Random.org’s List Randomizer<\/a>: Jim McKelvey, Feda Morton, Ron Ferrin, Robert Hurt, Laurence Verga and Mike McPadden.<\/p>\nEven though we’re sure that somebody is going to complain that their favorite candidate is badly placed on the list, who cares? \ud83d\ude00 Let’s start the Food Chain! off.<\/p>\n
Jim McKelvey: The Franklin County businessman had not done that much to make himself stand out from the rest of the field until the documents came out this week showing that he had loaned his campaign $500,000. In a sad observation, I’m not sure if $500,000 will be enough to make it to the primary day, but it shows that he’ll be around for a while. Since he’s the first on our chain, he sits by himself.<\/p>\n
McKelvey<\/em><\/p>\nNext, we come to Feda Morton. Morton’s a Fluvanna County science teacher who’s very active in her county’s party. At the first Tea Party debate, she didn’t do much to set herself away from the field, either. Unfortunately, her campaign is pretty much broke and that an impending sign of doom. Because of the campaign financial issues, Morton goes on the Food Chain! below McKelvey.<\/p>\n
McKelvey > Morton<\/em><\/p>\nRon Ferrin is up next, and I’m not sure what to make of him. He’s seemed hotheaded from the start, but that’s set him apart from the others. There’s no chance that I’ll vote for him, and it’s a sure bet most others feel the same way. He goes on the Food Chain! at the bottom for now.<\/p>\n
McKelvey > Morton > Ferrin<\/em><\/p>\nRobert Hurt’s up for discussion now. Hurt’s wisely staying away from the infighting of the other candidates while building a sizable bankroll from multiple donors. All of this “Robert Hurt is not a real conservative” bullshit being thrown around may sound good to the teapartiers & associates, but not many others are going to buy that. Like it or not, Hurt knows how to handle a political campaign, he’s got the donor base and he’s surrounded himself with people that know how to win. Robert Hurt goes to the top of the chain.<\/p>\n
Hurt > McKelvey > Morton > Ferrin<\/em><\/p>\nLaurence Verga takes the stage now, and he’s also bankrolled his own campaign to the tune of $250,000. Questionable publicity stunts like his (paid?) appearance on the Laura Ingraham show and his “Joe The Plumbr: tour haven’t done much to advance his name recognition factor. Verga’s got a rabid base of supporters that are keeping his name out there but you have to wonder what’s going to happen when the money runs low. The recent articles about Verga’s poor voting record haven’t drawn much publicity. As for now on the chain, Verga’s above everybody except Hurt.<\/p>\n
Hurt > Verga > McKelvey > Morton > Ferrin<\/em><\/p>\nFinally, let’s get to Mike McPadden. McPadden’s a likable candidate who did a good job at the Tea Party debate last week. He handles himself in a professional manner but he’s got to get his name recognition up has to get a lot more money to keep his campaign viable. On the chain, McPadden goes slightly ahead of Verga because of his “electability”, and that makes our Food Chain! final.<\/p>\n
Hurt > McPadden > Verga > McKelvey > Morton > Ferrin<\/em><\/p>\nRecap time!<\/p>\n
\n- Robert Hurt<\/li>\n
- Mike McPadden<\/li>\n
- Laurence Verga<\/li>\n
- Jim McKelvey<\/li>\n
- Feda Morton<\/li>\n
- Ron Ferrin<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
That’s a real man’s board, ain’t it? Ok, you waited six whole days for a political article (or enjoyed six days without a political article). Let’s hear what you have to say in the comments.<\/p>\n
\nOops. As the astute Drew pointed out below, I forgot Ken Boyd. (Does that say something about Boyd or me? Yeah, it says I’m an idiot. I’m blaming it on the snowstorm. Or the drinking.) So, let’s reopen the chain and correct my mistake.<\/p>\n
Ken Boyd: Boyd’s got a big name recognition is the Albemarle County area but very little from points southward. Boyd has shown that he has the political chops to hold office (being on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors) and he handled himself decently at the Tea Party debate… even if he did talk at the rate of 284 MPH. He’s got the “electability” tag on him but I wonder where the required money to run an extended campaign will come from. We squeeze him into the chain above Verga but below McPadden.<\/p>\n
Recap time (again!)<\/p>\n
\n- Robert Hurt<\/li>\n
- Mike McPadden<\/li>\n
- Ken Boyd<\/li>\n
- Laurence Verga<\/li>\n
- Jim McKelvey<\/li>\n
- Feda Morton<\/li>\n
- Ron Ferrin<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
NOW that’s a real man’s board! (unless I’ve forgotten somebody else or an eighth candidate shows up)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We made it six days without a political article, so let’s get everybody upset at us with our first “Food Chain!” that ranks the candidates for Virginia’s Republican nomination for the 5th district.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,28,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-chain","category-politicscentral","category-updated","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-1E0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6608,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/21\/food-chain-5th-district-candidates-update-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":0},"title":"Food Chain! – 5th District Candidates – Update #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 21, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We did a Food Chain! on the candidates for the Republican 5th District nomination ten weeks ago, so it's time for an update. This time, we'll promise to get all seven candidates in there the first time. ;) Here's the list of candidates after being randomized: Feda Morton, Ron Ferrin,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Food Chain!"","block_context":{"text":"Food Chain!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/food-chain\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6408,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/11\/the-tea-parties-do-their-own-5th-district-food-chain\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":1},"title":"The TEA parties do their own 5th District Food Chain.","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Everybody's getting in the Food Chain game! The TEA Party Perspective: \u201cThe Lump Report\u201d The leaders of the Danville, Lynchburg and Charlottesville TEA parties had a conference call (I would have loved to be in that call) and came up with their own ranking of the candidates. You can read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OpinionCentral"","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14817,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/12\/29\/food-chain-replacing-robert-hurt\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":2},"title":"Food Chain! – Replacing Robert Hurt","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"December 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Hurt decided not to run for a fourth term in the 5th District US House of Representatives, so it's now Silly Season to see who'll be his Republican nominee replacement in November 2016's election. We've got a list of 9 Republicans (or at least likely Republicans) who have either\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Food Chain!"","block_context":{"text":"Food Chain!","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/featurescentral\/food-chain\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.imgur.com\/6dVZX4b.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6889,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/09\/5th-district-republican-primary-update-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":3},"title":"5th District Republican Primary – Update #1","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Let's get back into politics and see what's been going on in the race for the Republican nomination for the 5th District House of Representatives fall election. We've done a few Food Chain!s before, but this is SC's first straight-up update. Starting at the bottom of our last Food Chain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OpinionCentral"","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6603,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/20\/so-how-did-the-candidates-do-at-todays-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":4},"title":"So, how did the candidates do at today’s debate?","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 20, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"All righty then... we just completed some random thoughts on today's 5th District debate in Danville. It's time to see how I think the candidates did. We'll recap the candidates in the same alphabetical order that they sat at today's debate. Ken Boyd - Today was the first time that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OpinionCentral"","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6247,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/23\/lets-recap-fridays-tea-party-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":6324,"position":5},"title":"Let’s recap Friday’s Tea Party Debate","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Five of the six candidates for the 5th District Republican nomination met in Charlottesville last night. So what happened, who won and who lost? Laurence Verga, Feda Morton, Ron Ferris, Mike McPadden, Ken Boyd & Jim McKelvey attended the debate, with Robert Hurt passing on this one due to General\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OpinionCentral"","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}