be safer, I think.

Creigh Deeds put his Democratic base to sleep this year. Glenn Nye flipped them the bird and dared them to do something about it. But what can they do? The Dems are down to Nye and Phil Kellam in Virginia Beach.

Atlas Shrugged – 1,200 pages
War and Peace – 1,296 pages
Les Misérables – 1,488 pages
Health Care Bill – 1,990 pages

How likely any member of Congress has read the bill? My thoughts: Zero

Representative Bob Goodlatte points out the obvious — Pelosi isn’t reducing costs with her rush job, she’s just redirecting cost back on the industry and the taxpayer. Goodlatte also talks up the Republican alternative, which cuts costs and reforms the system rather than merely nationalizing it.

Very glad to see Goodlatte’s staff engaging the blogosphere, both in Virginia and nationally.

Now not only is this a debut post, but this is also the best breakdown of winners and losers you’re going to read all week.   Trust me — this’ll be good stuff!

LOSERS:

The Washington Post — Bloggers and the MSM have had a tense relationship from the beginning.  The Washington Post, once a bastion of information, is now less than tabloid in it’s quality or expectations.  The “thesis” story was a political hit piece through and through, manufactured from day one and spun into… nothing.

Democratic Party of Virginia — These guys ran a nonexistent effort to boost their candidates.  It’s almost as if they hired Jeff Frederick to be a consultant… ouch.

Deeds, Wagner, Shannon, and the “Best Managed State in America” Theme — For about eight years we’ve had to endure the boast that the framework Governor’s Allen and Gilmore put forward and the Republican General Assembly studiously maintained (despite the best efforts of moderate Republicans to kowtow) was a victory of the sidelined Democratic minority and do-nothing governors Warner and Kaine.  After this last Tuesday, the taxpayers of Virginia have chosen to let the adults lead.

Former RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick — Hours before calling for a “Conservative Party” in Virginia, conservative overwhelmingly elected the most conservative GOP ticket in the history of the Commonwealth.  What’s more, RPV was actually courted this time rather than the ugly duckling at the 2008 dance.  Midgets!

Virginia Senate Dems – The pressure will now be on for redistricting in 2010 to draw fair lines.  Governor McDonnell and House Speaker Bill Howell will not tolerate the gerrymandering of years past, especially with the drive towards fair and impartial redistricting… though perhaps not non-partisan redistricting.

“We Can’t Win Without John L. Brownlee” — Cuccinelli obliterated Shannon, and not only did he outperform incumbent Lt. Governor Bill Bolling (a fine conservative in his own right) he provided the one-two punch many Tea Party and other conservatives may not have otherwise delivered had their candidate been rejected by the establishment at the convention.

The Mark Warner Model — It has been long established that the way to break the GOP juggernaut in Virginia was to run the numbers up in Northern Virginia, and push in Southwest Virginia.  Warner won on this in 2001, Kaine won on this in 2005, Webb stumbled into this in 2006, and Warner again cruised to victory on the formula in 2008.  No more… Virginia Republicans have figured it out.

PUSH:

Republican “New Media” Consultants — Let’s be honest — McDonnell’s new media approach was absolutely terrible.  Thank God it wasn’t the margin of victory.  If anyone imitates Virginia’s new media strategy, you should be punched in the face twice and left bleeding in a ditch.

Republican Party of Virginia — Let’s give credit where credit is overwhelmingly due.  Tim Murtaugh was the bright shining light of the entire RPV effort, as clearly the shackles had come off of their field staff and their communications staff.  Unfortunately for RPV, there is still a bit of internal housecleaning to do.  Fundraising remains abysmal, the party brand remains damaged, and unit committees remain cobbled together and hamstrung.  Chairman Mullins still has a tremendous task ahead of him, and though he’s made great progress expect some changes at RPV before the General Assembly opens in January.

Deeds CM Joe Abbey — Architect of the Deeds primary win gets sidelined by a Confederate flag goof pushed on him by Ben “NAMBLA” Tribbett, then has his staff and style chopped up by Mohammed Elleithee and DPVA hacks.  Before people start spouting off “but Agricola, all he had to do was keep quiet during the primary and let Moran and McAuliffe destroy each other,” let’s keep this in mind — that takes discipline, and no poorly run campaign lacks discipline.  True, he married himself to Tribbett early… so shame on Joe for a bonehead move.  But Abbey will be around in Virginia politics for awhile, I trust.

