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The Rumor Mill Says …

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That Tracy Pyles is going to run for the House of Delegates.
That folks are already making moves regarding the 2010 elections in Waynesboro.
That Bob Goodlatte might be in trouble in 2010.
– That there is more bad news in the offing at the News Leader. 

– That Tracy Pyles is going to run for the House of Delegates. I haven’t talked with Tracy much the past several weeks, which is interesting in and of itself, as we have been the only two Democrats fighting the reassessments issue in the county. That said, I’ve not heard Tracy specifically mention the House of Delegates seat in the 20th (held by Republican Chris Saxman) at all, and the last time it came up between us was when I asked him generally about his interest in running for the General Assembly in a conversation last summer. His answer was short and to the point: “None.”

I have, incidentally, talked with a Democrat who has expressed interest in running against Saxman this year.

– That folks are already making moves regarding the 2010 elections in Waynesboro. Yep, they are, but I don’t have much on specifics. Lorie Smith and Nancy Dowdy are reportedly mulling over their chances for May 2010. Meanwhile, I’m hearing that perennial candidate DuBose Egleston might be holding off until 2012 to make another run at Vice Mayor Frank Lucente instead of running potentially against Smith in ’10 in Ward D. And I’m hearing that the conservative camp has a candidate lined up in C to run against Dowdy or whoever in ’10. One thing is for certain: I am not running for anything next year.

– That Bob Goodlatte might be in trouble in 2010. This one is harder to pull together. I’m hearing from various Republican sources that something is afoot in the Sixth District, though no one person seems to have whatever it is all put together just yet. All I can gather is that it has something to do with Waynesboro native and Jeff Frederick hatchetman Scott Sayre. Could Sayre be considering an intraparty challenge to Goodlatte next year? My thinking based on recent conversations is that this could be in the works, but again I just can’t say for sure right now.

– That there is more bad news in the offing at the News Leader. What somebody told me over the weekend is that they’re hearing that the Leader might be on the verge of announcing more layoffs. It wouldn’t surprise me, given the news from last week about a second round of furloughs in the upcoming second quarter. Whatever troubles the local paper is in would seem to be more an issue at corporate. Updated circulation figures should be out soon, but from all appearances, the Leader is still doing fine from a sales standpoint. Everybody is hurting ad-wise, no question. What I can say for sure – Augusta Free Press Publishing is doing well as a small mom-and-pop, and maybe that’s to our advantage right now, being smaller rather than bigger.

 

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Column by Chris Graham

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