Home Breaking down the three-way race for Republican Senate nomination in the 24th District
Politics

Breaking down the three-way race for Republican Senate nomination in the 24th District

Chris Graham

state-capitol2A third candidate has entered the race for th3e 24th Senate District Republican nomination: Dan Moxley, a former chair of the Augusta County Republican Committee who owns a small business based in Pennsylvania.

Moxley enters a race with another announced candidate, Marshall Pattie, a member of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, and incumbent State Sen. Emmett Hanger, who has not formally announced but has indicated that he is likely to run for what would be a sixth term.

Hanger would enter the race as the favorite, though not a prohibitive favorite. The last time he faced an intraparty challenge, in 2007, he narrowly defeated conservative challenger Scott Sayre in a race that cost the two candidates more than half a million dollars combined.

Hanger’s victory was secured largely through crossover votes from moderate Democrats putting him over the top, and he would seem to be in position to benefit again in the June 2015 primary that, while technically for the GOP nomination, would still be open to voters from all corners.

Pattie is the intriguing candidate – a former Augusta County Democratic Committee chair who won election to the Board of Supervisors as an independent in 2011 and switched to the Republican Party two years ago. A business professor at James Madison University, Pattie fits the profile of a sort of Republican Mark Warner, a moderate on social issues with a solid business and management background who can win crossover votes in his own right.

Pattie also has electoral strength in Hanger’s traditional stronghold in northern Augusta County. The North River area that he represents on the Board of Supervisors was a source of Hanger’s narrow win in the 2007 primary, and Pattie won the North River region in his 2011 campaign with 65 percent of the vote in a three-way race that fall.

Moxley is at best a wild card. A newbie to the Valley with limited, and checkered, experience in local politics circles, Moxley is at most the Robert Sarvis in this race, maybe stealing away a couple percent of the vote in a spoiler role.

This one will come down to Hanger and Pattie, a Republican warhorse in Hanger, the first Republican elected to office in Augusta County since Reconstruction when he won the county revenue commissioner post in 1979, and a new-era Republican in Pattie, whose academic and management credentials along with his electability make him a strong candidate as well.

Hanger begins as the favorite, but he will be in for the fight of his political life over the next six-plus months if he is to return to Richmond in 2016.

– Column by Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

Latest News

tomas valincius uva baseball
Baseball

UVA Baseball: ‘Hoos close out regular season with 3-1 win at Virginia Tech

Local, Politics

Charlottesville: New City Attorney played role in notorious press freedom case

A North Carolina man who was part of a freedom of the press case that gained international attention, and not in a good way, will soon assume the position of city attorney for Charlottesville.

brandon hyde baltimore orioles
Baseball

Breaking: Baltimore Orioles fire Brandon Hyde after 15-28 start

I wrote last night that Brandon Hyde might still have a couple of weeks left to turn things around in Baltimore. Turns out, he’s done now. General manager Mike Elias announced the firing of Hyde, who had led the O’s to back-to-back postseason appearances, on Saturday, hours after a 4-3 home loss to rival Washington...

indian tribe tribal American Indian Society Pow Wow
Virginia

HUD awards $2.2M to Virginia tribal communities for affordable housing initiatives

ambulance on city street police
Virginia

Under investigation: Man admitted to Lynchburg General Hospital with gunshot wound

vdot road
Government, Local

VDOT: Road work in Augusta, Rockbridge, Rockingham, for the week of May 19-23

tim kaine
Politics, Virginia

Tim Kaine to Trump: ‘Birthright citizenship is even older than the U.S. itself’