(Editor’s Note: This is about the Tuesday, November 15th meeting)

• I’m going to start it off by saying that the current mix of City Council members are the best Danville City Council that I can ever remember. All of them are open to citizen’s comments and have a strong knowledge of the issues. They may not vote the way I want to on some of the issues, but I always have respected their point of view.
• In the same line of thinking, Danville will have a great loss if David Luther does not run for re-election. Luther provides a strong voice of business knowledge which is sorely needed in today’s governmental workings. That statement is not meant as a slight to the other council members that will be up for election, of course.
• Danville city workers deserved that one-time bonus and council did the right thing in approving it unanimously. Although I’ll single out the policemen, firemen and teachers as especially deserving of the bonus, every city worker had not had a raise in three years. I talked with Budget Director Cynthia Thomasson before the meeting and she told me stories that some workers had their workload increased by a third because of staff cutbacks, yet the affected employees got nothing for the extra work. The economic timing wasn’t right for an across-the-board raise, but this was $1,100,000 well spent by the city.
• David Luther & Fred Shanks “get it”. In an effort to make the process of getting the “ghost signs” into city code, the Planning Commission & city staff concocted a process that rivaled the IRS tax code. Luther immediately said “We’re supposed to make this simpler” and the issue was sent to the work session to make it happen.
• Mayor Sherman Saunders continues to count the number of debate points in issues that he’s not involved in. Heh.
• Thank goodness that somebody’s going to do something with the Northside Tire & Northside Video derelict properties. I was beginning to think the city should demolish those structures instead of yet another house in the Washington St. area. The Northside Tire store is ready to reopen, however the city staff said the old video store has building code issues. Perhaps it will be demolished after all, but it’s good to see some progress on that property no matter what.
• O’Kelly’s rocks! They’re a giant success because they sell great food at reasonable prices. City staff & council know it’s good policy to help a growing business continue to expand. It’s also a good thing for council members to say nice things about local businesses unsolicited. Council members are people too and not just nine talking heads on the platform.
• “East Franklin Turnpike” is a stupid name for the bypass connector, but we’re now stuck with it.
• The public attendance numbers for the council meeting is horrible. Danville residents should attend them more often.

Finally, I want to think the council members for the warm welcome back to the media table. The words of encouragement mean a lot.

If I’m wrong on something, I’ve got no problem admitting it. On the other hand, Don McEachin prefers to stick his fingers in his ears and say “LA LA LA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

Gun crimes drop at Virginia bars and restaurants

A bottle of whiskey 30 feet away from a legal concealed-weapon permit holder isn’t going to change that person into somebody who is going to shoot people. Anybody who thinks otherwise is an idiot… needless to say, Don McEachin thought otherwise. What’s worse, is that Don McEachin still seems to think otherwise.

When confronted with the numbers (which don’t lie), McEachin said…

“Most folks obey the law, and that’s a good thing,” said McEachin, who remains staunchly opposed. “But I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that just like drinking and driving doesn’t mix, guns and drinking don’t mix.”

Hello, Don? Boing! It’s illegal to drink alcohol in a bar while carrying a concealed weapon. It was before then, too. Nothing’s changed. As a subset of the general society, concealed weapon permit holders are much more law-abiding. It’s called “responsibility”, Don. Almost 100% of concealed weapon permit holders understand and accept that responsibility.

I’d be a lot more impressed with McEachin if he introduced legislation (or even helped to enforce the current laws) to control the illegal concealed weapon carriers in Richmond and Henrico County. I’ve heard they have a murder problem up there.

