Democratic Crossover Voting in the 2nd
Bearing Drift announced its endorsement of Bert Mizusawa as the Rethuglican nominee in the 2nd district. Interesting…
My voting record is as clean and pure as Christmas snow. I have never nor ever will vote in a Republican primary. But I do understand the rationale for Democratic crossover voting. You vote for the candidate that the Democratic candidate (in this case Rep. Glenn Nye) would have an easier go at beating.
Scott Rigell is the GOPper chosen son and has more money than God. But he’s built in the same creepy right-wing mold as Bob McDonnell. Will voters make the same mistake twice?
Rigell is tapped into the same network of voters that allowed Jeff McWaters to shellack his opponents. In low turnout primaries, this hard-core righty-tighty group will crawl over broken glass to vote for the annointed one. And had this been a closed primary, Rigell would win by a landslide.
But it’s an open primary on Tuesday, June 8. All registered voters can cast a ballot by showing up at their usual polling places anytime between 6am and 7pm. It’ll be Democratic crossover voters that upset poor Rigell’s apple cart. Ha!
Should Rigell prevail, all that $ will go into his extreme makeover. Independents fell for it last year. Did electing Bob McDonnell teach them any lessons?
Now, if Mizusawa muster a win this Tuesday, he has several huge obstacles to overcome in order to beat Glenn Nye. Number 1 of which is the fact that his wife and children live, work and play in Fairfax County.
With Mizusawa the general election race becomes almost 100% about military issues and campaigns centered around military voters. Advantage goes to Nye who seems to think 100% of his constituents care about nothing else than military issues.
So, if I were voting on June 8th, I’d vote for Mizusawa. How about the rest of you VB Democrats?
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June 2nd, 2010 at 6:24 am
Scott Taylor. I want Glenn Nye out at all costs. Taylor would represent this military conservative district better. Id rather have a tea party representative then a Dem who wont vote with Obama/Pelosi on controversial issues. Nye lost me & my family for good with his no to health care. Also Taylor has charisma & charm that Nye lacks.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:25 am
& some 95% of Nye’s constituents only care about military issues, guns, pro life, anti gay.. bla bla.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:12 am
robert: Let me get this straight. You refuse to vote for Nye because he voted against health reform. Instead, you support Taylor who also opposed the health reform law. You complain that Nye won’t vote with Obama/Pelosi on controversial issues. Do you think Taylor will?
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:14 am
Eileen: Personally, I would prefer registration by party and closed primaries. Political parties should select their own candidates without outside interference. I would hate to vote for someone as extreme as Mizusawa in the primary, only to see him win the general election and have to live with the knowlege that I helped him get there.
Jessica Sandlin is the only sensible candidate in the Republican primary. Of course, that means she has virtually no chance of winning.
Meanwhile, the Hampton Roads Tea Party and the Virginia Beach Taxpayers Alliance have officially endorsed Loyola. “We feel the Republican political machine in Hampton Roads needs to be defeated,” said Karen Miner Hurd of the Tea Party. After the Rigell machine rolls over them in the primary, will they suck it up and support Rigell in the general election?
Rigell will win the primary, the only question is by what margin. If he receives less than 40% of Republican votes, it will demonstrate his weakness within his own party. We’ll have to wait and see if those who voted against him in the primary will rally around him for the general election. If not, Golden may be the protest vote and the spoiler.
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:08 am
Glenn Nye is nothing more than a Rethuglican in drag….He won’t be reelected cuz the dems are not going to get out and vote for this charlatan….
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:42 am
Rep. Glenn Nye voted in favor of the stimulus bill, the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell,” but against the climate change bill and the health reform bill. Overall, he has supported President Obama and the Democratic Party about 80% of the time. His LCV score is 64% in favor of the environment (compared to 7% for local Republican Rep. Randy Forbes). He’s no progressive hero, but he is vastly superior to likely Republican candidate Rigell. I hope all 2nd district Democrats will turn out to re-elect Rep. Nye.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Yes. Nye voted against healthcare, so let him loose. Give the republicans a chance.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:07 pm
I agree with Robert. Nye has failed to represent the people who put him in office. Let Rigell take over. He deserves to after the failure of Mr. Nye.
