Ending a month long controversy, the 39th Senate District Democrats decided on an open primary June 12th to determine their nominee against Jay O'Brien.
Blogosphere- this was a huge victory for all of us. There is no question that the pressure all of you brought forth changed the outcome here! Thanks to all the supporters of a fair and open primary. Shannon Sullivan, the district chairwoman handed her duties in a professional manner that put integrity first. Thanks to her, and the previous legislative chairwoman Sharon Stark for ensuring this decision would be made in the best interest of Democratic voters, and not a particular candidate.
Thumbs down in all of this goes to George Barker, who refused to give up his dreams of a caucus until the very end. I think a lot of voters saw through that, and he eliminated a large amount of his advantage in the primary against Greg Galligan with this month long push for a closed process. We'll get to hear what people think about these two candidates in just over four months.
New Primary Outlook: Toss Up
Now that the nomination process is settled, we'll be able to go further in depth into who is the better candidate to represent the 39th in the Senate.
Posted by: Bryan J. Scrafford | January 31, 2007 at 10:55 PM
Congrats to the members of the nominating committee for making the right choice.
And I know it must have been a difficult choice for several members of the committee who I suspect are friends of Mr. Barker and probably wanted to give him his preferred method.
I am confident that in the end, the winner of this primary will be in a much stronger position than would the winner of a firehouse caucus.
And if the Barker fans are right that he is a much stronger candidate and will be stronger in the general as well, his campaign for the primary election should give us a good preview of that.
Go Greg and George!! Get our Democratic message out there and focus your criticism on Jay O'Brien!
There's no problem pointing out differences with your primary opponent, but let's keep it on the issues and civil. Let's not act like Dale Polen Myers did at the Loudoun County Republican Committee Executive Committee meeting Monday night ( http://leesburg2day.com/articles/2007/01/31/news/new18gop013007.txt )!
Posted by: Doug in Mount Vernon | January 31, 2007 at 11:05 PM
Great news! I'm very pleased that the process will be open to as many residents of the 39th as possible.
Posted by: JMU Duke | January 31, 2007 at 11:33 PM
As a Republican, I can only regret that the Dems have opened up their nominating process. An open prcess virtually always strengthens the eventual winner, especially if he/she opposes someone in the other party who is picked by a couple of hundred people in what used to be smoke-filled rooms.
Posted by: NOVA Scout | January 31, 2007 at 11:49 PM
Hurray for open primaries!!
Ben, I know you like Greg and all, but you don't think this is at least a "slight lean Barker"?
Posted by: Nate de la Piedra | February 01, 2007 at 12:04 AM
Barker has only run in 4 precincts in this district- and that was 15 years ago. Galligan ran in them all 4 years ago. I'd say tossup to the general public.
Posted by: Not Larry Sabato | February 01, 2007 at 12:14 AM
They made a great decision!
Posted by: Nova Democrat | February 01, 2007 at 12:19 AM
No way primaries are better for a party. Caucuses are where potential volunteers and future party activists are groomed.
Posted by: webb slinger | February 01, 2007 at 12:26 AM
Good choice. A primary is what's best is most circumstances.
Ben's right about the tossup. Greg probably has better name recognition after 2005.
Posted by: Dannyboy | February 01, 2007 at 01:14 AM
Dannyboy, can you name TWO precincts in the 39th? Have you ever even stopped, got out of a car, and breathed air in the 39th?
Dannyboy, stop working so hard to be Ben's butt-buddy.
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Funny, Captain Greg has managed to piss so many people off in the last 60 days that I cannot imagine him winning at this point.
Greg and George both agreed on a caucus late last year, then Greg changed his mind. But instead of saying that he just chnaged his mind, he attempted to make George look bad and clearly relied on Ben to do the dirty work. Unfortunately for Greg, everyone within the FCDC has wised up to this and most are sided with George.
Posted by: | February 01, 2007 at 08:49 AM
Hey anon 39th district expert, that is the entire point. The Democratic candidate in the 39th shouldn't be the choice of the FCDC insiders, he should be the choice of the voters.
Had Barker succeeded in keeping the process closed, what you just said would probably matter, but luckily for those of us who believe people who live in a district should be able to pick their candidates, we needn't worry about it.
Posted by: JMU Duke | February 01, 2007 at 09:13 AM
I guess you can call what Greg did 4 years ago as running.......
Posted by: | February 01, 2007 at 09:14 AM
I just did an extremely scientific survey of the two other 39th District voters within a 20' radius of my cube, and neither could name the incumbent. And neither had heard of either Dem.
Let's be honest here -- caucus or primary, this was going to be limited to a very small number of voters, most of whom are already involved or very interested in politics. The difference is the few potential primary voters who have other obligations in the evening and couldn't have made it to a caucus.
How many people total might that be across the vast, windswept expanse of the 39th? 100 people? More? Less?
Posted by: Newington | February 01, 2007 at 03:17 PM