Here we go…

5th District Thoughts

• Tom Perriello was doomed from the start of this election season, but he fought hard until the end. Sitting across the interview table from Tom last Thursday, I could feel the passion of his talk, along with a slight bit of desperation because the clock was running out. I don’t give a damn if you stand for the exact opposite of everything Tom Perriello stood for, Tom Perriello has earned my highest respect for truly believing in (and standing behind) his actions.
• Likewise, Robert Hurt was in the driver’s seat from the day he declared his candidacy. Robert Hurt surrounded himself with smart people who knew how to play the political game, and it worked perfectly. Chris LaCivita is a political genius, no matter if you like what he does or not.
• Robert Hurt and his handlers ran a campaign that I just simply didn’t like, but damn, did it work. As a person, he was very hard to make contact with and he didn’t do much with the “little people”. But when you’re ahead of a sitting incumbent all throughout the campaign, the correct gameplan is “Don’t Make Mistakes”. Hurt didn’t make any mistakes, and he’s the new Congressman.
• I am immediately pissed off at the “OMG The 5th District Made A Horrible Decision And The Sky Is Going To Fall” attitude that I’ve started to hear from the extreme-partisan part of the losing side. Extreme-partisanship sucks, no matter which side of the aisle you represent. The world isn’t going to end. We’re going to be just fine, just like we would have been if Tom Perriello had won. Your guy lost. Let’s move along and work together with everybody. Together, we truly can make this a better place. Just to make it clear, I would have said the same thing about the Extreme-Republican side’s inevitable same type of whining that would have came out if Hurt had lost.
• Robert Hurt is a conservative. Anybody who said otherwise during the campaign was full of crap.
• Tom Perriello wasn’t a liberal. Anybody who said he was during the campaign was full of crap as well.
• Jeff Clark’s candidacy turned out to be perfect for everybody. He got his point across and neither of the major parties can say he ruined things for them. I truly hope that Jeff Clark stays around in the political way of life and would be very interested if he runs for Danville’s City Council in 2012. Jeff Clark earned my respect for what he did during this campaign, despite a few missteps along the way.
• If you voted for Jeff Clark because you believed what he stood for, you did the right thing. If you voted for Jeff Clark because you thought Robert Hurt wasn’t conservative, you were an idiot.

Enough about the 5th District… let’s talk about the 9th District.

• Wow. Rick Boucher lost. Wow again. I never thought it was possible, even when Morgan Griffith started running one hell of a campaign.
• One vote can make a difference. I’m not talking about an individual’s vote, but Boucher’s vote for the “cap-and trade” legislation. No matter how Rick Boucher tried to explain that he did it for the coal industry, the voters saw it as a vote against his own people. “Cap-and-trade” ended Boucher’s 28-year career as a Congressman.
• Although I’ve got a firm position against out-of-area political candidates, there’s no way I could paint Griffith that way considering his property line was the 9th District boundary, and the fact that he’ll be in the 9th District after redistricting. Boucher’s “He’s not from here” advertisement simply pissed me off.

More “thoughts” coming about other election results soon…

The Southside tour started with Chatham on Monday, Danville on Tuesday, Martinsville on Wednesday, and South Boston on Thursday. Let’s go to the “random thoughts” board…

• Attendance seems to be way down compared to last year, and that’s a big surprise to me with this being an election year. What’s the reason? Health care reform was the dominating issue last year, but there doesn’t seem to be one dominating issue out there.
• The attendance may be down, but the cordiality is significantly up. The ones I’ve seen have been nowhere like the one last year in Danville… except for one glaring example.
• Gary Bender (at the Danville meeting) was an embarrassment to himself. I’ll say what I said last year… “I don’t give a damn if you hate the man and think he’s Satan. He deserves a degree of respect no matter what.” Bender (in a two+ minute crazy-ass rant) called Perriello a “liar and a hypocrite” before getting booed (rightfully) by the audience.
• Has anyone ever seen Tom Perriello in anything except a light blue dress shirt and a red tie?
• Some people are complaining about the times that these town hall meetings have been scheduled for, with some starting at 7:30 AM. With the number of meetings that Perriello has scheduled, those complaints are horsecrap. There’s no way that everybody can be pleased and to have the meetings at various times throughout the day is a good idea. If you didn’t like the Chatham 7:30 AM start time on Monday, you could easily drive the short distance to Danville for the 6:00 PM meeting on Tuesday.

