2008 RPV Convention: Grassroots conservatives vs. Establishment Republicans

_{^{[For a play-by-play report of the convention, I suggest you head over to BearingDrift.com and check out their live blogging.]}}

It's over. Virginia's Republican Party has simply handed over John Warner's senate seat to liberal Mark Warner.

After twenty-thousand 2nd's to Jim Gilmore's nomination, Bob Marshall's crew was finally allotted time on the state. What happened? Grassroots came to life. The convention roared in support of a true conservative. After Marshall's nomination speeches, I asked those Gilmore supporters around me: How can you vote against someone who can energize people like that?

But it's not about how loud you are, it's how many numbers you have and, quite unfortunately (and to the future demise of the party) the majority of the votes went to the Establishment Republican. Jim Gilmore is tried and tested, and he failed that test. His supporters argue that he has the name recognition that Marshall lacks. If that's true and Jim Gilmore has any shot at defeating Mark Warner in November, why is it that he only won the nomination by 65.76 of 10,379 votes?

Instead of energinzing their grassroots conservative base and marching to Washington on the mantra of true conservatism, the Republican Party of Virginia will be struggling to keep its footing and not to lose another Republican seat.

However, a man who has run his entire campaign on energizing the grassroots force within the party, Prince William Delegate Jeff Frederick, had much better success today. After the ballots were cast for Party Chairman but before there had been a tally of all districts, Chairman John Hager rolled out onto stage with a motion to declare Frederick the winner by acclimation. After a second of that motion, Jeff Frederick was declared the new Party chairman.

Come November, when Mark warner takes over the vacant seat, I will surely be there to say "I told you so."