Can Bell unify GOP in 20th?
We knew it would be Dickie Bell. I’m a little surprised that it was that obvious to the Republicans, I guess.
“We have some differences. We have some mending to do. We’re not unlike any other political faction. We need to get to work on those things and show the people of the 20th District that we can represent them,” Bell told me moments after winning the 20th House District Republican Party nomination Monday night.
Bell, a 13-year member of Staunton City Council and a teacher and coach at Riverheads High School, had been anointed as the odds-on favorite two weeks ago when incumbent State Del. Chris Saxman shocked the Shenandoah Valley political world with his sudden departure from the race.
But that was before seven other candidates entered the fray, including two, Charles Curry and Ray Ergenbright, with significant experience in local elected politics. The 20th District GOP held a public forum for the seven candidates who remained in the race as of Monday night that included the expected run of questions about abortion, gay marriage and domestic-partner benefits, illegal immigration and other red-meat issues important to the conservative base of the Republican Party.
What was interesting to me wasn’t the selection of questions but the tone of the answers from the two men I had thought were the most serious contenders, Bell and Curry, a former three-term member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors. Both took surprising-to-me hardline stances on the social-issues questions, to the point that I wondered to myself if the two were the same guys that I had known going into the forum, which was held at Buffalo Gap High School before an assemblage that I would estimate at around 100 people, including several local Democrats who were on hand to observe the proceedings.
Bell, for instance, answered the first question of the night, on abortion, in a way that made it seem that he wouldn’t even support a woman’s right to an abortion in cases of rape or incest. I was a bit taken aback on that, and also a little later at his answer to a question on domestic-partner benefits legislation, where he joined with the other candidates in making the issue more about gay marriage than the topic at hand.
The politico in me said Good job! on how the moderate conservatives – I’ll also include Ergenbright, a former Staunton commissioner of the revenue, in that group – seized the initiative in staking out the hardline stances on the social issues as a sop to the base, in the process erasing any appeal the social-conservative political newcomer David Karaffa might have had.
Karaffa, to his credit, came organized, with a contingent of supporters all wearing red and about a dozen handmade campaign signs placed around the high-school auditorium promoting his candidacy.
Bell, for his part, was also organized, handing out a glossy two-page campaign brochure touting his House of Delegates campaign and having on hand his own cheering section.
So Bell was organized, and he was cognizant of the need to throw the red meat to the hungry conservative party base – and he played something of a head game toward the end of the night in response to a question about what he thought distinguished his candidacy from the others.
“My campaign will take the high road. I won’t get down and dirty. I won’t trade negatives. That’s not my style. I will talk to you on the issues,” said Bell, sounding more like the moderate-conservative that I knew coming in than the firebreathing base Republican that he’d been for a couple of hours at the forum.
“For the past 13 years, I’ve stood solidly on the side of conservative principles, and I’m still in the arena. I’ve been elected four times in a city where the politics has shifted from conservatism to something that is alarming, and each time I’ve received a higher vote total. That indicates to me solid conservative support, but also broad, across-the-board support as well,” Bell said.
Talking with me after the nomination was secure, Bell’s first focus was on mending fences within the fractured local GOP.
“I’ve never been involved in a forum where there were so many good answers, so many intelligent people, so many bright ideas. If these people can stand with me, and I hope they will, we can start to mend some of the differences in this party,” Bell said.
My take on things is that Bell did what he needed to do to get the ball rolling for the Republicans Monday night. He won’t win many crossover votes with his statements on the social issues, but if he can mend fences and get local Republicans working on the same team, and the 20th turns into a turnout election, he won’t need crossovers.
The $64,000 Question – can he get what has been a dysfunctional local party of late back working together toward a common goal?
- Story by Chris Graham
Related posts:
- Breaking down the race for the 20th GOP nomination The 20th District Republican Party nomination is Dickie Bell’s to lose, just as it appeared this time last week in the hours after Chris Saxman’s...
- Rob Bell reports on General Assembly session General Assembly Report by Rob Bell On Wednesday, part-time legislators from across Virginia gathered for the new session of the General Assembly. After moving in...
- Bell reports on local Charlottesville-Albemarle bills General Assembly Report by Rob Bell Each year, I receive numerous ideas from constituents, and this year is no exception. With so many smart people...
- Curren ready to run in 20th Erik Curren has been circulating petitions for ballot access for a run for the 20th House District seat for several weeks now. He was planning...
- Is the 20th a wide-open race now? So now that Chris Saxman is out in the 20th House District, what happens next? Republicans will meet this weekend to name a replacement on...
The party wants to attract young people and Karaffa is 25. I’ve got newspaper clips that are older than that.
Last night was a good occasion for The Base to blow off some steam and make themselves feel important. As you say, Bell was the obvious choice, though I’m surprised that you were surprised that he made the required concessions to that wing of the party. That’s what successful politicians do. He said all the right things, and I came away very impressed.
Chris, what did you do to make David Karaffa mad at you?
(I put a very similar comment on a different story by mistake. Sorry for the duplication.)
Why do you assume I would be mad at David Karaffa? That’s a strange question.
Bell was the obvious choice for the Good Old Boy Party. The Party that talks change but continues to do the same old same old. What is the deadline to enter an Independent candidate?
That deadline has passed. It was June 10. Anybody can run as a write-in, but those are hard to win.
I didn’t say you were mad at him, I said he was mad at you. He said something critical of Augusta Free Press at one point, and you didn’t seem to take notice. It seemed logical to assume that something you had written at some point irritated him.
I could’ve read that more closely, huh? I heard him say something about AFP in the context of suggesting that Democrats were afraid of his candidacy. I didn’t take it as anger on his part. I had written a column last week intimating that a Karaffa nomination would be the one hardest for Democrats to be able to compete against. I took it as a compliment that he reads us.
…not to contradict, but, because Delegate Saxman withdrew, registration was re-opened, including for Independents. At least according to the State Board of Election’s information on the four districts where withdrawals have changed the race. The rules state that the contest is no re-opened, and other parties can declare until Sept. 4 @ 5pm. Not that a three or more party race would necessarily be good for our district. It would make research and debate scheduling tougher, etc. But just from a pure Va. rules standpoint, the contest is now open till Sept. 4. I am pretty sure that’s accurate as I have a passion for research and like to stay on my toes.