VA5th Race Track: UPDATED

By Kurt Feigel

News & Opinion

Here are the results for the straw poll that was taken at the Lynchburg Tea Party Debate on 2/27/2010:

Jim McKelvey is the leader with Robert Hurt trailing behind him. It was a good night and a good time for the 5th district to see what these candidates were all about.

My personal analysis:

The 2 candidates that did an outstanding job were Mike McPadden and Jim McKelvey.  When asked a tough question about running as an independent McKelvey dodged the issue with a political answer designed to say much and nothing all at the same time. I understand that, as I wouldn’t want to answer that question either. It was a large turnout with lots of Hurt and McKelvey shirts,stickers, signs and more.

I for one was not impressed with Robert Hurt. He came across as if he was not happy to be there and kept doing this Bill Clinton like thing with his hands where, to, emphasize, a, point, he, would, put his hand out, in a fist. It was annoying and distracting. I thought his answers lacked substance and they seemed to say “hey don’t you know I’m the anointed one of the GOP?”

I keep coming back to Mike McPadden as he is the only candidate, that when talking about the constitution understands its depth and application in from a legislative position. I feel like the other candidates only picked the thing up a few months ago and thought to themselves “hey this is a nifty thing, I think I’ll include it in my political platform”. After 2 debates I think we are starting to see that some of these candidates just DO NOT have what it takes to make it all the way to Washington D.C.

Feda Morton presented like a school teacher that was lecturing her kids on what they can do to succeed in life and what our government is all about. Yes Mrs Morton, we get it the jerks in D.C. are bad. I know that sounds mean. I’m not trying to be but a lot of people are thinking that and saying it out loud. I’m sure Feda is a nice lady. She is just not representative material.

Ron Ferrin as usual told some funny jokes and gets the award as the most memorable guy on stage but I’d be hard pressed to find ONE person that could remember a single thing he said on any issue. Oh wait “the tenth amendment is 2/5ths of vodka” I don’t even get that joke…

Ken Boyd kept bringing up his service to Albermarle County but it came back to bite him in the end when the frequent tax increases were mentioned.

Laurence Verga just does not present well. His positions are good (I think) but I am so often distracted by his lack of communications skills that I have a hard time even remembering what he said.

Some of this is just raw honesty. It is time for the candidates at the bottom face the reality of life. Sometimes you are not going to win. Failure sucks. Get over it. Do us all a favor and help us send a real conservative to D.C. as our representative. If you don’t, all you’ll be accomplishing is helping Robert Hurt get the nomination and in the end you will still loose. Only your loosing will just ensure the advance of liberalism.

STRAW POLL RESULTS:

Jim McKelvey    70     28.5%

Robert Hurt       68     27.6%

Mike McPadden 44     17.9%

Ron Ferrin        24      9.8%

Laurence Verga 15      6.1%

Ken Boyd          13      5.3%

Feda Morton      12     4.9%

Ken Boyd Wins the Race for Week Four

Michael McPadden Wins the Race for Week Three

Ken Boyd Wins the Race for Week Two

Michael McPadden Wins the Race for Week ONE!

In an effort to alleviate the pain and concern of some campaigns over the “question of fairness” of previous polls The Watchdog is doing something different.

UPDATE: Polling will be halted for a few weeks
It has already started and ends every Wednesday
The results will be posted weekly on this site!

Week Four Results

Week Three Results:

	Spike McPadden	34	25%
	Brawler Bobby Hurt	32	23.5%
	Fiesty Feda Morton	26	19.1%
	Lean Mean Laurence Verga	26	19.1%
	Ken “the Kerr” Boyd	10	7.4%
	Wild Jim McKelvey	5	3.7%
	Rowdy Ron Ferrin	3	2.2%
		136

Week Two Results:

	Ken “the Kerr” Boyd	53	32.9%
	Spike McPadden	50	31.1%
	Fiesty Feda Morton	25	15.5%
	Rowdy Ron Ferrin	12	7.5%
	Lean Mean Laurence Verga	8	5%
	Brawler Bobby Hurt	7	4.3%
	Wild Jim McKelvey	6	3.7%
		161

Week One Results:

	Spike McPadden	178	35.7%
	Fiesty Feda Morton	153	30.7%
	Ken “the Kerr” Boyd	91	18.2%
	Brawler Bobby Hurt	36	7.2%
	Lean Mean Laurence Verga	24	4.8%
	Wild Jim McKelvey	10	2%
	Rowdy Ron Ferrin	7	1.4%
		499

This will give candidates and their campaigns the chance to show just how organized and how well their grass roots activism is geared up and ready to roll. FYI: You can get the code from the polldaddy poll and put it in your website.

Polldaddy is now set to only let your IP vote once. If you have concerns about this then visit their website to learn more.

We are quite certain that some pain will be felt once the results are tallied weekly on this on-line poll

The weekly votes will stay posted in REAL TIME, so we ask everyone to check our math (actually it’s polldaddy’s math).

There WILL be a Watchdog Straw Poll at the Lynchburg Tea Party debates. Here is how it will work:

Ballots will be handed out as people enter the debate. If they don’t get one as they come in then that’s too bad. They will be collected as people leave. When all the ballots are turned in. The LYNCHBURG TEA PARTY leadership team ( MYSELF EXCLUDED ) will count the ballots in full view of everyone that wishes to watch. The results will be announced ON SITE and then posted here.

Let the race begin.