Ethics — Delegate Phil Hamilton went down to inglorious defeat on Tuesday, as did State Senator Creigh Deeds.  But Delegate Jennifer McClellan still won, and the problem of ethics in the General Assembly looms rather large.  Hopefully this is a problem addressed quickly by both parties, without drawing it out and providing for personal largess at public expense.

WINNERS:

Democratic Bloggers: Why weren’t they engaged by the Deeds campaign?  At all?  Lowell Feld has got to be beating his head against a keyboard somewhere in Virginia.  Would it have been the margin of victory?  If one believes a combination of the Washington Post and Democratic bloggers were the undoing of George Allen in 2006, could the cacophony of noise generated about the thesis in 2009 have tipped McDonnell?  We’ll never know…

Bearing Drift — A little bit of love for home base, eh?  Let’s face it, as abysmal as the GOP candidates new media efforts were, Virginia’s rightosphere picked it up huge, and no one did it better than Bearing Drift.  It was Bearing Drift who raised the “skull and crossbones” after 2008… and from the looks of it, they took no prisoners.

RedStormPAC — $100K for candidates in 2009, and two special elections upcoming.  The best kept secret in Virginia politics is doing damage where it counts.

McBolliNelli — What do you say?  Double digit wins in the most convincing victory for Virginia Republicans ever.  McDonnell gets the second-best win in the history of the RPV (next to Allen’s ‘93 gubernatorial bid — which was too sweet for words).   Bolling thunders ahead for an excellent 2013 gubernatorial bid.  And Cooch?  Oh man… what a win!!!

House Speaker Bill Howell — Not only did Howell finally come around on new media, but the formerly embattled House Speaker dove in feet first by sponsoring RPV New Media suites and paying for front row coverage at the RPV Convention.  Now Speaker Howell presides over a 56-seat majority and shares power with a former colleague in the Governor’s Mansion, not to mention having plenty of new allies in the Virginia Republican blogosphere.

Republicans Against J-Fred — A small and elite clique?  Perhaps… but those who focused on removing the disastrous Jeff Frederick regime owe themselves a huge pat on the back, even if it will never be discussed.  This:

…may very well have won the election for McDonnell, had a handful of bloggers and key activists not made the case for Frederick’s removal.

Virginia as a Conservative State – Finally, it must be said.  The myth that Virginia is not a conservative state has been fully exploded.  The Commonwealth of Virginia may disagree with the direction of Republican leadership from time to time, but at it’s fundamental roots Virginia’s public is thoroughly conservative.  Democrats must run to the right in order to win, and Republicans who run to the left are thrown out of office — better a bad Democrat than a bad Republican.  It was only when the GOP ticket ran principled conservatives — not nuts — but principled conservatives that Virginia voters entrusted them with the stewardship of their government.  That is a lesson for all progressive Dems, weak kneed moderates, centrists, and yes even conservatives to keep in mind.

Democrats are beginning to line-up against Pelosi-care…21 so far, and probably more as we go throughout the day. Here’s Virginia’s U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor this morning on Fox News explaining the current situation:

With the election of Ken Stolle to Virginia Beach Sheriff and Ken Cuccinelli to Virginia Attorney General, two vacancies now exist in the Virginia Senate - and the campaign to be the GOP nominee in these districts is going to be fierce.

In the 8th, Rosemary Wilson, Virginia Beach councilwoman, and Jeff McWaters, a businessman, are seeking the nod - and have been since well before the polls closed on Nov. 4. This campaign began early this year when Stolle announced his intent to run for sheriff (where he really did not face any serious opposition). The campaign has been somewhat like sand in your bathing suit all summer long, as each camp has made accusations against the other that they weren’t focused on the general election. Now that the general is over, this race should go white hot, if not nuclear. It is clear that these competitors are going to leave nothing “on the table” as they go for the party’s nod.

As Stolle held this seat almost in perpetuity, the GOP candidates are hopeful that the nominee will have a slam-dunk in their special election. But this goes into the “Lee Corso” category for Virginia politcs. So, “not so fast, my friends.” If Jody Wagner, former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, decides to attempt an 0-3 in elections, she might make this one close. This means that the GOP candidates have to play the first few days cautious until Wagner makes her decision. If she chooses to stay on the sidelines and not run, the GOP candidates will go after one another with expected fervor.

It is not clear yet as to what method of nomination will be used. However, last year in the 81st House, which is in the Senate district, a canvass was used.

