Cox and the House Leadership
I just ran into an interesting piece of info last night. While looking at VPAP, I noticed that former Speaker Vance Wilkins' Dominion Leadership Fund had been "defunded". After looking into it, he gave the remaining amount of money in the account ($77,972 to be exact) to Majority Whip PAC, which is controlled by GOP House Majority Whip Kirk Cox.
Whats even more interesting is that the entire balance of cash raised for that PAC is only about $85,000; so basically all of the money came from Wilkins' contribution.
Anyway, this got me thinking what could be going on. I have heard that Cox wants to be speaker whenever Bill Howell steps down from the position.
I have heard many GOPs complain that our current speaker needs to be more like Vance, saying Vance was much better. It seems that Wilkins is still very well liked amongst alot of the GOP faithful (at least for his leadership abilities). If this means that Vance Wilkins will be endorsing Kirk Cox for speaker, whenever that occurs; that should give Cox a huge advantage in that endeavor. Not only will people want Vance to pick his best opinion of who will do a good job; but his connections are probably still solid and would provide alot of help to whoever he wanted to get Speaker.
This falls into another larger issue that I will address either tomorrow or next week. I just wanted to set the stage for what could/would happen in the future.
Whats even more interesting is that the entire balance of cash raised for that PAC is only about $85,000; so basically all of the money came from Wilkins' contribution.
Anyway, this got me thinking what could be going on. I have heard that Cox wants to be speaker whenever Bill Howell steps down from the position.
I have heard many GOPs complain that our current speaker needs to be more like Vance, saying Vance was much better. It seems that Wilkins is still very well liked amongst alot of the GOP faithful (at least for his leadership abilities). If this means that Vance Wilkins will be endorsing Kirk Cox for speaker, whenever that occurs; that should give Cox a huge advantage in that endeavor. Not only will people want Vance to pick his best opinion of who will do a good job; but his connections are probably still solid and would provide alot of help to whoever he wanted to get Speaker.
This falls into another larger issue that I will address either tomorrow or next week. I just wanted to set the stage for what could/would happen in the future.
posted by GOPHokie @ 4:00 PM
4 Comments:
At 2/22/2007 5:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
This was reported in the RTD a few weeks back.
I would not view it as an endorsement of Cox. Consider this perspective. Would he want to give the money to the man (Howell) who replaced him against his will? Probably not. Would he want to give the money to a lieutenant (Griffith) who Vance felt wanted to take his seat during the scandal? Probably not. Kirk is next in line in leadership and was not outfront on taking Vance out.
And while members may pine for Vance-style leadership, that does not mean that they pine for Vance. I doubt that Vance would inject himself in a leadership race nor do I think anyone would care about his opinion if they did. He is outside the process and probably has not stepped foot in the capital twice since being ousted. Besides, to his credit, Howell has shown increasing strength session after session and is ruling with a much more iron hand than he did two years ago. He may not be where Vance was but he is moving closer.
At 2/22/2007 6:47 PM,
Politicl.Animal said…
Yeah, some of us heard about this over a month ago.
I know you've been all excited about VT's newly discovered basketball skills, but you gotta stay up to date, man!
At 2/23/2007 11:46 AM,
GOPHokie said…
Well I guess we cant all be everywhere all the time.
At 2/25/2007 11:11 PM,
Anonymous said…
Anonymous hit the nail on the head as to why Cox was the likely recipient of Vance's $$. I bet the only time Vance set foot in the capital was when they unveiled his portrait...which was done very quietly.
Cox has not been a player in the fundraising game so the money will give him an expanded opportunity to pick up a few IOUs from current and possible new members.
Howell was a back bencher. He was selected because he was not a Wilkins type. What the House GOP needs is someone who intuitively knows politics like Vance did and is out recruiting candidates to keep the Democrats on the defensive. Right now no one in the House GOP is out actively recruiting candidates.
GhostofAlexanderHamilton
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