Riley: Anonymous anti-Pete Snyder videos inaccurate and illegal

Someone is determined to make the Republican lieutenant governor race nasty, and today Riley at Virginia Virtucon has more about anti-Pete Snyder videos that are being circulated. As he puts it, he's 99.9% sure who they came from, noting also that they are both inaccurate and illegal. Heh. If Jim's on it, they will find out who did it.

Delegate Scott Lingamfelter has also been at the receiving end of some negative campaigning ... nice, slick 8"x11" mailers that say: "VIRGINIA REPUBLICANS have a chance to nominate real conservatives to lead our state. Beware of Scott Lingamfelter" and ends with, "He can put lipstick on a pig, but its [sic] still a pig." The group taking credit is called American's [sic] for Growth and Opportunity, Inc, a group unfamiliar to people I've talked with. They should have done a little more proof reading and a little less finger-pointing.

The Republican convention is a few weeks away. After yesterday's revolt in the Virginia Tea Party Federation over who it endorsed for LG and AG, it's sounding more and more like the event in Richmond may be a doozy. Stay tuned....

UPDATE 5/2/13: Well, everyone seems to think they know whose campaign was behind the anti-Pete Snyder videos. While fingers are being pointed to Corey Stewart, I'm thinking that's awfully convenient just one day after the revolt among the tea party masses over Stewart's endorsement by the Virginia Tea Party Federation. Various members of that group appear to think Stewart is not tea-party enough and so they hit the blogosphere with their objections. Twenty-four hours later, Stewart's campaign is accused of dirty politics. Hmm.

Each candidate has his or her strengths and weaknesses and, like always, there is no perfect candidate.  The tea party's endorsement of Stewart over the Libertarians' chosen candidate Susan Stimpson was interesting. There have been rumors for a while of cracks developing between tea partiers and Ron Paul followers, the groups that worked together and were behind reversing the State Central decision to have a 2013 primary, making it a convention so it would be easier to pack the hall for their chosen candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, to win the party nomination. If that alliance is crumbling, what does that do for Cucinnelli's gubernatorial race?

I suppose my overall question would be why the tea party felt they needed to vet and choose one candidate in the LG and AG race. With seven candidates vying for the LG nomination, choosing one was naturally going to leave a lot of people angry that their particular candidate was left out. What's done is done now, and we are left with a nasty LG race as the Republican convention looms.

UPDATE #2: There's another question: If -- and only if -- the videos can be traced back to Corey Stewart's campaign, was the candidate aware, or was it a rogue supporter or staffer? Could it be a set-up? 

Revolt within Virginia Tea Party Federation

Oops. There is open revolt within the tea party ranks in the Commonwealth.

The Virginia Tea Party Federation that includes the Shenandoah Valley Tea Party, along with a tea party PAC, got together last week and decided to vet the nine Republican candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Their final choices were Prince William County Supervisor Chairman Corey Stewart and State Senator Mark Obenshain.

That didn't set well with some members of the tea party. Today there was open revolt in the blogosphere from Greg Letiecq, Chris Beer, Tito Munoz, Joshua Huffman, and Willie Deutsch. Apparently there are candidates they consider not "tea-party" enough.

A state of confusion now seems to have settled over the Commonwealth. Chris Beer at Mason Conservative wrote:

I don't know who's what anymore.  Who's a RINO, who's establishment, who loves liberty, who's a real conservative?  It's getting so confusing!

The Tea Party Federation of Virginia endorsed Corey Stewart today, and apparently it's to the bewilderment of the Tea Party.  First off, allow me to say that the fact there is a large "federation" of Tea Party seems counter to what the Tea Party of 2009-10 stood for.  Anyways, apparently the Federation's choice is not the choice of the local (ie real) tea parties. [emphasis added]

It didn't take long after the Virginia Tea Party Federation's endorsements for this open revolt to hit. Now the federation side is pushing back: "The sore losers are on the emotional politics rampage. There was nothing 'rigged' about the process."

The Republican Convention is just a few weeks away. Stay tuned ... this could get interesting.

Cross-posted at Va Political Pineapple