More random thoughts to come…

• I had a bad feeling that even though this was supposed to be about the socio-economic study, it would devolve into people’s opinions about uranium mining in general. It wasn’t as bad as I feared, but the anti-mining people were out in full force. Oh well…
• Originally, I was pleasantly surprised at the first set of speakers who spoke were in favor of the studies (although that’s not what the meeting was about). However, it’s been shown that the deck was stacked. The pro-study group signed up at least 12 speakers before anybody else got a chance to put their name on the list. At a meeting held this time of night, all media is on a deadline so that we can get the story out as quickly as possible. Our coverage consisted of only the first hour of speakers. We had to hustle back to Danville and prepare the video for our 8 to 9 PM hour. As much as I’d like to laugh at the use of less-than-honorable tactics being used against a group who’s known to use less-than-honorable tactics, I can’t do that. I still believe that the scientific study is the best course of action, but this “stacking the deck” tactic was dirty and I strongly condemn it.
• Regarding this tactic, Karen Maute was referenced in a Register & Bee article as saying “the move was a corporate strategy to dominate the meeting while the press was covering the proceedings”. I know some people aren’t going to believe what I’m about to say, but she’s correct. I’m very disappointed in the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance for orchestrating this tactic and I feel they’ve set the pro-study faction’s cause back because of this maneuver.
• On the other side of the “less-than-honorable tactics” coin, Jack Dunavant yet again played the “scare tactics” card by saying that something like of uranium scrap would be lining the banks of the Banister River. As usual, Jack Dunavant is pulling scary so-called “facts” out of his butt. Face it, uranium-mining foes… none of us have any idea what can or will happen if uranium mining is allowed. That’s what the scientific study is for because you can’t use data from uranium mining efforts in the past to say that’s what would happen while using today’s technology. I’m honest enough to say I have no idea, and that’s why I’m backing the scientific study.
• I was pleased to hear the opinions of Don Merricks, Danny Marshall and Robert Hurt who spoke positively about the studies and how inclusive they should be.
• I’m very disappointed in the closed-mindedness of the elected officials who are strongly against uranium mining before the scientific data is in. If  nothing else, the potential economic impact to this region should be enough to keep an open viewpoint. While I can almost excuse this behavior in small-town councils like Halifax that are  led by Jack Dunavant, I’m amazed (and not in a good way) at House of Delegates member James Edmunds’ staunch anti-mining stand. Although he’s said that he’s completely opposed to uranium mining even if the government says it’s safe, I can always hope that he will understand the economic boost that would happen if mining is proved to be safe.
• I agree with Halifax Town Manager Carl Espy (and others) who believe that the socioeconomic study should be secondary to the scientific study. I also strongly agree with Halifax County Chamber of Commerce president Nancy Pool who said that $200,000 wasn’t going to buy much of a study and that the better research groups may not have interest in responding to the study proposal for that relatively small amount of money.

So that happened. I learned a lot by listening to the speakers but I’m still dismayed over the tactics used by the anti-mining group. I have lost a lot of respect for the Virginia Energy Independence Alliance because of their smart yet stupid “stack the deck” tactic that they’ve used. I remain in favor of the scientific study and believe that the socioeconomic study should come afterwards.

