Well, any Democrat who doesn’t start studying the lessons from yesterday is going to be in big trouble. Bob McDonnell ran a nearly perfect campaign, and he deserves tremendous credit for his victory. Lesson learned: you simply have to talk about what you are going to do for voters.
There was one bright spot for me: Scott Surovell’s decisive victory in the 44th. He learned an important lesson early: that this was going to be a base turnout election. So he worked with his campaign staff, with Ben Tribett (aka Not Larry Sabato), numbers guru extraordinaire, and, well, with me. He plotted a strategy and then he worked impossibly hard at executing it. He really reached out to our “surge” voters, especially minority voters. He knocked on their doors. He called them. He listened. And yesterday, they turned out–not at 2008 levels, but at 2005 levels (and that, you may recall, was an election we won).
Lessons learned: Don’t ignore your base.Work hard. Respect your voters.
I’ll have more to say about the losses of two close friends, Shannon Valentine and Margi Vanderhye, later. But I do want to give a big shout out to Scott on a campaign very well run.
I have yet to have a single Democrat candidate (or his/her volunteers) knock on my door and ask for my vote — after six years in the 44th of Northern Virginia.
Well, then I guess that was a big Fail for me. Which I guess was your point.
Not personally. I’ve never voted by party in my life, but I do note when people assume I will.
Hey Kris:
One nice thing about retirement: you won’t have to deal with whiners/jerks like “Tess” anymore! Woohoo!
Yeah, them constituents are a bitch, ain’t they? Why can’t they just accept the party line?
Kris, that comment was directed at the commenter who refused to list a name, but implied that those who criticize, complain, debate, argue, or simply point out inanity in any form are whiners/jerks. As I said in an earlier comment, this is not directed at you personally; I stand by that.
Fair enough. I’ll remove my comment.
Actually, Tess, my comment was based on your frequent commentary on this site, which has never been anything but overly aggressive for the sake of being aggressive (which you nicely demonstrated in your response to me). Not sure why you come here if it makes so you so unpleasant.