200 Grande (with Chris’s “me too!” echoes right behind) seeks to portray the Herrity/Fimian primary as a boxing match, complete with scoring after every round. Kudos for the amusing graphic, but it’s time to be serious. We’re talking about a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and the crossroads our country finds itself in this November, as Herrity laid out in his announcement last week. These little games can be fun, but the only “round” that matters is the one on November 2nd, and whether we defeat Gerry Connolly.
Pat Herrity remains focused on that goal, as he laid out in his remarks and continues to build momentum and support for his campaign. Unfortunately, Keith Fimian has taken a detour and instead taken his shots at Herrity. His “welcome” has been well-covered, but lost even in that midst is this example from Congressional Quarterly:
Said Fimian… “[Pat Herrity] is a big-government Republican just like Gerry Connolly is a big-government Democrat.”
Fimian declined to elaborate on his charge that Herrity is a “big-government Republican.”
Which sets up the biggest difference I can spot between Herrity supporters and Fimian supporters (thus far, as the race is only a few days old). Herrity supporters believe Fimian is a good guy, they largely supported him in 2008, they think his heart is in the right place, but they believe that Pat offers a better chance to beat Gerry Connolly and the liberal Democratic agenda in the fall. Meanwhile, Fimian throws out Democratic talking points against Herrity, and his supporters follow suit with name-calling, baseless accusations, and inane and silly comparisons, all of which require a deliberate ignorance of Pat Herrity and anything he’s done.
200 Grande and Chris believe that the chatter on forums such as those in this blog, a circus of the willing, prove that Fimian has won the “argument”. Which is absurd on many levels, especially when you consider that the central question they’re asking is: “Does Pat Herrity have too much support?” The argument goes, the fact that so many people are supporting Herrity is proof that he’s an “insider”. What that means and why it’s bad remains unclear, but whatever it is, it’s certainly nothing that outsiders like Eric Cantor would be a part of.
At the end of the day, Keith Fimian can have all the online victories in imaginary “rounds” that he likes. The bottom line is that he has already conceded that Pat Herrity is the frontrunner. Fimian needs to lay out a reason why he is a better choice for nominee than Herrity—rather than just wildly fling attacks and then refuse to back them up—and he hasn’t done that. And all the ankle-biting comments on blogs posted in the past week doesn’t even begin to make up for that.
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Jan 19th by VA Blogger
I don’t know who is the “frontrunner” or even if there is one, but the fact is that people/bloggers who support Fimian are going to portray him as the frontrunner, and people/bloggers who support Herrity are going to portray HIM as the frontrunner.
In both cases, reference to reality is purely coincidental.
Fimian is scared and pissed off. It isn’t flattering.
Fimian’s reaction to Herrity’s entry into the race reminds me of Moran short circuiting last year when McAuliffe got into the Democratic race for governor. Fimian would have been well advised to take a deep breath and say nothing or better yet something very gracious and vanilla after the Herrity announcement.
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Anyone who thinks that statement he issued was good for his campaign needs to step back and get some perspective and take another look. If it was motivated by emotion he has time to settle down and not repeat such a dimwitted performance. If his advisers told him to issue such a statement he needs some new advisers pronto. Because the current ones hardly have state of the art judgement.
I love it. You accuse Fimian supporters of name calling, and then you proceed to call them ankle-biters (what the heck does that mean?). Then you accuse Fimian of wildly flinging attacks. Don’t claim to be above the fray and then make juvenile comments about people with whom you disagree. Herrity has slight name recognition in the general public, and much of that is really fromhis father. Fimian has already gotten up to speed on congressional battles and did well (remember, he did better inthe district than McCain-Palin). He is also a proven fundraiser. Herrity is a question mark in that department.
GOPete, I know Fimian supporters have been consistently trying to sell the notion that Fimian dramatically outperformed McCain in the 11th CD. The problem is that it just isn’t true. Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true. All one has to do is go to the SBE website and look at the numbers.
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McCain polled 42.06% of the presidential votes cast in the 11th CD.
Fimian polled 43.04% of the votes for Congress.
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I’d call that .98% difference pretty much tracking with the national ticket. Not really outperforming it.
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That is not a knock on Fimian. It is just that this much repeated narrative is simply not true. His supporters should drop it.
No, VA Blogger stated that there were “ankle-biting comments,” not ankle biters. Perhaps a closer examination of the article would allow you to see that. Don’t mince words to back up your weak argument. Slight name recognition? He ran a very close Chairman’s race is a sitting Supervisor in the LARGEST Magisterial District and Yes, he does have a parkway and a building with his name at the end, thanks to Jack. So, I would say between Fimian and Herrity, the Herrity brand is stronger. And, if your argument were true, then tell me why current polling has Fimian down 11 pts from Connolly (ironically, what he lost by in 2008) and Herrity within the margin of error? I would have to believe that is because the Herrity brand is very strong in Fairfax County and in Prince William, too.
