Friday afternoon roundup

Local, National, Politics, Virginia 3 Minutes

Drake poll shows 48% to 41% lead

Republican incumbent Congresswoman Thelma Drake’s office released the results of an internal poll yesterday. This poll shows Drake up 48.3% to 41.3% over Democratic challenger Phil Kellam. The poll sampled 300 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 5.6%.

I think the sample size was too small and the margin of error too large. No doubt this poll was released in an effort to counter the one released Wednesday showing Kellam up 51% to 43%. Here’s the deal with polls – at least as far as I’m concerned: they aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Polls are a snapshot in time and are only useful in conjunction with other polls in detecting trends. We are still 60 days out from Election Day and a lot can happen in 60 days. Right now, I’d have to say that I think this race is a tossup.
And, really, the only poll that matters is the vote on November 7.

Mason Dixon poll coming

The latest Mason Dixon poll is supposed to be released this weekend. A number of bloggers are reporting that it shows Allen with a 46% to 42% lead over Webb. Seems Jon Henke, the new Allen netroots coordinator, is emailing conservative bloggers with that information. UPDATE: RK is confirming these figures.

Webb releases first TV ad

Jim Webb has released his first TV ad, which is going to appear in select markets, including Hampton Roads, beginning next week. You can see the ad here. NLS didn’t like it, but a lot of of people do. I don’t like it, either, but I suspect the ad was not geared towards me. I’m old enough to remember the Reagan years, and they weren’t pretty.

But it may not be around for long. According to this, Nancy Reagan has “ordered” Webb to stop using the video footage of Reagan. UPDATE: The Daily Press version of the AP story is a little different from this one on Yahoo News, which includes a quote from Larry Sabato.

Lawyers against the Marshall Newman Amendment

Yesterday, the Commonwealth Coalition released a statement, part of which is shown below:

The Commonwealth Coalition announced today that more than 100 attorneys and legal scholars have joined the Virginia Legal Review Committee to express concern about the “significant and largely unpredictable legal consequences” of Ballot Question #1, the proposed amendment to the Virginia Bill of Rights that will be before the voters on November 7th.

The signers include former Attorneys General Stephen D. Rosenthal and Anthony F. Troy and former Republican candidate for Attorney General Wyatt B. Durette. The entire legal document as well as the list of people signing can be seen here.

OK, hrconservative – I’ll see you one AG and raise you two 🙂

Actually, this report demonstrates exactly what Judge Wilkinson said in his op-ed. If the lawyers can’t agree on what the amendment means, then the judges will have to decide. Ambiguity=Vote NO.

Fraim calls for release of Darden report

Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim plans to ask John W. Marshall, the state secretary of public safety, to release the full report on the shooting of police officer Seneca Darden. The mayor’s request was prompted by the Thursday Pilot editorial in which it was revealed that the report may never be released.

I think the report needs to be released. I fully trust Commonwealth’s Attorney Jack Doyle’s interpretation of it but I also understand that others may not. So release it already! Denying access to it only invites distrust of our system.

Dueling netroots coordinators

I’ve only been in the Virginia blogsphere since February but I can honestly say that I’m disappointed in the co-opting of the voices of bloggers by the various campaigns. Webb has Lowell Feld of Raising Kaine and Allen has recently hired Jon Henke of QandO. Personally, I have more respect for independent bloggers who are not shills for a campaign. As for me, I get pretty upset when folks accuse me of being a part of that. When I write this blog, be assured that it is my opinion, not that of some coordinated effort on the part of some campaign.

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14 thoughts on “Friday afternoon roundup”

  4. I suspect that Mrs. Reagan doesn’t like anyone capitalizing on her husband’s name and persona without express permission from her.
    Ollie North is one of the biggest liars and criminals in the GOP stable of wingnuts. His actions reflected very poorly on the President and Mrs. Reagan takes it personally. Webb, on the other hand, is just a democrat. Mrs. Reagan doesn’t support democrats.

  5. Plus, don’t you think Webb has just as much “rights” to this particular Reagan clip as does Nancy? Webb has every right to be proud of this footage and to claim a certain “ownership” to it.

  6. Well, he may be proud of it but I think he should have asked for permission to use it. Think about this: what if Allen decides to use a clip of Webb endorsing him four years ago? Don’t you think Allen should ask Webb’s permission first?

  7. LOL…Allen doesn’t dare do that b/c then Jim can explain what Allen did to change his mind.

    If Nancy Reagan is seriously interested in protecting her husband’s image she would insist that Allen take down all pics of Ronald Reagan that are up on his website.

    I’m not a Ronald Reagan Fan…but some Virginians have him up on a shrine….so let those Virginians know what Ronald Reagan thought of Jim Webb.

    It’s the truth.

  10. The Reagan years weren’t pretty?

    When the democratically controlled congress was to AFRAID to defeat the Soviets, Reagan stood up to them and said “Tear down this wall”…

    You’d be speakin’ Russian darling.

  11. If you seriously belive that the Berlin Wall came down because of Ronald Reagan you are today’s big winner of the biggest fool on the planet award.

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