NLS’s analysis of “Brian Moran’s ‘Candidate Recruitment'” – or lack thereof – is well worth reading. The key takeaways:
*In 2003, Democratic Caucus Chair Brian Moran ” allowed 43 of the 61 Republican Delegates to run without Democratic opposition.”
*In 2005, Moran “allowed 40 of the 54 Republicans who ran for re-election to go without Democratic opposition.”
Not good. I’d also add that in 2007, we only ended up picking up 4 House seats – a VERY disappointing outcome compared to the 15 or so Tim Kaine had been saying were “in play” just a few weeks before the election. And, of those 4 House seats, we BARELY won a couple, including Margi Vanderhye and Joe Bouchard. Also, once again, a lot of House Republicans were left unopposed by the “blue team” in 2007 – Griffith, Gilbert, Fralin, Athey, Saxman, Byron, Cline, Landes, Lohr, Nixon, Sherwood, Scott, Albo, Orrock, Hargrove, Bell, Hogan, Wright, Ingram, Ware, Cox, Loupassi, O’Bannon, Jones, Suit, Iaquinto, Tata, Gear, Hamilton, Oder, Peace, Morgan, and Wittman.
As NLS concludes, “In summary- no Brian, I don’t think we need your ‘candidate recruitment’ expertise!” The bottom line is that Virginia Democrats need to do a lot better than this in 2011 and beyond. Let’s start with a high-quality DPVA chair – someone like Peter Rousselot!
