Sunday, December 13, 2009
Primary, not convention, will decide GOP candidate in 5th District
Several candidates had pushed for a convention to decide who will challenge Tom Perriello.
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From today's paper
In six months the voters of the 5th District will choose a candidate to run against U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello, the district's GOP leaders decided Saturday.
Leaders voted 19-13 for a primary rather than a convention, party Chairman Tucker Watkins said.
The primary will be held June 8. So far, potential candidates include state Sen. Robert Hurt of Chatham; Kenneth Boyd, a member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors; Jim McKelvey, a Franklin County businessman; airline pilot Mike McPadden; Feda Kidd Morton, a high school biology teacher from Fluvanna County; and Laurence Verga, a Charlottesville businessman.
This is the largest pool of candidates the party has had to choose from, Watkins said.
Bill Stanley, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, rallied for a convention.
"I think that the people who work so hard in volunteering their time for Republican causes, and who are active in their local Republican committees should determine who faces the incumbent," he wrote in an e-mail. "I believe that a convention process will allow our candidates to save resources, both financial and otherwise, that will be needed to beat the Democrat in the fall of 2010."
Six potential candidates wrote a letter last week encouraging the 32-member committee to choose a convention.
The group listed reasons it wanted a convention such as the party, not taxpayers, would be responsible for paying for it and it would keep non-Republicans out of the voting process.
Morton said she was very disappointed by the committee's vote but is ready to move forward.
More than anything, Morton said, she is worried that by ignoring the request of a majority of the candidates and "Tea Party" members, the committee's decision may encourage a third-party candidate to run.
Bradley Rees, who originally announced he would run for the Republican nomination, has dropped out of the race and will run as a Conservative Party candidate.
Hurt, who did not sign the letter to the committee, said he believes the choice is up to the district committee.
"We were prepared to prevail in either a convention or primary," he said. "Candidates don't get to pick. It's made by the grass-roots leaders in the party. That's their right." One of the leading arguments made for the primary was that soldiers fighting overseas would be able to participate, Hurt said.
A large crowd representing the Tea Party attended the meeting at the Appomattox Community Center, Watkins said.
While he believes members of the two parties have a lot in common, Tea Party members -- who favored a convention -- left disappointed with the decision, Watkins said.
"We all came together with one purpose in mind," he said. "Perriello must go."
