Howell v Amy: Are endorsements helping ... or hurting?

I am beginning to wonder just how much good elected endorsements are doing these days. With the recent letter of endorsement from Speaker Bill Howell for RPV Chairman John Hager, and the rebuttal from Amy Frederick whose husband Jeff is running against Hager, it would seem elected endorsements are hurting the cause.

The electeds are being lined up as The Establishment GOP, the Old Guard, the ones who stick together no matter what.

An example is the story of what happened in SWAC and the 24th Senate District in 2007:

The House of Delegates preached low taxes and convinced the grassroots. The delegates stood up for what they believed in against the Senate where the "Gang of Five," which included John Chichester and Emmett Hanger, were determined to ramrod tax hike after tax hike down the throats of taxpayers.

The grassroots drank the Kool-aid of the House ... they agreed we needed to keep a handle on taxes. Then someone rose from the grassroots and decided to challenge Emmett Hanger, one of the tax-hiking state senators. The grassroots leadership rallied behind this challenger because he was advancing what they had been preached to by the House of Delegates. He was a Kool-aid drinker, too.

And then GOP electeds from throughout the state rushed to the side of the tax-hiking senator Emmett Hanger against the grassroots who had drunk the Kool-Aid. Included in those who supported Hanger were House Speaker Bill Howell and House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith and Delegate Terry Kilgore.

But ... wait! I thought they wanted lower taxes. I thought they were angry at the Senate for voting to increase taxes. I thought they were on our side....

The dirty little secret is that deals are made and favors granted behind the scenes. Last year it was the transportation package that sealed the fate of the grassroots with the electeds who were making deals at our expense.

They call it compromise. I call it selling out.