RNC failed again and Ken Cuccinelli lost.by a hair in Virginia
In 2009, the Republican National Committee spent $9 million to win Virginia by a big margin. For the past 48 hours, the party bosses have been screaming to everyone about how much money they poured in this time in Virginia. We’ve had a few diarists at RedState document it and suck it up as gospel truth that the RNC did all it could this time.
The RNC spent $9 million in 2009 to win and spent $3 million this time, pulling money out of Virginia, to lose by a hair. The RNC truly screwed up in Virginia this time and no amount of spinning can distract from that screw up. It was Election Day itself when someone finally noticed the 3rd party candidate, Sarvis, had been funded by a major Obama donor. Election Day the GOP finally notices this!
Cuccinelli had all the insiders aligned against him. He was the outsider. The gays hated him, the Chamber of Commerce hated him, the kid killers hated him, the GOP establishment hated him — all the insiders hated Cuccinelli and his campaign made the strategic blunder to try to work their way inside instead of dancing with the folks who got him to the dance. The campaign manager was fired too late and the campaign fell behind by double digits. Compounding that, the Democrats massively outspent him, Governor McDonnell is involved in a scandal, and the GOP voted to raise taxes with Cuccinelli struggling to distance himself from both.
The Obama Machine took advantage of all of this and went into high gear. They intended to deliver the state for McAuliffe decisively.
Then something happened. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
yeah… the RNC failed because the democrats bankrolled a 3rd party candidate to siphon off republican votes.
A major Democratic Party benefactor and Obama campaign bundler helped pay for professional petition circulators responsible for getting Virginia Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Robert C. Sarvis on the ballot — a move that could split conservative votes in a tight race.
Campaign finance records show the Libertarian Booster PAC has made the largest independent contribution to Sarvis’ campaign, helping to pay for professional petition circulators who collected signatures necessary to get Sarvis’ name on Tuesday’s statewide ballot.
Austin, Texas, software billionaire Joe Liemandt is the Libertarian Booster PAC’s major benefactor. He’s also a top bundler for President Barack Obama. This revelation comes as Virginia voters head to the polls Tuesday in an election where some observers say the third-party gubernatorial candidate could be a spoiler for Republican Ken Cuccinelli.
After months of trailing in the polls by double digits, Republican Ken Cuccinelli came within 3 points of defeating Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the Virginia governor’s race, despite having been outspent by an astonishing $15 million. It’s one of the most amazing political comeback stories of our time… although the achievement is naturally diminished by the fact that Cuccinelli still lost.
The Virginia race was complicated. Cuccinelli’s history, the troubles of current Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, campaign money, shifting demographics, and shutdown politics all played a role. But in the end, almost all of that was swept off the table by the ObamaCare debacle.
It’s rare to see such a clear example of a single issue upending a race. Cuccinelli’s eleventh-hour poll surge was almost entirely due to backlash against ObamaCare, according to exit polling.
The Republican Party’s decision to offer modest support to Cuccinelli when he was a double-digit long shot is defensible, although we might ask how much of that decision was based on faulty polling, the intimidation factor of McAuliffe’s negative ad blitz, and the regrettable Republican tendency to buy into media mythology, such as the alleged “shutdown backlash.” In the end, Virginia voters split blame for the shutdown almost evenly between President Obama and the Republicans – a remarkable result in a state where so many federal employees reside.
But this race changed in a big way over the last few weeks, and a more nimble Republican Party would have capitalized on it. The political machinery of the GOP didn’t seem prepared to deal with an ObamaCare crash that everyone knew was coming. It’s almost as if party strategists and donors didn’t listen to what its candidates and thinkers have been saying. Their lack of foresight and adaptability cost them a winnable race.
John Hayward
Senior Writer