By Brandon Jarvis, cross posted from Richmond 2day
With the Republican nomination wide open in Virginia’s 7th Congressional district, several of the General Assembly’s Republican elected officials have been rumored to be in the hunt. Some of those names include Del. Nick Freitas, Sen. Amanda Chase, Sen. Bryce Reeves, Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, Sen. Glen Sturtevant and Del. John McGuire. The only person to officially announce their intention to run isn’t on that list, or any other list at that – Tina Ramirez, a Midlothian resident.
Each name on my list is using the current General Assembly election season to prop up their standing in the area to be best positioned for the 2020 Congressional run.
Del. McGuire, with the recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting a Spanberger volunteer’s profane tweets directed towards him, has continued to try and use this to lift himself up to his Republican colleagues’ level of political stature in the area.
While the article made it clear that the volunteer was not a Spanberger campaign employee and did not receive any type of payment for his volunteer service, McGuire paid for a Facebook ad incorrectly stating that the volunteer was a paid operative for Spanberger.
Here is the caption from the ad:
“Spanberger has lectured Republicans on civility all the while paying an operative who has unleashed a wave of vulgar and profane attacks on me and my family. Spanberger has proven herself to be a hypocrite and undeserving of the title of Congresswoman.”
This was just the first ad that McGuire has paid money to spread across Facebook. In a second ad, he shared the link from a right-wing website with the caption:
“The left is going all out against me. I welcome the challenge, I am just disappointed Congresswoman Spanberger has to stoop this low.”
The second ad also incorrectly states that it was an “aide”, when in fact it was a campaign volunteer.
My question for John McGuire; what does this type of political bantering with misleading accusations do to benefit the constituents of the 56th House of Delegates district?
It is possible that McGuire and his team wanted to use this to catapult his standing from the bottom of the pool of candidates for the VA-07 Republican nomination to the middle. But with a team made up of former Dave Brat staffers, McGuire might need to find some fresh voices for his inner circle. This sort of misinformation and detached messaging sent Congressman Brat to an early vacation, McGuire shouldn’t let it end his political career before it really begins.
P.S. McGuire is running for re-election to the Virginia House of Delegates on November 5th. He is running against Democrat Juanita Jo Matkins, a former public school teacher and college professor.
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