• The first blunder of this campaign belongs to Robert Hurt’s team. After originally saying he was willing to add Jeff Clark into the inevitable debates, his campaign immediately backtracked (Editor’s note: After recieving a comment that said “immediately” was wrong, I’ve deleted that word.) and said that Hurt had no interest in debating Jeff Clark. Robert Hurt is guilty of being eager to jump into the campaign (which isn’t a sin at all), but he’s also guilty of political naivety be failing to remember a cardinal law of political debates… “You don’t want to debate somebody when you have little to gain from that person. Jeff Clark’s most fervent supporters have very little interest in Robert Hurt and probably will vote for Clark in the end. The good news about that is that those fervent supporters are relatively few people and it probably won’t affect the election’s final results. When Clark’s supporters are known for saying the infamous “I’d rather have Perriello for two instead of Hurt for 20″, there’s absolutely no sense in devoting valuable campaign resources to attempting to switch those voters’ minds at this stage of the campaign.
• This debate kerfluffle shows that Robert Hurt has campaign managers who know how to play the game. In the short-term, this makes Hurt look bad for “going back on his word” and his opponents can get some early hits in. I’m predicting that the Hurt & Perriello campaigns will come up with debate rules which will include “anybody that is polling more than X% in the polls” which will surgically exclude Clark. It’s a common debate rule that was used in the 2005 Kaine/Kilgore Virginia’s governor race. In that race, the campaigns agreed on a 15% threshold which eliminated Russ Potts from consideration. Potts and his campaign screamed “Unfair!” to no avail and he ended up sequestered in a TV station office and had to answer the debate questions in front of a chroma-key wall and be edited into the debate footage (and very few people watched the “created” version). Potts went down to 2.2% in the general election and was a non-factor.
• Tom Perriello’s campaign (to no surprise) is saying that they’re eager to have Jeff Clark in the debate schedule for now, as the vast majority of Clark’s supporters are the far-right “fringe” voters who predominately vote for the Republican candidate. Perriello’s campaign is perfectly happy to let Jeff Clark do whatever he wants at this stage of the game. That “free play” time will come to a screeching halt if Clark starts attacking Perriello. If Clark believes that he can win this election (he can’t), he will have to start changing the minds of Perriello voters. That’s another reason why I think both the Hurt & Perriello campaigns will agree to debate rules that will exclude anybody that has less than X% in polls.
• Money fuels campaigns and wins elections. Robert Hurt has a lot of money. Tom Perriello has a boatload of money. Jeff Clark has no money. Hurt & Perriello are going to have a continuous money stream until Election Day. Clark doesn’t have that stream of money and I don’t foresee any money miracle happening for his campaign.
• Let’s talk about Jim McKelvey. He used everything he had against Hurt yet came up well short in the primary. His campaign released an email on the election night which seemed to throw his support behind Hurt then went off in his own direction, creating his own political action committee. Over the past week, McKelvey has been quiet. What’s he up to? Jeff Clark seemed to have a close working relationship with McKelvey during the primary, even letting McKelvey run a mini-office out of his office space is downtown Danville. McKelvey is a potential source of funding for Clark, but even McKelvey’s money won’t be nearly enough for Clark to participate in the inevitable advertising onslaught.
• What’s going on with Mike McPadden? He finished in 3rd place in the primary with a very respectable 10%, but performed poorly in Southside. He’s the only former candidate (besides McKelvey) not to throw his support behind Hurt. Personally, I feel that McPadden has taken his defeat personally and if that’s so, I hope he gets past that quickly. I firmly believe that Mike McPadden has a future in this region’s political arena if he wants one.

That’s enough for now. We’ll be featuring regular updates on the 5th District happenings on a regular basis.

• BAM! I was right on pretty much every prediction. With the exception of one local race (looking at you, Mike Newman!), SouthsideCentral is the place to come for your best political commentary. We attempt to infuse objectivity with a dose of accuracy, yet still keep it entertaining. SouthsideCentral is just not all about politics though and we hope you keep visiting the site. We’re only as good as our readers think we are. Thank you for visiting often. Of now that the shameless promotion and humility is taken care of, back to your regularly scheduled random thoughts.
• Surprises of the night: Robert Hurt finishing 2nd in Albemarle County over 3rd place Mike McPadden, Laurence Verga only getting 802 total votes, Ken Boyd’s 34 total votes in Campbell County, and Robert Hurt’s 48.4% overall total.
• Disappointment of the night: Mike McPadden’s final total of 9.7%. He’s a damned good man who’s got the principles to go far in politics (and hey, “you people”, going far in politics isn’t a bad thing if you’re good). I’m glad to have met Mike McPadden during this campaign and am proud to consider Mike McPadden a friend. I’ll gladly support McPadden in any of his future endeavors.
• I was quite honestly surprised with Robert Hurt as his victory celebration today. I’d heard the various complaints that he wasn’t a good speaker and how he wasn’t charismatic. As I said earlier tonight, “Whoever said that Robert Hurt isn’t a good speaker is full of horsecrap.” Perhaps it’s the pressure of the primary behind him, or the drudgery of saying the same thing over and over at the numerous forums, but Hurt knocked it out of the park tonight.
• Numerous people asked me how I thought Jeff Clark’s candidacy will affect the general election. As of now, I predict that Clark will draw the far-right fringe of the teaparty crowd, and that’s about all. Clark will get at most 4% of the general election vote and should be a non-factor.
• The Register & Bee’s Catherine Amos said “Danville Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman says they’ll support Robert Hurt”. That’s a logical step for any group that opposes Tom Perriello. Unfortunately, a few Usual Suspects are starting to yell that the Danville teaparty has “sold out”. That’s ridiculous yet not surprising.
• As I’ve said before, what in the hell happened to Laurence Verga’s campaign? He went from possible contender down to 2.3% of the vote. Unbelievable.
• After the horrible final three weeks of Feda Morton’s campaign, she finished with 4.6% of the vote. Nice call, Bearing Drift. I’m available if you want to send “Agricola” back to the farm.
• Tonight, “Angry Man” Jim McKelvey is sending mixed signals. He’s saying “I will not abandon all those who shared their hopes and ideals with me during the campaign.” paired with “We, as conservatives, must be unified to defeat Tom Perriello this November.” If he throws his support behind Robert Hurt, Jeff Clark becomes a total non-factor. Anyway, I’m betting that there’s a used bus for sale tomorrow morning. Perhaps Mark Lloyd will be watching Craigslist.
• There are going to be some “republicans” that won’t support Robert Hurt. They’re quite foolish.
• Smart political strategy, smart campaign workers & money wins elections. That’s the bottom line, like it or not. Teaparty-like shouting & outrage are useless in this area.
• First prediction on the general election vote percentage: Hurt 48%, Perriello 48% Clark 4%. If McKelvey throws his support behind Hurt, it becomes Hurt 49+%, Perriello 49+%, Clark <2%.
• First OddsMakers on the general election winner: Hurt 50%, Perriello 50%, Clark 0%. Yep, it’s a fresh start and a toss-up right now.

