In the battle for RK's endorsement there are three choices:
  1. Del. Dan Bowling
  2. Mickey McGlothlin
  3. No Endorsement

* The Dan Bowling is the incumbent.

If you choose one of the two candidates you are saying that you'd like the Raising Kaine Community to take sides and endorse that candidate. 

If you are not sure, are neutral, or would prefer that RK not endorse either candidate, please select "No Endorsement".  A "No Endorsement" is not an abstention - it is a vote for the RK Community NOT to take sides in this primary.  If you want to abstain, don't vote.

When the poll closes the option with the most votes becomes the "community vote".

Here are a few links that you may find helpful for this vote:

RK: Endorsement Comments


Dan Bowling's Website
Bowling's Virginia Public Access Project page

Mickey McGlothlin's Website
McGlothlin's Virginia Public Access Project page

We highly encourage RK readers to conduct their own internet searches for further information about these two candidates.

The rules are simple:
1. To vote you must have a Raising Kaine account
2. One vote per person... NO FREEPING (To skew or cheat an online poll by repeatedly voting (clearing cookies, using proxies))

Our blog software, soapblox, will not allow more than one vote per account so the one vote per person rule will be automatically enforced.  Right?  Not Exactly.  The internet savvy will realize that there is a loophole - an individual can create more than one account and therefore freep the poll.  In fact, there are a few RK users who already have more than one account.  Creating extra accounts to freep the poll is not allowed and will not be tolerated.  I'm not going to go into details about how we will police this activity, but we have the means and will be policing it.  If you are caught freeping, ALL of your votes will be thrown out - even your one allowed vote - and you may be excluded from future votes as well.

Did either one of them ever do any blog outreach this week?

n/t

Is there any reason to believe either candidate wants the endorsement if they didn't respond to the invitation to come on here and make their case?

Merely mentioning in a post isn't an official invite to make their case. If the RK gang sent an email out or contacted them on their website, then thats different. I think Del. Bowling stands for the kind of values in Richmond that RK would endorse, even if the RK readership in that district is a bit lower than other places.

This one shouldn't even be in question. Del. Bowling is a fine representative of the union district, and Southwest Virginia in general. His opportunist opponent is just that, and has in fact given money to republicans like Jerry Kilgore in the past. Let's send a fine Democrat and a fine representative back to Richmond, Del. Bowling!

I agree that this shouldn't even be a contest, if people know the facts.  Clearly, Dan Bowling is the only candidate with the best interest of the district and Commonwealth at heart.

But the average voter in Buchanan County doesn't know the truth about McGlothlin.  They don't know that he gave $104,000 dollars to Jerry Kilgore compared to $1,000 to Mark Warner and $5,000 to Terry Kilgore compared to $500 to Bud Phillips.  Anybody with contacts in the 3rd district needs to start an information campaign to get the truth out about McGlothlin's true colors (RED not Blue), before the primary.  Too many good Democrats will vote for him in the primary because of past history or family ties.  We need a LTE campaign and phone tree to let everybody in the 3rd district know just how much they'll lose if they don't send Del. Bowling back to Richmond.  The blogs can't do it alone.

This article by ScottCoDemocrat is written in ignorance. The truth about Mickey McGlothlin is that he has been a lifelong Democrat. Ask anyone from the Democratic party of Buchanan County about Mr. McGlothlin. He was the Democratic Commonwealth Attorney. He was a past Secretary of the Democratic party in the county, and has supported it in more ways than ScottCoDemocrat would allude to.

Mr. McGlothlin isn't a Massachusetts or San Francisco Democrat. He follows up in the roots of FDR or Harry S Truman. Because of this, he doesn't always support the supper liberal faction of the Democratic party, but he is absolutely a Democrat. McGlothlin-bashers are afraid of disclosing all of what McGlothlin has done with the Democratic party, only to bring up McGlothlin's one endorsement of Jerry Kilgore.

Mr. McGlothlin supported Jerry Kilgore because of his Southwest Virginia roots. Lets not kid ourselves, Southwest Virginia is way behind the rest of the state. I think that people are misguided who see the nation in BLue and Red (Democratic and Republican). By limiting people's opinions to two factions is oversimplifying politics to an extreme degree. Besides, such a wide range of views exist in each party that both parties have members who overlap in every single political view. Such as, their are Conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans.

