I do this for you, my loyal readers!
Please, no gifts!
From The Free Lance-Star: GOP set for race in House district:
Only one Republican filed to run for the 99th House of Delegates district by the GOP’s Jan. 1 deadline.
That means White Stone attorney Lee Anne Washington is the Republican nominee to run for the 99th House seat.
Washington has not held public office before. She graduated from the College of William & Mary and got her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1988. She is a member of the Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority and serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, according to a news release.
CORRECTION from The Free Lance-Star: Lee Anne Washington, the Republican nominee for the 99th House District seat, serves on the White Stone Town Council in Lancaster County. A story yesterday incorrectly described her political experience.
On the Democratic side, former Del. Albert Pollard Jr. is running, and while he isn’t the official nominee yet–district Democrats have set a Saturday deadline for candidates to file with them–no other names have surfaced.
The 99th District is open because former Del. Rob Wittman won a special election for the congressional 1st District last month. He quickly resigned his House seat.
The election to fill the seat will be held Feb. 19. By that time, most of the General Assembly session will be over, but state law prohibits holding an election in the 60 days before a primary, and both parties are holding presidential primaries on Feb. 12. That makes the 19th the earliest viable date for the 99th District special election.
Pollard served three terms as the 99th District delegate before retiring in 2005 to attend to his business. He returned to politics last year with a campaign for the 28th District state Senate seat, which he lost to Republican Richard Stuart.
In formally announcing his candidacy, Pollard said it’s “unfortunate that the Northern Neck will be without an advocate” in the House for most of the session, but that his past experience would allow him to begin working immediately if elected.
“If elected, I pledge from day one to continue the style of representation which I proudly proffered before,” Pollard said in a statement. “This brand is independent minded, puts policy before partisanship, and focuses on making the Northern Neck, and Virginia as a whole, a better place to live.”
Prediction: An Albert Pollard win with 70% (if not more) of the vote.
My comment posted on another blog…
Well, if it’s “anyone’s guess what might happen” in the Feb. 19 special election, here’s my guess…
You state that “Lee Anne brings a wealth of legal experience with her to the campaign.” In fact, she might. With a U.Va. law degree, she can’t be a slouch. Unfortunately, though, she appears to have ZERO name recognition, either amongst ‘Neck Republicans or even ‘Neck attorneys, for that matter. Admittedly, my area of practice is not normally domestic in nature. But even amongst my legal brethren who are in that domain here in the ‘Neck, nobody has ever heard of her. I’ll further admit that Lancaster County has somewhere close to 25 attorneys, while the other three lower ‘Neck counties barely have even half that number combined.
Additionally, I have been actively involved in ‘Neck GOP politics for nearly 10 years and attended numerous GOP functions in Ms. Washington’s home base of Lancaster County, as well as at the Congressional District and state levels. I, for one, have never laid eyes on this woman.
So here’s my prediction…
Albert “The Trashman” Pollard (D) – 67.2%
Lee Anne Washington (R?) – 31.0%
Write-Ins – 1.8%
This prediction, if accurate, will mean she will garner the lowest percentage total of any Republican candidate for this House of Delegates district, at least since 1973, if ever. One may recall that that dubious distinction is currently held by Shawn Donahue, lately of Lancaster County, who polled a whopping 34.9% in 2003 against Mr. Pollard. [I don’t believe any Republican ever ran for a ‘Neck HOD seat prior to 1973, but cannot swear to that.] She’s basically headed into Linda Crandell territory.
Unfortunately, the good and smart potential GOP candidates are sitting this one out, having seen the writing on the wall…
A very revealing exchange from another blog…
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NNecker, on January 7th, 2008 at 11:41 pm Said:
Maybe you should talk to the other “potential GOP candidates” before you speak for them. I highly doubt any of them “backed out” or is “sitting it out” because of the Trashman.
Why would there be backlash against them, when we have the candidate we wanted?
Go Lee Anne!
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notrobwittman, on January 8th, 2008 at 12:12 am Said:
NNecker
Please tell me that Ms. Washington is not “the candidate” Rep. Wittman “wanted” when he was out assuring local Republicans and the press that he was working hard to find a good candidate to replace him in the HOD.
It seems like you’re the one talking for others when you talk about a candidate “we” wanted. I didn’t know that she was a concensus choice chosen at a districtwide convention by elected Republican delegates. I thought she was a default choice, being the only person who filed…
(I guess here I could assume, without any basis, your identity and then start calling you Lee Anne (or Lee Anne’s cousin or whatever), as you have done to me… But since that’s childish, I won’t, Lee Anne :-p. Heck, I don’t even know you, Lee Anne! [see my first post])
And I’m not speaking for anyone but myself. I see that you’ve had to bring in the big guns from the state party to deal with little ol’ me, but I can handle myself just fine. Anyway, I read the local papers the past few weeks. From their reporting, multiple potential GOP candidates came to the 99th District meeting on Dec. 17 and other potential candidates were mentioned on this and other blogs in the days leading up to that meeting. They all seem to have gotten cold feet between then and Jan. 1. That’s my educated guess on what happened. It’s not without some basis, I add, as there were at least two other candidates who told all who would listen that they were running prior to Dec. 11, but then neither of them did.
Virginia Virtucon doesn’t attract the brightest unfortunately.
They ran with the rumor that Austin Roberts was going to run for the 99th HOD but he ends up not running.
They then complain about stories The Politico has ran based off of rumors.
Oh, the irony.
They talk about how great Rob Wittman is. I’ve asked this question a hundred times: What has he ever done? Change the name of “game wardens” to “conservation police officers”?
I must admit, I’m only 20 and I’ve been focusing on stuff in Caroline County and the Fredericksburg area and not the Northern Neck but I’ve never heard of this woman. He sure did a fine job of finding a replacement for his seat as well.
If Barlow had decided to run, he might have had a chance. King George has the highest number of voters of counties in the 99th HOD district if I’m not mistaken and he would have helped to turn out the vote in his backyard.