The election is over. The election begins now. You know there’s more to come here at SouthsideCentral… thanks for visiting often!

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=5fc8cfb2ae” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=5fc8cfb2ae” >5th District Primary Election Talk!</a>

Sorry for running out at the end, but the results were clear and I had to get to Robert Hurt’s victory party.

Let’s play the feud!

• If your favorite candidate is Feda Morton, Laurence Verga, or Ron Ferrin, then your favorite candidate is going to lose and get less than 10% of the vote.
• Older people vote reliably. Older people are highly partial to Robert Hurt. Younger people vote occasionally. Younger people aren’t as partial to Robert Hurt. Figure out who benefits by those facts.
• Every time I try to believe that the regional teaparties and their members are heading down the right path, I hear things that make me do a giant facepalm. In the pst few days, I heard one member quoted as saying they would rather have Tom Perriello for 2 years instead of Robert Hurt for 20. My mind. It boggled. I replied by saying “Considering “Hurt for 20″ is WAY out there, how’s your nose you cut off to spite your face? Here, we vote for 2-year terms.” This person doesn’t like Robert Hurt and has said so many times. Why? He’s the “establishment” candidate. See, kiddies? The “establishment” is bad! Don’t trust “the man”! I strongly encourage anybody who believes that way to keep doing just that, because Robert Hurt’s going to do just fine without them. Hurt’s campaign figured that out quickly and moved along.
• Mike McPadden’s a great guy and if he wins the nomination, I’ll have no problem with that at all. He’s a very intelligent man with an excellent understanding of the issues. The odds are stacked against him in this primary, but I hope that this won’t be the last we’ve heard of McPadden.
• Jim McKelvey hasn’t impressed me at all. His “Angry Man” routine has played good to the far-right 10% but that’s not going to be enough for him to win. His thoughts on the issues have ranged from the unwise (limiting himself to six years in office which would put Southside at the bottom of the seniority list yet again… term limits don’t work unless everybody is subject to them) to the bizarre (his pledge to cut federal spending by 50%). McKelvey has allied himself to the regional teaparty rhetoric, but the regional teaparties have yet to accomplish anything except provide discord. Unfortunately for McKelvey, that teaparty hot streak will continue. McKelvey never offered me a ride on his bus either.
• Feda Morton keeps on rumbling through the mudbog that her campaign devolved into. I don’t see how, but I do give her credit for continuing to push forward. Of course, she’s not going to win.
• Laurence Verga continues his freefall into obscurity and I still don’t understand how it happened so quickly.
• Ron Ferrin’s got no chance to win but he continues to make me laugh. His attempt to win black votes in this primary… heh. This primary is going to be whiter than the crown at Danville’s “Friday at the Crossing” this past weekend.
• Ken Boyd’s photo should be posted on one of those “Missing People” bulletin boards here in Southside.
• I’m not sure what’s up with Jeff Clark. He’s trying to court the far-right 10% teaparty voters that think Robert Hurt is the Tax Raising Antichrist Establishment Dude (boo hiss) but he hasn’t been warmly received by the teaparties so far. He’s going to be monetarily steamrolled by the Hurt & Perriello machines in the general election and he won’t be invited to any of the upcoming debates. Clark could use his powers for the side of good, but his virtual “HURTSUX” license plate is going to make him a pariah for anything else in politics for a long time. He’s another Russ Potts from the 2005 Virginia governor’s election… remember him? I didn’t think so.
• Robert Hurt is going to win this primary. I can already hear the howls from the other candidate’s supporters as they read this. I support Robert Hurt. I also support Mike McPadden but he’s just not going to pull this one off. I consider Mike McPadden a friend and still will after this election. McPadden’s ran a great campaign and I support the vast majority of his stands of the issues. Unfortunately for McPadden, he’s outgunned in this race by a well-oiled political machine. Unlike the most vocal of the teapartiers, I don’t have a problem with a well-oiled political machine.
• I have respect for anybody that has supported their candidate because of their stands on the issues. I have zero respect for anybody that has used the line “He’s not Robert Hurt” as rationale for their support.
• If I’m proven wrong on Tuesday night on any of this, I’ll have no problem admitting that. I stand behind my opinion and statements.

