Conservatives gaining ground in GOP ... 2nd, 6th, 7th District updates

Fred Anderson won the day at the Republican 6th Congressional District convention Saturday in Lexington ... but barely.

Endorsed by Congressman Bob Goodlatte and many elected officials (including state Senator Emmett Hanger, Delegates Steve Landes, Chris Saxman, Morgan Griffith), he squeaked out a nine-vote win over challenger Jim Crosby who is current vice chair of the 6th.

There is a pattern going on in this area of the state with the electeds endorsing the incumbents ... and then the incumbents barely winning. The margins of loss for the challengers are becoming smaller....

Emmett Hanger's famous primary race in the spring of 2007 had every elected in the 24th District endorsing Hanger, including practically every elected in Augusta County -- independents and democrats -- as well as statewides George Allen, Bob Goodlatte, Virgil Goode, Morgan Griffith, Steve Landes and others. The Sayre side consisted only of the grassroots who took an unknown candidate and within three months helped him secure 47% of the vote. Impressive.

Fred Anderson, with his plethora of elected endorsements, only managed to win by nine votes over Crosby who had the grassroots supporters solidly in his court.

Many speakers at the convention talked about having grassroots involvement and rebuilding the Party from the bottom up which was the vision of Crosby who advocated training volunteers in essential procedures such as Robert's Rules of Order and how to run mass meetings.

In the 2nd District conservatives resoundingly voted out Bruce Meyer on Saturday and put in Reagan Republican Gary Byler as 2nd Congressional District Chairman with 66% of the vote.

Bruce Meyer had the endorsement of most of the electeds. Bruce Meyer is now out of office.

In the 7th District which includes Chesterfield County where my folks live, a similar message was sent in their election of a new State Central Committee member.

Marie Quinn won in her bid to unseat Tom Van Auken who was endorsed by many electeds including state Senator John Watkins (voting partner with Emmett Hanger), Chesterfield Commonwealth's Attorney Billy Davenport, and others.

Reagan Republican Kurt Michael was declared the Augusta County Chairman by the Sixth District leadership in a meeting held Saturday after the convention. Michael, who has been under attack by Hanger supporters since last year's endorsement of Scott Sayre over Emmett Hanger (he endorsed along with every other Unit Chairman in the 24th District including Waynesboro's Chris Darden and Rockingham's Mike Meredith), salvaged a badly-run April 10th Augusta County mass meeting that was mangled by electeds Hanger, Commissioner of Revenue Jean Shrewsbury, and Board of Supervisors Chairman David Beyeler. Dr. Michael salvaged the meeting by certifying delegates and putting a committee in place when the other side walked out of the meeting without completing the business at hand.

There is a quiet revolution going on in Virginia. Conservative grassroots volunteers want a seat at the table ... and they are willing to work to get there. Some candidates will win, some will lose. But the margins of loss are getting smaller and the ground troops are growing.

Augusta County's mass meeting brought out 267 people. That is huge! Competition is healthy for the Party. I attended mass meetings for Harrisonburg (about 12 people) and Rockingham (about 10 people) which is the status quo.

At a time when Bob McDonnell and Bill Bolling and RPV are talking about building the grassroots, volunteers in Augusta County, Staunton, Waynesboro, the 6th District, the 2nd District, the 7th District, and others are doing that by bringing in new people to become involved in the process.

It has just begun ... new leadership, new volunteers, a new vision for the direction of the Party.