Elephant Ears

This blog is dedicated to the political happenings in the Valley and Southwest Virginia. As the the name implies, this blog will have posts based on what is heard by this elephant's (GOPer's) ears. It is also a great treat to get while at the county fair or a carnival.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

33rd GOP Nomination Battle

Apparently Randy Minchew has appointed himself chairman of the 33rd District. He is also the Loudoun County GOP Chairman, which apparently allows him to make the appointment of that position. Don't forget, the district chair picks the date, place and type of nomination process (so if he got this position, he would be able to control the process that he is running in). The main problem with all this is that he supposedly removed Suzanne Volpe in a letter to state central. Volpe appealed and state central agreed since she had not been given 30 days notice. Even so, Minchew now gets to pick the process of nomination (primary, convention, caucus, etc) and possibly the date and place. Volpe will still run the process on nomination day.

If this is true (and I must admit it came from a Staton supporter), this could be bad news for Minchew. I have a feeling this kind of thing will leave a bad taste in the mouth of many GOPers in the area. That coupled with Staton's already starting base of Dick Black supporters could lead Staton to the GOP nod.

Does anyone know anything about this?

UPDATE: I have received a copy of the letter sent to the State Board of Elections from Randy Minchew asking that he be declared the 33rd District chairman. Therefore, I know this situation to be true. Also, please replace "Volpe in a letter to state central" with "Volpe in a letter to the state board of elections". I mistakenly said the letter was sent to state central committee.

posted by GOPHokie @ 11:28 AM  

7 Comments:

  • At 12/29/2005 4:52 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    News to me. My understanding of a legislative district committee is slightly different. Each unit within the district gets a representative on the committee. If the unit chairman lives in the district they are automaticly on the committee. If they do not live in the district, they appoint a member of the GOP unit to the legislative district committee. The voting strength of members is based on unit contribution to the district. In the 33rd Loudoun would hold a larger vote than Fairfax. But my understanding may be completly wrong.

     

  • At 12/29/2005 5:48 PM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    There is a legislative district chairman that is elected by the committee. In an instance like this, Loudoun has more votes than fairfax so the Loudoun committee member is the legislative district chairman if there is an opening.

     

  • At 12/30/2005 4:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    So basically, Minchew has been making decisions all this time about what kind of primary, where and when -- and he will be one of the candidates?

    That's just nuts!

     

  • At 12/30/2005 6:01 PM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    You are correct anon. Even so, that happens in lots of cases. The only thing different in this case is that there was already a different legisloative district chair and Minchew had them removed.
    Mr JMS does give a good rundown of how the whole process works.

     

  • At 12/30/2005 10:22 PM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    I am not saying Minchew ever violated a bylaw or anything, I just think it was a bad move on his part.

     

  • At 12/31/2005 12:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    mr jms, your statement about Randy not having a vote on the process is incorrect. Randy DOES have a vote in the process.

     

  • At 12/31/2005 3:41 PM, Blogger GOPHokie said…

    I have heard Minchew is going to proxy his vote to someone else as the legislative chairman.
    I believe that is a good move on his part.

     

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