And there you have it for now… you know the drill for comments.

Seven days to go until this election is decided is decided in the voting booth. Let’s do a quick update on whats happened in the last two weeks.

Let’s look at each candidate (in random order)…

• Feda Morton – Morton seems to have semi-survived her campaign’s meltdown about the nasty divorce issues and the plagiarism. She’s lost some of her endorsements, but most of her endorsement list are from the “who the hell are they?” list. Since our last update, Morton comes out EVEN.
• Jim McKelvey – McKelvey continues to run a good campaign, but he’s really stretching the truth on his mailers. However, at this stage of the game the only way that he’s going to beat the frontrunner is to constantly attack. His “Angry Man” character is still attracting a subset of the voters. Since our last update, McKelvey comes out SLIGHTLY UP.
• Ron Ferrin – Ferrin’s having a damned good time in this campaign and it shows in his demeanor. It won’t help him pull any more votes, but it’s fun to see a candidate enjoy the race. Ferrin’s latest play is to tout his endorsement from the Frederick Douglass Foundation to get black votes. It may very well work and get him both of the black votes that will be cast. Since our last update, Ferrin comes out EVEN.
• Robert Hurt – Hurt continues to absorb the attacks from the other candidates and it’s seeming like the attacks don’t bother him one bit. He’s been very quiet over the past month and is coasting to the finish line. Since our last update, Hurt comes out EVEN.
• Mike McPadden – McPadden is keeping his head above water in this race but hasn’t done anything spectacular to set him apart from the rest lately. Since our last update, McPadden comes out EVEN.
• Laurence Verga – Is Verga still in this election? Whatever support base that Verga had is eroding quickly. Since our last update, Verga comes out SLIGHTLY DOWN.
• Ken Boyd – Boyd is still missing from the Southside area, so I’m guessing he’s banking on the Albemarle County vote to carry him to victory. Not gonna happen. Since our last update, Boyd comes out SLIGHTLY DOWN.

Now for the thoughts & observations section…

• Mike McPadden & Robert Hurt are being hit with attack websites that distort their stands on the issues. I’ve got my suspicions on who’s behind this, but no proof yet. All that’s listed on the website is the phone number of 434-262-0706 which has gone to voicemail every time I’ve tried it. The sites are hatchet jobs and I won’t link to them here.
• The Bearing Drift website has endorsed Feda Morton which boggles my mind. I never thought that Nigel Coleman & Bearing Drift would have common ground.
• What in the hell happened to Laurence Verga’s campaign? His campaign started out so strong, and now he’s hovering at the 1% support level.
• I’ll say it again. Ron Ferrin’s having fun with this campaign. Good for him. He’s brought some much-needed humor into this process (although he has no chance of winning)
• Thumbs UP! (hey, that’s another SC feature) to all seven candidates for giving the middle finger to the regional (so-called) pundits who have begged somebody to drop out of the race. If you’ve invested this much emotional and financial capital into your campaign, to hell with the people asking you to drop out.
• For the people that say that there won’t be a consensus winner in this primary, cram it. Yep, the winner is going to get around 40 to 55% of the vote. When you consider that there’s only going to be (at most) 5% turnout for this primary, the results are not going to be anywhere close to indicative of the November election.
• Virgil Goode is not going to run, people. Forget about it. Get over it. Next. Topic.
• Robert Hurt continues his strategy of laying low. It’s working.
• Too. Damned. Many. Forums. (as I’ve said before). Nothing’s changed.

