Friday, February 15, 2008

Rosemary Wilson, Illegal Signs, and the Democratic Presidential Nomination

Wednesday's Virginian-Pravda ran a story on events at polling places during Tuesday's Presidential Primaries. The one note covers the illegal signs posted by Councilperson Rosemary Wilson. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/02/hampton-roads-voters-turn-out-presidential-primaries

Virginia News Source gave Rosemary their Dumb Ass of the Week Award for the signs. City Ordinance prohibits signs more than 60 days before the election. Case law does allow you to post them on your own private property anytime, but that wouldn't apply with a polling station.

Why the early jump? With November elections, the City Council candidates will have the Presidential race at the top of the ballot. The Democratic nomination fight presents a lose-lose situation for Wilson.

Barack Obama - would bring a plethora of minority voters to the polls, especially African-Americans. Rosemary has a poor record on issues of particular interest to the minority communities. One African-American leader went so far as to tell me Wilson has been on the opposite side of every issue of interest to their community. In 2004, the African-American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) endorsed her chief opponent, John Moss.

Here's the kicker: as a Councilman, Moss voted against the establishment of the Minority Business Council. How did he still get the AAPAC endorsement? Wilson's record is so abysmal that AAPAC endorsed the only viable alternative. It's the only time a Deaniac has been backed by the African-American community leadership.

Hillary Clinton - every Republican and Republican-leaning voter would turn out to slay the beast. Downballot would be a Councilperson (Wilson) who has voted for every tax increase put in front of her during her tenure. Not a good position to be in.

Last month I had someone close to Rosemary tell me she'll win in a walk. I don't think so.

1 comment:

Avenging Archangel said...

I had to pull my first comment earlier. (I wasn't even sure how to do it.) The offenses:

1. It contained four personal attacks on the blogger.

2. Rather than encouraging debate, it sought to silence it.

3. It reflected a dismissive (read: racist) attitude towards the minority communities.

If you want to argue the "Rosemary's reelection is inevitable" line, please do it without the above offenses. Yet alone all three in one comment.

My point: Rosemary's reelection is hardly a foregone conclusion. That some people want a noncompetitive election I'll let reflect on them.