The results of the RK endorsement contest for the 34th House of Delegates district are in. Please keep in mind that to win RK's endorsement, one candidate needs to win 5 votes out of 6 possible. (Note: We've set the bar so high since we feel that it's a big deal for our progrssive community blog to choose one Democrat over another). *Margi Vanderhye received 3 votes from the 5 internal RK voters (Brian, Eric, Josh, Lowell and Rob), aka "RK Exec."
*"No endorsement" received 2 votes from the RK Exec.
*Rip Sullivan recieved no votes from the the RK Exec group, although most everyone likes him and thinks he'd make a fine nominee. However, the bottom line is that 3 out of 5 voted for Margi Vanderhye, and 2 voted not to make an RK endorsement at this time.
*The community vote was fascinating. First of all, there were 344 votes cast, which is impressive. Of course, RK has 3,135 registered users, so that only represents a bit over one-tenth of the RK community. I'd like to see everyone voting, just as I'd like to see everyone voting in "real" elections. But still, this isn't bad at all. Thanks to everyone who participated.
*The second point on the community vote is that Rip Sullivan won it convincingly, with 59.3% of the total (36.0% went to Margi and 4.6% recommended that RK not make an endorsement). Congratulations to Rip Sullivan for winning the vote of the RK community. That certainly indicates a level of effort and determination that will serve him well in the general election if he turns out to be the party's nominee. (Question: do you think that Rip's effort and results here have broader implications or not?)
*Third, there's a clear dichotomy evident in the community voting. Among users who registered before the competition was announced last week, Margi won by a 2.5:1 margin (48-19), with nearly as many (16) voting not to make an endorsement at all. However, this was more than counterbalanced by "newbies" - people who registered since last week - among whom Rip won by well more than 2:1 (185 to 76 votes, with NOBODY - surprisingly - voting for the "no endorsement" option). Overall, there were about three times as many votes among "newbies" (261) as among "old timers" (83). The fact that the "newbies" went strongly for Rip Sullivan is why he won the community vote.
*Fourth, I would point out that we monitored the voting closely and saw no evidence of "freeping," obvious or otherwise. Sure, we could see that each candidate received votes from friends, colleagues, and family members. However, that wasn't against the rules, nor should it have been in our opinion. The fact is that politics is largely about getting your people to support you, to volunteer for you, to donate to you, to vote for you. That's what it's all about, and it can get a bit "rough and tumble" at times. I believe that's known as "democracy."
*Finally, I would point out that people, particularly those interested in progressivism and/or the Democratic Party, are encouraged to register on RK, and to participate in our community. We hope that the "newbies" who came to vote for Rip or Margi will stick around and do just that.
In our opinion, this has been a fascinating process, and we believe a strongly worthwhile one. Although neither candidate - Margi Vanderhye or Rip Sullivan - gained the RK endorsement, they both worked hard to earn it. I think that says a great deal about the two candidates, and also about how far the Virginia blogosphere/netroots has come in the past year or two. The fact is that both Republicans and Democrats are eager now to come on blogs and to court the support of the netroots, whether conserative or progressive.
Finally, we learned a lot about both candidate through their frequent live blogging and other participation in the Virginia netroots community. We appreciate that very much, and are all now much better informed about this race than we were previously. Thank you very much to both Margi Vanderhye and Rip Sullivan (and their staffs) for diving into the RK endorsement process with gusto, and also for running such a positive campaign. Either candidate will do a great job of carrying the Democratic banner into November against Dave Hunt.
In elections, however, I do vote and I do take the time to find out at least the name of who I'm voting for ;) Kidding of course. In elections I know who they are and what they stand for.
I hope that those of you who got to know me over the last ten days keep in touch over the next 48 as we move towards Primary Day. We have a lot going on with the campaign and can always use more help. Please go to my website or call (703) 288 2995 to get involved.
Thanks again, and I look forward to June 13th when everyone here can come together to help me beat Dave Hunt.
As always - I ask those of you who reading to join my campaign at www.vanderhye.com, and if you're in the 34th, I ask for your vote on June 12th. Together, we'll turn the 34th blue!!