UPDATE II: Now it’s official. Gilmore wins a squeaker against Marshall, taking 50.3% of the convention votes. It’s hilarious that this nominating convention, which Gilmore partisans fought tooth and nail for, very nearly killed his candidacy.
UPDATE: Bearing Drift and Raising Kaine say that Gilmore won by about 70 votes out of 4500 cast. That’s not official yet, though.
This could be hilarious. The Virginia GOP is meeting today to nominate its
But things can’t always be the way you want them to be. James Martin over at Raising Kaine is liveblogging the nominating convention, and reports that state Del. Bob Marshall is beating Gilmore in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 10th, and 11th districts so far, with Gilmore posting leads only in the 2nd and 9th districts. Additionally, Martin estimates that “50-55% of the delegates are wearing Bob Marshall for Senate stickers”.
It sounds like Jim Gilmore is about to get punk’d again. Now, I’d prefer that Gilmore and his sky-high negatives survived the convention for a slam-dunk Mark Warner win in November, but this is still amusing nevertheless.
Ive been rooting for Marshall for some time now, assuming he never had a chance of beatting Gilmore. Looks like I could be wrong. The VA GOP is stupid for not allowing a primary. They deserve what they get.
Dang. WTOP radio reports that Gilmore has won the GOP nomination with 50.3% of the vote.
Almost!
If Marshall had won, we could’ve safely picked Warner as Veep, and then pick someone like Beyer for Senate.
i have commented on this guy in the past; he is the epitome of the word “WING NUT”; and he DAMN near became the repub sacrificial lamb to mark warner; this puts a huge emphasis of the party DISUNITY of the repubs in VA
Let us say Obama taps Jim Webb for his veep (I happen to think he is clearly the best choice), and he goes on to win. One name that I have not heard as a possible replacement: Chuck Robb. I think he would be a strong choice, and it would kind of ironic considering he was knocked out of this very seat by George Allen in 2000.
Gilmore, as James notes, has sky-high negatives. Not that he had a chance anyway, but there’s nothing like losing a squeaker against a terribly flawed candidate to make you feel like not supporting the winner. In other words, I think Marshall’s supporters may very well have little interest in helping Gilmore, given the closeness of the final vote.
Especially since Gilmore outspent Marshall by a 10-1 margin. Marshall raised a whopping $78k.
since this isn’t a primary, it’s not a repudation from the voters, and these people that went against him probably wouldn’t support gilmore either. this seems like a big win for marshall though. he nearly took down a former governor, made a bunch of connections throughout the state with conservative activists, and WON’T have to be defeated by mark warner come november. we better watch this guy, and defeat him in his next election.