NovaRep, I’d be curious to know who conducted the polls you reference. Are they internals (highly suspect) or are they public polls? It would be very unusual for there to be much (or any) polling of this race at this early date.
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I concur with the opinion that Herrity would be the stronger candidate. But it would be interesting to see reliable poll data that supports that opinion.
@VA Blogger, Why so serious?
Herrity will surely develop his issues and campaign. On the basis of his perspective, expertise and experience, he will have a lot to offer voters in the 11th.
I ran into Pat Herrity at Bob McDonnell’s inauguration this weekend. I briefly told him that he had my support, and he responded to me by reiterating that we can’t afford to let Gerry Connolly remain in Congress. We spoke about the race for a few minutes, and not once did he talk about Keith Fimian or disparage him.
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I didn’t see Keith at the swearing-in or the Ball so I didn’t have a chance to talk to him.
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I hope we spend more time tearing into Boss Connolly than we do tearing into each other.
Okay, so I’ve said in every post that nothing politically separates Fimian and Herrity, they are both pretty much the same. In fact, I think Pat is more conservative than people think. What I am saying is that Fimian, given how Pat chose to roll out his campaign, had to answer it somehow. And his response to that completely took the wind out of their sails. He couldn’t just stand still and take it.
As for Pat talking about issues and Keith not, its ridiculous. Your completely overreacting to Fimian’s attack – like they knew you would – but to say Keith hasn’t been talking about the issues is ridiculous. Over the last nine months he’s held press conferences in front of Connolly’s office, health care town hall forums, etc. During that time, Pat voted with Connolly-backed Sharon Bulova for the current Fairfax County budget. Doesn’ts eem like he’s much for opposing forcfully.
And if you want to hear what Keith has to say, just go to his website where he not only articulates his views, he does it via YouTube so you can hear it from his own mouth.
http://keithfimian.com/issues
You got me on that one.
[...] scored a quick point by blasting Herrity’s endorsement-laden candidacy announcement (go here for a more “serious” discussion). Hoping to capitalize on perceived animosity toward [...]
Dear Keith,
I have tried to bite my tongue during your race for the 11th congressional district seat. I’m not sure who you have on staff or who you are getting your advice from, but clearly it is from inexperienced people who know nothing about how Washington truly works or operates. For you to repeatedly attack the lobbying profession for the problems in Washington is not only naive, but disingenuous and shows the lack of your knowledge of our system of government. Today’s press release attacking Gerry for taking campaign contributions and trying to tie it to a lobbyist “buying” an earmark is a gimmick at best. Don’t get me wrong as I am not supporting Gerry, what I am doing is defending my profession.
If you truly believe your press release I would expect you to come out tomorrow with another release stating you will return every contribution from a “special interest” or their representatives. In addition, I hope this release will also include a statement that you will ban all “special interests”, including your constituents from your office if elected since constituents are lobbyists and anyone can lobby.
I cannot consider even supporting a candidate who takes this position or who shows their naive attitude toward lobbying just to make a political point. Lobbying is an instrumental part of our legislative process and to think otherwise proves you are not ready to hold this office. I cannot nor will I support you due to your position.
Lobbyists are not the one’s who pull the lever to vote for an issue. Lobbyists are not the one’s who submit the earmark requests. Earmarks account for 1.5% of the budget and 95% are for legitimate needs. I don’t want an elected official who doesn’t fight for his share of the tax-payers dollars for his district. Part of why we elect you would be to do just that. To say otherwise is a naive belief.
You can feel free to take this and use it as a reason why you did what you did, but the reality is you wouldn’t get cancer research, Pell Grants, AIDS funding and a host of other program funding if it were not for lobbyists. Tell the poor inner city kids who benefit from what we do that our efforts aren’t needed.
I expected more from you, but it is clear you are not ready for a second chance at being this party’s nominee. I urge you to read up on lobbying and the value it brings to our system of government. Every person in this country lobbies. From signing a petition to writing a letter to Congress, they are lobbying. Your position puts you in line with the President and a position that shows just how ineffective a leader can be. When you can’t have real success in your agenda blame it on lobbyists. You are doing the exact same thing. If your campaign can’t get momentum attack, attack, attack and blame a group most people don’t understand. It’s a cheap attempt to win voters and not likely to work this time.
Try telling voters what you will do for them instead of playing this old politics of destruction game. Tell us where you truly stand and not what you want us to believe.
Not worthy of being our nominee!