Seven days to go and the finish line’s in sight. More to come?

Fifth District candidates face off

Let’s go to the not-so-relevant points…

• Robert Hurt wasn’t there due to a prior commitment… but it’s a pretty good strategy now to let the other candidates implode.
• Everybody Hates Hurt – because he’s clearly in the lead now. Even Mike McPadden is taking shots at him, but only about “not showing leadership in the State Senate”? Hello? Boing? If one of these candidates wins the November election, they’re going to have no leadership opportunities at all. Who cares?
• “Robert Hurt raised taxes!” – The same blah blah blah over and over again. I’ll counter that with the same thing I’ve said in the past. Charles Hawkins & Danny Marshall voted for the same thing. Nobody’s calling them “tax-raisers”. I understand why the candidates are sticking with the “Hurt Raised Taxes” line… it’s really all they’ve got to use against him with the clock running out in the game.
• Jim McKelvey continues to play the part of The Angry Man. His bus picked up an endorsement from Mark Lloyd, the chairman of the Lynchburg Tea Party. He’s got a poll from the Not Really Rasmussen Company saying that he’s number 2. Insert your own “Number 2″ joke there, folks.
• Feda Morton copies the same statements she’s said at the other forums, which is slightly different from copying other people’s statements. Coincidentally, she’s done that also.
• Laurance Verga was seen by a majority of the people that attended this forum, so that’s pretty good proof that he’s still in the campaign. Looking at the Not Really Rasmussen Poll brought to you by the Vance Wilkins Company, Verga’s got 1% support. Based on the margin of error of the “reputable” poll, that means Verga’s support could really be between 6.5% or negative 4.5%. Insert your own joke there as well.
• Speaking of hilarious jokes, the Ron Ferrin Stand-Up Comedy Hour was at Liberty as well. It featured that old “Adam & Steve” kneeslapper that’s always good for a laugh from the conservative crowd.
• Ken Boyd is to be commended for making it close to the Southside area.
• Robert Hurt gets a score of zero for this forum because he didn’t show up due to that prior commitment.
• I’m getting so sick of hearing the Crazy Crew of Candidates say the same thing, so that score of squadoosh wins the forum.

Can you tell I’m getting tired of these repetitive forums? I’ll have a serious race update later this week.

Ten days from our first update, let’s see what’s been going on in the 5th District.

Let’s kick it off with an update on each of the candidates (in random order).

• Jim McKelvey – McKelvey is starting to spend (his own) money and is running TV ads. He’s picking up some name recognition in the Southside region. Since our last update, McKelvey comes out UP.
• Robert Hurt – Hurt continues to saturate the region with direct mail. He’s also released a poll that shows himself in a big lead. He’s still got a lot of money to do even more advertising and it’s finally looking like his campaign is fully in gear. Since our last update, Hurt comes out STRONGLY UP.
• Ron Ferrin – I have no idea what his campaign is doing because I haven’t heard anything out of him. He’ll make it to the finish line, so I guess that’s something. Since our last update, Ferrin comes out EVEN.
• Mike McPadden – His campaign has pretty much defeated the negative things that have came out in the past few weeks. Money doesn’t seem to be a limiting factor in his campaign and he’s going to need it to get any significant part of the Southside votes. Since our last update, McPadden comes out EVEN.
• Ken Boyd – Boyd still has his group of supporters but he’s not doing much to add people to that group. He’s got to get money and spend it quickly. Since our last update, Boyd comes out EVEN.
• Feda Morton – Ugh. This has been a disastrous time period for Morton’s campaign. She’s hammered by the release of child-custody case information (more on that later) and today she was hit by strong allegations of plagiarism. Her statement on the plagiarism allegations was horrible, as it’s pretty clear that the plagiarism happened. Add all of that to a severe lack of money and it’s not looking good. Since our last update, Morton comes out STRONGLY DOWN.
• Laurence Verga – Verga’s advertising on radio, but his latest ad repeats the same “Robert Hurt Raises Taxes” crap. If it wasn’t for that, I’d have thought that Verga’s campaign had mailed it in. Since our last update, Verga comes out EVEN.