In the 37th, there are three declared nominees. Here’s a bit more detail from the Virginia Senate Republican Caucus (some parts paraphrased):

Marianne Horinko – Marianne has served many years in appointed offices at the federal level and currently operates her own consulting firm, the Horinko group. She has a JD from Georgetown. During the first Bush administration, she served as an attorney advisor to the EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response. After working in private consulting firms during the Clinton administration, she was appointed by GW Bush to serve as the EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response – a position in which she was involved with several of the terrorist threats that faced the country around 9/11. When Christie Todd Wittman resigned as EPA Administrator, Marianne served as acting administrator for several months before Mike Leavitt could be confirmed. Marianne lives in West Springfiled with her husband (who was raised in the district) and two children. (Read her announcement statement posted on Virginia Virtucon)

Steve Hunt – Steve is a veteran who previously served as an at-large member of the Fairfax School Board. He was elected to the School Board in 2003 and failed to win re-election in 2007 during a large Democratic wave. Nevertheless, during his three runs for Fairfax School Board (he ran unsuccessfully once prior to his 2003 victory), he always carried the precincts in the 37th district. He lives in the western part of the district with his family. ( He toyed with the idea of running for Congress last year when Tom Davis retired before yielding to Keith Fimian.)

Will Nance – Will is a 20 year resident of NOVA and a 4 year resident of the district. He currently works as the Executive Director of Greenspring Retirement Community – a community run by Erickson Retirement Communities that has 2,000 residents and 1,000 employees (Greenspring is just outside the 37th District). He holds an MBA from the Glasgow School and worked for several years for Chuck Colson’s prison fellowship doing fundraising and communications work. During the first Bush administration, he did advance work.

Two other Republicans, Shak Hill, a local businessman, and Mike Thompson, a longtime community activist and founder of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, talked about running but recently decided against it - this could, of course, change.

The method of nomination is almost guaranteed to be a firehouse primary – with the timing depending on when Cuccinelli submits his resignation.

On the Democratic side, the most commonly rumored candidates are Del. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax), Del. David Bulova (the only Delegate who lives in District). and Janet Oleszek (who Cuccinelli beat in 2007). Oleszek, though, has capitulated to party leaders and has said she won’t run, even though she almost won this seat in 2007. And Bulova has also said he won’t be running. This means Marsden, who doesn’t even live in the district, is going to visit U-Haul soon.

Guest Post by Tara

~musings of a first time GOP volunteer~

My heart doesn’t throb for the Republican brand. In reality, I wouldn’t be sad if it just went down in flames and took all the decepta-cons with it. Spending ridiculous amounts of money on different things and taking money from other lobbyists than the Democrats does not make you a conservative. Nevertheless, I volunteered to hand out sample ballots for the Republican party with two reservations - leaving my 8 month old at a baby sitter and not being a member of the R party, or even looking anything like a member of the R party. The Democrats working the polls alongside me asked me if I was even allowed to hand out ballots for the Republicans.

To put this in context, I’m 23 and grew up in Oregon around hippies and surfers. If you know what indie means, that’s me. I have tattoos. There are big spiral 4 gauge earrings coming out of my head. My blue hair pokes out from a homemade slouchy knit organic cotton hat. My zip up Cold War Kids concert hoodie has hand-sewn U2 patches on it. I smell like incense and shop at Whole Foods. My clean diesel VW has an Apple sticker on it (next to Ron Paul…I’m still looking for a Jesus related sticker that is acceptably devoid of dorky Christian culture) and reusable shopping bags that say “I used to be a plastic bottle”. My house is cleaned with chemical free products and I make sure to tell everybody about how evil big pharma and genetically modified foods are. I think you get the picture. But the truth is that I believe in limited government, personal liberties, the Constitution, the free market and personal responsibility. I’m also a big fan of helping one another out and charity work, but I disagree with the government being the vehicle for charity because it is ineffective, inefficient and so easily corrupted because there is very little accountability. When you shower people with cash that they didn’t have to earn or have to be responsible for once it leaves their hands, do you think they are going to make sure it stretches as far as it can? I think not. Those wasteful buffoons in Washington needed to be kicked to the curb. But I’m getting off topic….

So, pulling up to the polls I started getting nervous. What if the Republican I was taking over for didn’t believe I was her replacement? Should I have dressed in something other than skinny jeans, wife beater tank and concert hoodie?….maybe something other than sandals? Well it was too late to turn back. As I walked up to the ballot people the Dems immediately came after me with their ballots. After establishing that I was there for the Repubs and relieving the other volunteer of her duty, I was given a small pep talk by her and left to my own survival with the two Dems that were working as well.