June 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I agree with star woman.. let nye suffer
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm
robert: “Nye voted against healthcare, so let him loose. Give the republicans a chance.” You do know that the Republicans voted against healthcare too, right? One of the central planks in the Republican platform is repealing the health reform that you say you are in favor of.
Nye isn’t liberal enough, so you would prefer someone much more conservative? That argument is logically incoherent.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:11 am
At least you know where they stand. Someone like Taylor is young and much more willing to work with everyone than most of the other candidates in this race.
June 3rd, 2010 at 10:56 am
I want Nye to suffer, After me & countless other liberal Dems in Virginia Beach work to get him elected, he has countlessly voted against the crucial liberal agenda of Obama. We need to destroy Nye!
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Rep. Nye has supported President Obama 80% of the time. A vote for Nye is also a vote for Speaker Pelosi and Democratic control of House committees. Are you willing to hand Republicans a victory out of spite?
As a liberal Democrat, would you really prefer Rigell? Check out his website. The top item “In the News” is “Scott Rigell Firmly Disagrees with Glenn Nye’s Vote to Repeal ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’” Is that really who you want representing you?
June 3rd, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Yep. Thanks to Glenn Nye for getting rid of the hapless Thelma Drake, though.
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Bert Can’t win. Has anyone ever heard of him? Anyone not into politics? Of course Rigell would show someone much lower in hopes crossover and disgruntled would vote the alternative. Would you not paint the picture that the alternative is much stronger than he is. Taylor is #2
June 4th, 2010 at 4:52 am
A truly progressive candidate is unelectable in the 2nd district. Pragmatically, the choice will be between someone who voted with President Obama and the Democratic majority 80% of the time or someone who will vote that way 0% of the time. Demanding 100% ideological purity only works to the advantage of our political opponents.
June 4th, 2010 at 6:50 am
Health insurance is not some ideological game. For some people, it’s life or death.
June 4th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Health reform passed because Democrats controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. Nye’s election helped form that majority. His failure to be re-elected would weaken that majority.
I was a strong advocate of health reform and I was extremely disappointed that Rep. Nye voted against it.
However, consider the alternative:
The choice is between a Democrat who did not support health reform and a Republican who will be actively hostile to it. If you really care about health reform, it is not a difficult decision.
June 5th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Yes, my candidacy is the improbable one, but it is likely that 9,000 votes will win this race. Again, I ask, would you like the choice of 2 good candidates in November? Please check out my website, my interview at AltDaily.com, and contact me if you’d like. I told the GLBT community that if they could get a few thousand folks to gather in the summer, they can get them to the polls! We’ll see. I respectfully ask for your vote on June 8, and please tell your friends! Many people still do not know that they can vote on June 8. Thank you.
June 5th, 2010 at 6:50 pm
PS) Bert’s a good egg, and I love it that you used this pic with this article! The Republican blog comments keep suggesting his name is “Burt…”
June 6th, 2010 at 5:14 am
If the Democratic party will just give me a Democratic candidate, then I will gladly vote for that Democrat. Not happening, though ….
June 7th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
I will be voting for Sandlin for the Primary. I am basing my decision on the guide that is on the Pilot’s site. http://hamptonroads.com/2010/06/voter-guide-2nd-district-gop-candidates
There are some things I don’t agree with her on, such as Healthcare, but she is the only person in the Primary that I actually agree with on other important issues like offshore drilling, dont ask dont tell, and Immigration.
Even though some Dems are looking at the Primary as a chance to set up a bad candidate for the election…I could not ever check the box for someone I completely disagree with. At least this way I am voting for someone I share some ideas with.
June 8th, 2010 at 5:04 am
I agree with Chris. Sandlin is the best candidate in the Republican primary. It would be amusing if there was a big Democratic turnout in the Republican primary and Sandlin upset both the Republican establishment candidate Rigell and the Tea Party/VBTA candidate Loyola. Of course, that probably won’t happen. At this point it looks like we’ll be lucky to get Democrats to turn out and vote for the Democratic candidate in November.
July 8th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Hey, good work. I didn’t anticipate to be reading this caliber of a post on a Thursday. Excellent story in its own small way.