Scott Rigell won election to Congress with more than 53% of the vote in a three-way race. He became the Republican nominee after winning a six-way primary in June with less than 40% of the vote. Despite early objections to his campaign by members of both the Republican Party and the Tea Party, his win demonstrates the continuing ability of Republicans to rally around their candidate.
But that’s only part of the picture. Rigell was the right candidate at the right time for those looking to change – once again – Washington.
Although a first time candidate, Rigell was not unknown to Hampton Roads residents. Many had seen him in advertising for his car dealership, Freedom Ford, although less so in recent years. During the election cycle, he cleverly aired TV ads for his campaign and his dealership – sometimes back to back – thereby furthering his exposure. One which particularly stood out for me was the campaign ad with his wife, Terry, in it being followed by a dealership ad featuring her.
Rigell stayed on script the entire cycle, whether it be in advertising, at candidate forums or at his town hall meetings. He distilled his message down to easily digestible soundbites: fire Pelosi, I’m a leader, Washington needs a businessman. I literally laughed out loud the first time I heard the Marine Corps DNA ad – especially since he and I had spoken of his time in the Marines and he said he wasn’t going to make a big deal of it, since he had only served in the reserves. But in this military-rich area, stretching that service into much more was pretty effective.
One area Rigell steered clear of was social issues. I have to say that I was disappointed that The Virginian-Pilot never wrote anything about his connection to Trinity Church, something he shares with his good friend, Jeff McWaters.
I attended four of the five candidate forums that was held in the district. At many of them, a casual observer may have thought there was only one candidate – Rigell. His signs were everywhere leading to the venue. Inside, his campaign always had a table set up and staffed, usually with a goodie bag to hand out. I happened to have arrived at the CDBA debate the same time as Rigell and asked him about the overwhelming number of signs outside the hotel. He told me it was “Operation Domination.” And dominate he did: not a single Nye sign was on display. I asked the Nye campaign about this and was told that they had been told they couldn’t put up signs. Apparently, the Rigell team had been told the same thing – some signs on public property were being removed – but they did it anyway.
This willingness to do whatever was necessary to win was my takeaway from our meeting last December. Beneath that disarming smile, behind that wimpy handshake, is a determination not often seen. It – and his millions – took him past the finish line Tuesday.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Rigell ran McDonnell’s campaign. Nye ran Deeds’, with the same result (though a little closer in the count).
Did you see that as well?
Only in the broadest sense that Rigell/McDonnell won and Nye/Deeds lost can the campaigns be considered the same.
Do anything to win sounds about right. The real question is how will Rigell fair in congress when staying “on message” and talking about his car dealership won’t give him any credibility.
It will be interesting to see how he interacts with the rest of the delegation and the other Congressman in Washington. An operation domination won’t fair so well there.
It will be interesting to see how he fairs in Congress, particularly as a freshman with little clout and a single voice among 435.
Vivian,
You can’t really believe that Rigell won simply because of is campaign. Every win or loss has more than one underlying reason and the best ran campaign can actually lose. There were tons of reasons rigell won and Nye lost. The base was not excited, he cut the unions out of the whole process with hs votes,many of the volunteers who had served him in the earlier race he lost, he was in a highly republican area that just voted this year the way they normally would, and Scott knew glen had these porblems. He would have won without the signs and exposure this year. As for winning Hampton, most of those precincts you have to dodge the rebel flag in order to find the Democrats. I now this because I walked those precincts for Glen and Obama. We win them but it is very hard territory and my hat goes off to Gaylene and her people for working them.
Gene – I addressed the reasons for Nye’s loss in the other post. Obviously, one cannot look at one without the other.
I think it was a “perfect storm”..the massive wave of discontent, midterms always being particulary tough for the party in power, the lack of an enthused base for Nye, and a very strong organization for Rigell.
Rigell ran a nearly flawless campaign. He was able to deflect questions on self funding most of it and sticked to the message of “jobs”, etc.
Rigell also used social media and tradtional media to his advantage.
I can’t really compare the mail plan for the two because I didn’t receive many mail pieces.
The bottom line was (as the VP uses for the editorial page) was Rigell made the stronger case WHY to hire him and fire the other guy.
It was Nye’s race to lose and this should be a lesson:
1) Be able to define yourself and who you stand for. One of the biggest challenges that I saw it that people couldn’t “define” Nye.
2) NEVER, ever forget your base.
3) Utilize all forms of media
4) Stay on message.