Over the past few years, there have been several cases of individuals running for the Democratic nomination despite a track record of voting for Republicans. For instance, Chris Wade ran for the Democratic nomination for Braddock Distric (Fairfax County) Supervisor in 2011 despite being a “strong” McCain-Palin supporter in 2008. And recently here in Arlington, we had a candidate (Cord Thomas) running for the Democratic nomination for County Board, despite having voted in the 2012 Republican Presidential primary (he told me he voted for Ron Paul). My attitude is generally that unless you have a da** good reason for voting Republican, or at least a convincing explanation as to your (sudden) political evolution, to me it’s an almost automatic disqualifier for the party’s nomination.
Anyway, now we have a case on the Republican side which is simply bizarre. According to this morning’s Washington Times:
Delegate Barbara Comstock’s congressional campaign attempted to stiff-arm reports Monday that she voted for Barack Obama in Virginia’s 2008 Democratic primary by claiming it was part of a conservative bid to affect the Democratic presidential primaries six years ago.
The campaign defended the vote for Mr. Obama by arguing that it was part of Operation Chaos, a movement spearheaded by conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh in late February 2008 as Mr. Obama’s campaign was picking up steam and had won several consecutive primaries over Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Just one problem, though: Rush’s effort was “meant to ensure Mr. Obama got ‘bloodied up’ politically…in May 2008 as Mr. Obama was on the cusp of securing the nomination.” So, if “Operation Chaos” encouraged Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton to “bloody up” the likely nominee, Obama, why would Barbara Comstock have voted for Obama? It makes absolutely zero sense as far as I can tell, and it would piss me off big-time if a Democrat did something like that. Perhaps Republican primary voters will be more forgiving? Regardless, I think it’s a fascinating window into the way Comstock thinks, and I don’t see how it’s particularly flattering.
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