Suddenly, my fellow volunteers as well as the exit poller were staring at me, agape.

“There’s no way you’re a Republican” one of them said
“You’re right, I’m not.” I replied “I’m a Libertarian but I’m here for the conservative candidates”
“Don’t you know that Libertarians are closer to being Democrats than Republicans?” One guy asked
Without bothering to sound like a credible grown-up, I asked him “What are you smoking? I’m for limited government, what are YOU for?”

The day pretty much progressed on that note for three hours. I overheard the exit poller tell the female Dem that there was no way people were going to believe I was handing out Republican ballots. They asked me, mostly jokingly, if I was a Democrat planted there. They asked me if I was sure I was allowed to hand out ballots for the Republicans if I looked like….me. After being mistaken for the one with the blue ballots over and over again, I offered to switch ballots with my new friends. People kept coming straight to me for the Democratic ballots and then looked confused as they walked off with the wrong one, or vice versa as they departed from the respectable looking people with a Democrat ballot.

Because we had nothing better to do during slow times outside the polls we had friendly conversation and they quizzed me on my views, trying to figure out exactly what planet I was from. Apparently all conservatives are supposed to be angry, rich, earth hating, old men. The fact that I didn’t come in followed by a cloud of toxic exhaust while chopping the flowers off plants seemed to confuse everyone. When they realized I was a fan of treating our planet and environment well, and against factory farming and cruel treatment of animals, they asked if I was sure I wasn’t on their side. My reply was basically this:

“I’m for any ideas that actually help us create clean, sustainable energy and help keep our environment as clean as possible…..as long as the ideas are good and effective ones, and not some stupid idea like ethanol under a veil of doogoodery, dreamed up by rich dirtbags who want to take over the economy and government through doom and gloom crisis rhetoric. We are paying farmers to not grow crops that could be feeding people, subsidizing corn, changing the genetic makeup of the foods people are eating, and using two units of energy to create one unit of ethanol. It’s a retarded idea and I refuse to support retarded ideas just for the sake of sounding like I care more than the other person.”

When they realized I was for legalized marijuana their eyes fell out of their heads.

“It’s about personal liberty,” I said “Not about looking cool.” If someone wants to grow a native and fast growing plant in their back yard for their own enjoyment, without harming others, create a small business revolving around the botany of the hemp plant, or help treat sick patients, I say the federal government can keep its money sniffing nose out of their business.”

After a tirade on my part about one of my bosses at Starbucks telling me I needed to learn to “play the corporate game, or I wasn’t going anywhere” they decided they needed to take me in to lecture on being genuine at their company. I mean, excuse me, but I refuse to spew a bunch of BS just to pet some upper management ego, and lie to them when asked if I think certain ideas are good. Dude, the green tea latte was a HORRIBLE idea. There is no way I could in good conscience play the corporate game and tell my regional manager that I thought it was green and oh so delicious. Barf. Enough with corporate games, I won’t keep my mouth shut if I believe something is stupid.

At one point, they were trying to talk quietly but I could still hear them discussing different races and how they vote. “We are losing this election based on who we’ve seen come in today. We need the asians to come out and vote. Were are they? Where are the blacks and hispanics? They must not live in this neighborhood. Man….the southeast asians always vote Democrat. Was that lady Algerian? They usually vote Democrat too.” Isn’t this the generalization and “racist” talk that the Dems keep accusing the conservatives of? After hearing quite a bit of that I started claiming certain new arrivals at the polls as my own. “There’s a guy in a truck, must be voting Republican….oh, trophy wife, I got this one. They’ve got kids, don’t bother asking if they want your ballot.” The hilarious thing was that the blacks that walked up were having Democratic ballots waved at them and more of them took the Republican ballot in with them. Oops. There was one lady who marched right up to me and grabbed a ballot, took a closer look at it, shuddered in horror, and handed it straight back. LOL.

I enjoyed the company of the people I spent the afternoon with. They were friendly human beings just like me and you. It’s good to put a face on what usually crops up in your mind as some faceless enemy.

