For months now, Republicans in Virginia Beach have been campaigning for the seat currently occupied by now Sheriff-elect Ken Stolle. Jeff McWaters jumped out early: he’s been all over the place (I’ve run into him a number of times) and a drive through Virginia Beach prior to the November election would make anyone think he was on that ballot, as he had signs up everywhere. The other candidate, Rosemary Wilson, has been much less showy but no less energetic.
The Democrats, on the other hand, have no candidate as of this writing. Jeffrey Breit dropped his bid back in June and tells me he has no intention of getting back in. Sonny Stallings told The Washington Post that he’s not running, either.
Any Democrat would have a hard time winning this seat. The 8th Senate district is reliably Republican: while vpap hasn’t posted the numbers for November yet, it is telling to note that McCain won the district by 10 points last year. I am told that Thelma Drake also won this district last year.
So I think the only question for Democrats in the 8th is which of these Republican candidates will better represent the entire district. I’ll have more thoughts on this as time goes on.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Rosemary Wilson is the best choice for this district hands down. She brings knowledge and a strong sense of community. Plus we have no women representing Virginia Beach anymore!
That last is a really lame argument. Should we have set-asides for female legislators — the men can vote only for men’s seats, and the women can only vote for women’s seats?
Set-asides, no. Acknowledging that diversity of opinion is valuable in a legislature, and that women have differences in worldview from men that can be valuable, and that this is a worthwhile thing for voters to consider, absolutely.
I see no difference between the socialism of Obama and the socialism of Pelosi. I see no difference in the conservatism of Reagan and the conservatism of Thatcher.
Diversity of opinion and Weltanschauung come from many things besides sex, and indeed that seems to be one of the least significant.
Why not ask Ward Armstrong who he supports. (Democrats caucus chair) He threw his support behind a number of Republicans in the November elections. If we all knew who Armstrong was supporting behind the scenes, we could avoid a waste of money and time supporting a democrat or some other republican who has the full support of the Democratic State Committee! As long as the democrats power structure is supporting republicans, we may as well vote for republicans. What the difference?
Wilson is the best. She understands local government and we have not had anyone representing us with that knowledge in a long time.
McWaters would be horrible. This is the guy who denied coverage to poor women through his company and was fined multi-millions by the federal government. How can we trust this guy?
Sorry for the posts getting delayed in showing up. I’ve been without power and am just getting back up.
Wilson is an empty suit, her consultants are as dirty as them come. She was in charge a Fees, Taxes, and Assessments taskforce, came to the RPVB breakfast to brief us on it; first question from audience: How many FAT’s do we have?
Answer from Wilson: I honestly have no idea
She showed up at a parade earlier this year with a hand made poster…
McWaters seems to be on top of things and the policy section of his website is very detailed and intriguing. Wilson’s is very lackluster and almost a carbon copy of Ben Loyola’s. Her consultants run Loyola’s campaign as well.
McWaters seems the far more experienced and pragmatic of the two. I consider experience real world experience, not experience on VB City Council sending millions to developers and being arm twisted into co-signing private developers loans.
This is the “real world” experience you get from McWaters:
“Amerigroup on Tuesday said it will enter a $225 million settlement agreement with Illinois and the federal government over allegations that it denied coverage to eligible pregnant women, the Baltimore Sun reports (Baltimore Sun, 7/23).”
Or you can have someone who has been elected and re-elected by the voters of Virginia Beach based on her record.
Pretty simple choice really.
My thoughts are: they’re both horrible candidates. And it looks like the Dems aren’t even going to bother to field a candidate, so I’ll just skip the election.
There was a forum today, Wilson didn’t show up and she never personally responded to the invite. Her handlers did it for her and they avoided making any commitments until the last minute when they declined.
Being re-elected by the voters of the Virginia Beach doesn’t mean much. The budget has nearly doubled in 9 years while wages and population have not grown close to that much.
Gee, sounds a lot like the VBTA party line. I think if the VBTA is indicative of Jeffy’s support, he has already lost.
“The budget has nearly doubled in 9 years while wages and population have not grown close to that much.”
That is “the VBTA party line.”
Then the VBTA party line is comprised of facts then. I’m sure they would take that as a compliment.
Ugh. Maybe there’s a Democrat available on Craigslist.
Keep drinking the Kool Aid Max.
Facts = Kool Aid..my favorite drink
Both of these candidates are horrible.
Please Democrats, run somebody!
Phil Kellam? Reba McClannan?
The VBTA is often criticized for being hard line on taxes and refusing to support a RINO. Why they’re supporting a lesser of two evils now is not yet clear. Tired of losing? Do they figure they need to get a seat at the table to make progress and that the “ends justify the means”?
If the Democrats do run, they need a capable campaigner. Let’s face it, Deeds was horrific. His campaign almost made Republican Jerry Kilgore’s campaign look credible.