This year’s Advance, on the whole, was just that — it Advanced the ball, particularly for the GOP’s 2009 election efforts in Virginia. Perhaps most importantly, the Advance highlighted one of the most impressive crops of statewide candidates the GOP has fielded in many years. Attorney General Bob McDonnell, the GOP’s nominee for Governor, gave an exceptional and stirring keynote speech at lunch on Saturday that focused on some key themes: in particular, focusing on the need to solve many kitchen-table issues, from keeping state colleges accessible and affordable for the people of Virginia, to tackling the transportation issue, all based on our conservative principles. LG Bill Bolling, running for re-election, sounded many of the same themes, and emphasized what a great team the McDonnell-Bolling ticket will form.
For my money, it’s a great message and one that really should resonate up in NoVA — the focus on kitchen-table and economic issues that are on the minds of Northern Virginians is really important to succeed up here in NoVA. While the Dems are tearing themselves apart trying to win the nomination, we’ll be coming up with conservative, practical solutions to problems and concerns in NoVA and throughout the Commonwealth.
The AG race wasn’t far from folks’ minds at the Advance, and each of the candidates — State Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, former USA for the Western District of VA John Brownlee, and former Arlington School Board Chairman Dave Foster — all acquitted themselves well during the AG debate held on Saturday morning of the Advance. Any one of them would make a great AG. In the straw poll held after the debate, Sen. Cuccinelli won with 153 votes, John Brownlee won 123 votes, and Dave Foster won 44 votes. Looks to me like it will be a race all the way to the State Convention.
I think we all left the convention united behind our ticket and our candidates, which is a great positive.