Now for some thoughts and observations…

• At this stage of the game, EVEN ain’t gonna cut it. The finish line is finally in sight and every candidate should have already started throwing everything they have into their campaigns.
• Feda Morton is a very nice person, however I’m fearing that we’re watching her campaign implode. It’s not pretty.
• There’s one “observer” in this race who is completely useless. He’s made up his own prediction numbers under the guises of “best educated guess” and adjusts them wildly based on how the wind changes.
• Today (Wednesday), both the Danville & Lynchburg Tea Party leaders came out with their endorsements. One was well-written and one was unexpectedly bizarre. It’s way too early for SC’s endorsement on this race.
• Even though the Tea Party leaders came out with their endorsements, the other members of the groups seem to be in disagreement with their choices (especially in Danville).
• Money is the factor that’s determining the tiers of campaigns. The more money that the candidate has, the better they’re going to do. It’s a sad but true fact.
• Feda Morton’s child-custody issues have no relevance to her campaign and anybody that thinks that they do is a jerk. Divorces can be nasty and crap like that is useless when pulled out years later. Morton’s a good person and nothing like those documents make her out to be.
• That being said, the plagiarism stuff isn’t good for Morton at all. Her statement about it completely blew it off and that’s compounded the negativity.
• I firmly believe that this primary election will be decided by the Lynchburg & Southside areas because the Charlottesville region seems to be split by the home-area candidates. The candidates have got to get advertising & name-recognition in Southside to have a chance in the election.

That’s it for now. Let’s hear what you have to say.

Editor’s Note: Not much to see here, but I’ll keep the recap up.

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=061994b4ee” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=061994b4ee” >Danville City Council Meeting – (5/18) – LIVE!</a>

The results…

• Both of the incumbents, Adam Tomer & Gary Miller, won re-election easily (as expected).
• Challengers Alonzo Jones and John Gilstrap won the other two available seats (also as expected).
• Thomas Motley ends up on the outside looking in by a surprising 1200 vote margin of defeat.
• Neal Morris falls short of a write-in victory but still comes through with 1621 votes. For a 5-day campaign, that’s an amazingly high number.

The thoughts…

• Voter turnout was downright disgusting. 22% is friggin’  ridiculous. Danville’s non-voters ought to be ashamed of themselves.
• Oh, what might have been if Thomas Motley had not spent 9o% of his campaign’s message on utility rates. What did he do on his last week of campaigning? Motley can learn a lot from his defeat and he can also turn his new-found name recognition into a power of good if he sets his mind to it.
• I’ve got to think that Neal Morris would have been in contention if he had started the race with everyone else. 1621 votes from a five-day write-in campaign should make City Council know that the citizens aren’t totally happy. Let’s see if Morris rides the momentum that he’s generated and becomes even more visible in the processes.
• Write this prediction down. Sherman Saunders will be re-elected mayor by a 9-0 vote.
• Who’ll be Vice Mayor for the next two years? I’m looking at three possibilities… Buddy Rawley, Fred Shanks & Larry Campbell (in no particular order). More to come on this as things develop…
• While I’m honored to receive a write-in vote from somebody in my home precinct, I totally wasn’t expecting it. One of our producers wrote that down on a cue card and I was um… quite surprised by that.
• Let’s see if the youthful injection of Alonzo Jones adds some spark to council, as Adam Tomer has brought over the past four years.
• I’m looking at the ward-by-ward breakdown of voting patterns and will write an article on what I see later this week.
• Of course I’m biased, but Star News’ coverage of the elections went off flawlessly. With Mark Childrey and me in the studio, Jessica Griffith at Danville City Council chambers, Charles & Jonathan getting all of the video while traveling between Martinsville, Danville & Reidsville, and Matt Smith & Blaine Ziglar producing the show, we kept our viewers informed with up-to-the-minute information.

In conclusion, it was a well-mannered campaign overall with the candidates running good campaigns. Danville would have been well-represented with any of the six candidates. Let’s hope Danville continues to move forward with the new version of City Council that will debut on July 1st.