I could go on for a lot longer about the personal exchanges between myself and the “other side” but the fact is, I truly believe that more people my age would identify with the conservative ideas I hold if they were educated better about what they really mean and the history of politics in our country and other countries. Having younger faces and ideas in the mix wouldn’t hurt at all either, since most people my age just don’t identify with stodgy, wrinkly old men. It’s not about being fashionable in your politics though. Trying to make yourself feel better than other people (and I still fail to see what makes you superior by advocating taking more of other people’s money and doling it out to whoever the government decides is deserving), and being conservative doesn’t mean that you hate charity and the earth and people that aren’t white.

Young people need to be educated on the mistakes of the past, to know that a government molded society isn’t in the best interest of the people, to remember that people fled to this country in the first place to escape a controlling, over taxing government. We still have a Constitution, and I think that our government has abused time and time again. If they want to get around it they need to change it first, and we need to hold our politicians accountable as they raid the prosperity of the future and flush it down a government regulated toilet.

The White House says Creigh Deeds lost because he didn’t adhere to the Obama agenda. Democratic leaders opine that Deeds’ “I’m a Creigh Deeds Democrat” and his comments to “opt out” of national health care did him in. Democrat voters stayed home, they said.

Lefty bloggers are saying this is what happens when Democrats run candidates that are “Republican-lite.” Moderates have no home with Democrats, I guess. (Why does every majority do this?..that’s a whole other story!)

“I always thought the path to victory was to embrace the president and thereby energize the tremendous amount of supporters of the president in Virginia, particularly because it was going to be a low-turnout race,” Kaine said in an interview. (Virginian-Pilot)

Well, if adhering to the Obama agenda is the ticket to winning in Virginia, and opposing it leads to electoral losses, what will they do with Glenn Nye?

The Virginian-Pilot reported that Nye opposed Obama’s agenda about 25% of the time, opposed his budget, opposed cap and trade, and is very likely to oppose Obama’s health care bill, saying in today’s Virginian-Pilot that he’s “on the fence”.

Meanwhile, some Republicans think the best answer to that is to nominate an Obama supporter themselves. Imagine a debate between Scott Rigell and Glenn Nye over who supported Obama more?

The status quo seems like a Deeds rerun is in Nye’s future. Will Democrats take the chance of having Obama voters stay home next November too? Or will they ditch Nye, and tap someone like Joe Bouchard to step up.

Or, as one blogger wrote, is the GOP hoping for Nye to switch parties.

Of course, the GOP has blown golden opportunities before. It would require the GOP nominating someone who would turn off its own base as well and have the 2nd district do what it did in 1994 - lose while everyone else in the nation was winning. The anti-Clinton vote then was even stronger than the anti-Obama vote (Clinton never won Virginia) but we still managed to botch 1994.

One thing is sure. Democrats felt unloved by their recent slate of candidates, and felt unmotivated to help Creigh Deeds. Will Virginia Beach Democrats go through another year of that campaigning for Nye, who opposes most of what energizes Democratic activists even more than Deeds did?

DC saw upwards of 15,000 Americans flood the Capitol steps and the House office buildings with one message for Nancy Pelosi and advocates of government health care: “No, you won’t”!

Many members of Congress who spoke were buoyed by Virgina’s election results. The crowd went wild for Joe Wilson & Michele Bachmann - especially Bachmann.

One Virginia attendee said she didn’t know if anyone would be there but she heard about it on Fox News two days ago and decide to come. The event was organized in days and the crowd was energized, angry and very patriotic.

Eric Cantor spoke at the rally. I saw Congressman Wolf there too. Others had to be tracked down.

After the rally, citizens waited for hours to get through security and go speak directly with their Congressman. Virginians were there in numbers to get their members on record.

Teri Christoph describes an encounter with Connolly’s staffer that got physical. Apparently, Connolly lets his communications director, George Burke, push female constituents around and threaten them with arrest for asking the Congressman’s position on issues. Maybe we should fire Connolly just for that.

Tom Perriello is leaning towards voting for the bill and Glenn Nye won’t say. Rick Boucher is reportedly undecided.

The crowd’s attitude: if you refuse to hear us now, you WILL hear us in 2010.

I took a few pics from my cell phone. My apologies for their less than stellar quality.
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Jeff McWaters must love schools. First, he’s ramping up his name ID by latching onto a PTA fundraising letter.

Now he’s breaking school board policy by campaigning at school football games, according to this Letter to the Editor in the Virginian-Pilot.

“I could not believe the way the Ocean Lakes public address announcer constantly touted state Senate candidate Jeff McWaters. I have nothing against McWaters, but this was a high school football game, not a political rally.”