Hey, The UMWA even supports Republicans sometimes. Take their support of Terry Kilgore for instance,in a civil society people should be allowed to think beyond Red and Blue when they support the issues that are meaningful to them.

It is nothing but complete progaganda to say McGlothlin isn't benevolent because of his support for fellow Southwest Virginian Jerry Kilgore. What else can these people say to critisize McGlothlin other than to make loose claims like "he is rich" to try jab at his character and sincerity. But the truth is, he can dramatically help our Region improve itself. Bowling is a good guy, I don't have any bad things to say about him. But what has he done for our region? What plans does he have to bring us up to the levels of the rest of the state? There is a lot of rhetoric out there that Southwest Virginia will improve, but where is the meat? What are his contrete non-abstract plans for improving Southwest Virginia?

Its www.mickeymcglothlin.com.  It comes right up when you Google him....

That's odd - my google didn't bring up this site.  I'll update the post.

For those who are interested I see a number of articles/stories about his efforts over the years.  So I do recommend to our readers to do a search.

Bowling by a mile is absolutely correct, it's not often the people are represented by an individual who uses honesty, integrity and results as his trade tools. Should we change this successful team player who by the way is in the middle of a winning season; the answer of course is a resounding no? Dan Bowling has exhibited strength in the team concept of legislative pursuit and developed winning strategies by working with others to achieve coordinated legislative cooperation with desired results. It is obvious that Dan Bowling deserves the Democratic nomination for his success as a highly productive and loyal party member. Remember that this is the Democratic primary not a general election and therefore a situation where certain particulars of incumbency bear weight and reward. Dan Bowling has met the challenge and triumphed with substantive results for his legislative effort achieved with the honor, respect and cooperation of his peers. By his deeds so shall ye know the man, obviously Delegate Bowling has met the challenge and has earned the right to again receive the Democratic nomination for the third district House of Delegate position. This June 12, 2007, go to the polls and cast your vote for Delegate Dan Bowling as the Democratic nominee.

This article is flat out political rhetoric. The author gives no details of anything specific Bowling has done. The author just says stuff like "He is Honerable". Which I am not saying that Bowling is dishonerable, but to say he is "Honerable is a weak and subjective reason to support Bowling. In the paragraph written above, has the author really said anything at all about Bowling?

Delegate Dan Bowling is a man with exceptional character and he is best described by the words of honesty, integrity and a man who gets good results from his hard work and actions. Delegate Bowling is a person who employs a strategy of working as a part of team concept to enlist support from others to improve the passage of his sought after legislation. These things are not political rhetoric as indicated by blueman, but instead my comments are a description of a highly successful Delegate who has sought another term in the House of Delegates so he can improve on the issues important to his constituents. Delegate Bowling's record includes the passage of 56% of his sought after legislation and this is all the more remarkable considering that Dan is a Democrat in a House of Delegates controlled by Republicans. So, yes blueman, Dan is an honorable man who considers the attributes of honesty and integrity important to the success of his performance in dealing with his peers to pass legislation important to his people. 

I thought that was the endorsement this week, or did I miss something?

Yes pitin, you did miss the fact that there exist primary races downstate.

...we're doing the Bowling/McGlothlin and Galligan-Barker races pretty much simultaneously.

with itchy trigger voting fingers, the Barker/Galligan vote will start on Wednesday just as this one is ending.

Have any of you forgotten how absolutely nasty the Kilgore campaign portrayed Tim Kaine on television, radio and other media during the last governor's race?  If there is a possibility of a worse leader than George Bush, it would have been Jerry Kilgore.  When you recognize that McGlothlin's money helped pay for those awful Kilgore attack ads, is there any question whatsoever about who to endorse.  Loyalty has got to mean something folks! To support McGlothlin is a slap in the face of every single person that worked their butt off for Tim Kaine.  It's as simple as that.

When and where will we be notified of an endorsement decision by Raising Kaine between Delegate Dan Bowling and challenger Mickey McGlothlin. I'm interested to know the particulars surrounding the decision and hopefully an explanation to values of components. Thank you for this opportunity to participate and converse with others for valuable issues and to view emerging ideas and beginning thoughts. Again thank you!

decision and reasoning this evening.  Thanks for your interest!  - Lowell