John Fredericks: 'Slating not so ancient'

Amid the bruhaha from the Virginia Beach mass meeting where the winning side used slating -- they had 600 voters to the opposition's 300 -- comes this from conservative radio host John Fredericks who reminds that slating is not so ancient, as the Virginia Beach mass meeting losers would have you believe:

SLATING NOT SO ANCIENT
By John Fredericks

Appearing on my radio show on Tuesday, Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins lambasted State Senator Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) for “slating” delegates for his Second Congressional District convention at Virginia Beach’s GOP mass meeting on Monday night.

Mullins said the tactic has not been used since the mid-1980’s.

He was off by a few years.

This was shared with me by a reader who dug up an Associated Press story from April 29, 2001 that appeared in The Daily Press.

"State Sen. Randy Forbes won the Republican nomination for the 4th Congressional District seat Saturday in a raucous and bitter convention that literally became a shouting match.

"Forbes won 464.7 delegate votes to 332.7 for Del. M. Kirkland Cox for the right to run in a June 19 special election for the seat left vacant by U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky’s death last month.

"Forbes' victory came after a failed parliamentary bid by Cox supporters to free a major block of votes from Portsmouth’s delegation to vote as they wished. Delegates from Portsmouth and Forbes' hometown of Chesapeake were constrained by 'slating and instructing,' a practice that commits all of a delegation’s votes to the candidate that wins the majority.

"As a result, Forbes won all 93-delegate votes from Portsmouth and 261 from Chesapeake, the largest voting bloc at the convention.

"The practice is legal under GOP rules, but is regarded as a divisive tactic that often favors candidates from the most populated areas.

"Cox supporters sought to have the slating and instructing overturned in Portsmouth. They said that the vote among the delegation during a mass meeting earlier this month was not done properly."

Which leads us to the Second CD nominating convention on April 26 at Hampton University between Wagner and GOP activist Curtis Colgate.

Wagner supporters slated 32 delegates at the mass meeting in Virginia Beach that are expected to deliver over 600 votes for Wagner at the convention, virtually insuring his election.

But Colgate supporters, who control the convention by virtue of the current Chairman Gary Byler, are expected to mount a challenge to the slating process and allow all registered Virginia Beach delegates to participate, not just Wagner’s 32.

Colgate’s forces control both the rules committee and the credentialing committee.

And you thought Richmond was rough and tumble.