Republican Party Virginia

Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson won 83% of a straw poll vote at the state GOP conference while party leaders on Sunday rejected a proposed presidential primary, a vote that could help Robertson even more. The former TV evangelist's backers came in busloads from across the state to pack the conference. One GOP official called it "an awesome display," but supporters of other candidates questioned whether Robertson's ability to pack meetings will translate into popular support.

Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, an ally of Virginia's tobacco industry and chairman of the powerful committee that handles tobacco legislation, won't seek reelection this year, sources said Monday. The 68-year-old Republican plans to announce Wednesday that he will not seek an 11th term, according to two sources within the GOP who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bliley becomes the 30th House member--23 Republicans and seven Democrats--to announce he will not seek reelection this fall.

Republican J. Marshall Coleman said Wednesday that he intends to seek a recount of the closest governor's race in Virginia history, but Democrat L. Douglas Wilder was already relishing the historical dimensions of his apparent victory. "It starts coming home to you, something happened last night," Wilder said at a news conference the morning after he claimed victory as the nation's first black elected governor. Wilder was clinging to a lead of 5,500 votes out of more than 1.7 million cast.

Even before the crowd started gathering for last month's shad planking--Virginia's most celebrated bipartisan political ritual--it was clear that this year's edition of the customarily convivial cookout was not going to be any love feast. Not with the 1994 contest for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Charles S. Robb threatening to rend both political parties asunder and send a warning to nervous Democratic and Republican leaders around the country.

Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, an ally of Virginia's tobacco industry and chairman of the powerful committee that handles tobacco legislation, won't seek reelection this year, sources said Monday. The 68-year-old Republican plans to announce Wednesday that he will not seek an 11th term, according to two sources within the GOP who spoke on condition of anonymity. Bliley becomes the 30th House member--23 Republicans and seven Democrats--to announce he will not seek reelection this fall.

Ronald Spiggle, Democratic county chairman in Appomattox County, Va., has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1980. But he plans to vote for the party's gubernatorial nominee, Douglas Wilder, on Nov. 7. What's more, Spiggle is confident that Wilder, a black, will carry Appomattox County, where the war between the states ended. The county went for George Bush by 2 to 1 last November. "Most people think he's a moderate who will keep the state programs going," Spiggle says.

Even before the crowd started gathering for last month's shad planking--Virginia's most celebrated bipartisan political ritual--it was clear that this year's edition of the customarily convivial cookout was not going to be any love feast. Not with the 1994 contest for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Democrat Charles S. Robb threatening to rend both political parties asunder and send a warning to nervous Democratic and Republican leaders around the country.

One Saturday last spring, the same day that marked the kickoff of West Hollywood's annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Celebration, a small group of conservative Republican activists got together for an alfresco fund-raising brunch in a Hollywood Hills home. The setting seemed like heaven--ripe oranges and lemons on curving branches, mockingbirds burbling arias beneath an azure sky--and the dozen or so guests seemed perfectly cast for their roles as Grand Old Party stalwarts.

Marvin Bush, youngest son of President Bush, has been named finance chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia while it recovers from a financial embarrassment. Last year, the state GOP cut staff and expenses after officials discovered a former bookkeeper had failed to pay withholding taxes for about 16 months. The party had to borrow to repay taxes of about $150,000 and a $74,000 fine.

Oliver L. North won muted endorsements Monday from a handful of potential Republican Senate colleagues, but former President Gerald R. Ford joined other prominent Republicans who have refused to back the former White House aide in his bid for U.S. Senate.

Republican J. Marshall Coleman said Wednesday that he intends to seek a recount of the closest governor's race in Virginia history, but Democrat L. Douglas Wilder was already relishing the historical dimensions of his apparent victory. "It starts coming home to you, something happened last night," Wilder said at a news conference the morning after he claimed victory as the nation's first black elected governor. Wilder was clinging to a lead of 5,500 votes out of more than 1.7 million cast.

Ronald Spiggle, Democratic county chairman in Appomattox County, Va., has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1980. But he plans to vote for the party's gubernatorial nominee, Douglas Wilder, on Nov. 7. What's more, Spiggle is confident that Wilder, a black, will carry Appomattox County, where the war between the states ended. The county went for George Bush by 2 to 1 last November. "Most people think he's a moderate who will keep the state programs going," Spiggle says.

Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson won 83% of a straw poll vote at the state GOP conference while party leaders on Sunday rejected a proposed presidential primary, a vote that could help Robertson even more. The former TV evangelist's backers came in busloads from across the state to pack the conference. One GOP official called it "an awesome display," but supporters of other candidates questioned whether Robertson's ability to pack meetings will translate into popular support.

With President Obama set to kick off his "forward"-themed re-election campaign Saturday, Republicans have unveiled a stinging slogan to answer the message of hope and change in his last run -- "Hype and Blame. " It's a message that speaks to the competing efforts of the two parties to frame the issues. The Obama campaign hopes voters see the November vote as a choice between two candidates, and have thus cast Mitt Romney as someone who would return the nation to failed policies.

In the latest sign that his campaign organization hasn't kept pace with his recent rise in the polls, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich failed to qualify for the primary ballot in his home state of Virginia, the state Republican Party announced early Saturday. The party, in a Twitter feed, said the former House speaker did not submit enough valid petition signatures to meet the state's 10,000-signature threshold. Gingrich, who represented Georgia in Congress, now lives in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington with his wife Callista and has voted there over the last decade.