Got a few reports that campaign lit was being handed out, too. Anyone experienced in the simplest details of political campaigns knows that schools are off limits. This is twice that McWaters has crossed that line.

Either he doesn’t know the rules that every one else has to follow, or he doesn’t care.

Tuesday was not just another day to celebrate a statewide victory, but it was a day to celebrate local victories as well. Residents in Fluvanna County’s Columbia District elected Shaun Kenney as their next supervisor. This also marks the first Jeffersoniad and Bearing Drift member elected to office.

Kenney won the election, 51-48 percent, against a former Sarbanes staffer.

Also, I would like to commend another Jeffersoniad blogger in his first run for office. D.J. McGuire ran for Lee Hill Supervisor in Spotsylvania County. Although he didn’t win, he definitely ran a great campaign focusing on fiscal accountability in Spotsylvania County.

Gov-elect Bob McDonnell should be commended on a solid win, but Republicans shouldn’t get too excited.

Without a doubt, McDonnell and Virginia Republicans have a mandate, a fact to which state Democrats should play close attention. But no one should overestimate exactly what that mandate is. Exit polls show that most Virginia voters approve of President Obama and that he did not factor into their choice. Of the four in ten voters for whom Obama was a factor, only about half of them view the President and the job he’s doing negatively.

Another fact which can’t be ignored is Virginia voters’ trend of electing a governor of the opposite party of the sitting President. Whether conscious or not, this trend may point to voters’ desire for political balance more than anything. Even still, there’s no denying McDonnell’s polished appeal. Nor is there any denying that Deeds’ attacks - deserved or undeserved - on McDonnell for a paper he wrote almost 20 years ago turned many voters’ stomachs. In fact, those attacks may have done Deeds more harm than good.

But all of that is behind us now. What’s ahead is a lot of hard work. And that work cannot be partisan. That’s a message for our Republican lawmakers as well as our Democrat ones. We are facing troubling economic times here in the state (though not as troubling as in many other states, thanks in large part to Sen. Mark Warner’s and Gov. Tim Kaine’s leadership), and traffic here in Hampton Roads and elsewhere continues to be a nightmare. McDonnell seems to think all the problems we face can be fixed without raising new revenue but by trimming fat from the state government’s budget. We should be clear what that means; that services will be cut for someone somewhere. Apparently, for about 60 percent of Virginia voters, that’s okay. We’ll see how it works out.

Problems like transportation have been festering for years and years. The same old partisan politics won’t work to solve that problem. McDonnell will have to stand up, be courageous and possibly consider solutions that go against his party’s mantra. Democrats will have to be as courageous and resist the urge to oppose him at every turn just for the sake of opposition. In doing so, they could show national Republicans what real public service is all about while actually putting Virginians, including those of us who proudly voted for Creigh Deeds, above party politics.

Media sources are all touting exit polls as if they’re giving useful information, like whether the election was about Obama, and which demographic groups voted for whom.

Vivian Paige and I were reviewing Virginia exit polls, when we discovered they are full of …, well, fertilizer.

The tip-off was this question:

Vote by Size of Place
Total D Deeds R McDonnell
Big Cities (N/A) N/A N/A
Smaller Cities (21%) 56% 44%
Suburbs (48%) 43% 57%
Small Towns (3%) N/A N/A
Rural (28%) 31% 68%

Big Cities N/A????? they conducted exit polls without getting a single sample from a big city? The regional vote of Richmond/East didn’t include Richmond? They split out the “Hampton Roads” vote without a big city? Northern Virginia without a big city?

Guess they deduced the African American vote from sampling Isle of Wight county. The youth vote from Poquoson. I mean, folks all over the media are quoting these exit polls like their the Bible.

“This was a suburban election” Well, when the exit polls leave out every big city in Virginia, hell yes it’s a suburban election. No responses from Asians, Latinos and none from any African American under 45. Great data, folks.

“This race was not about Obama” Maybe not in Roanoke, but it sure was in Virginia Beach. Ok, that’s another fallacy. People said their votes weren’t about Obama. That doesn’t mean they weren’t about government takeovers of health care, cap and trade and all that mess in Washington DC. It just means people weren’t voting with Obama on their minds. His policies? I guarantee you, yes. Him personally, no. But vapid media analysts are confusing the two.

New Jersey’s exit polls have the same problem.

To political professionals who plan to use these exit polls to plan for upcoming campaigns, it sucks to be you.