NOVATOWNHALL

Blog Fu has the key results of today’s 10th District Republican Convention:

Congratulations to Jo-Ann Chase, Kay Gunter and Howie Lind for being elected to the Republican State Central Committee for the 10th District of Virginia! This represents a pretty substantial victory for conservatives over the slate endorsed by 10th District Chairman Jim Rich, who was re-elected without opposition.

Go read all of that because Greg has some good commentary.

This was touted in a flyer widely distributed onsite as “the Conservative Slate that Jim Rich Does NOT Endorse!” I don’t know enough about the opponents to know who is really more conservative than anyone else, but I do know these three stated a commitment to keeping the issue of immigration enforcement a live one in the state party. Jo-Ann, I can tell you, is definitely a major voice on this issue in Northern Virginia and it is gratifying to see that she, Kay and Howie swept into the State Central Committee.

First Herndon re-elects its pro-enforcement town council, and now the 10th District follows suit. Not bad for an overall discouraging political year.

The Loudoun County delegation played a key role in sweeping these three into office. Loudoun had 170 representatives at the Convention, Fairfax County 230 - but our votes count for more because of the weighting. (Maybe someone will explain this in more detail, that’s all I know).

Back when the call for delegates was announced, I know that we had some extremely active people working the phones and various social networks, including the Help Save Loudoun crowd, Eugene Delgaudio’s list of supporters, and many who worked on the Greg Ahlemann campaign.

It showed. There was a huge contingent from Sterling and nearby areas of eastern Loudoun - a crowd of people, most of whom I have not seen since approximately the first week of November last year. And none of whom, I believe, has returned to the Loudoun County Republican Committee. I think the delegation to the 10th District Convention is actually about the same size as the entire current LCRC. Food for thought there.

I attended the community hearing Wednesday for residents of the Sterling area to give feedback to the Board of Supervisors, and overwhelmingly the issues local residents are most concerned about center on the illegal alien problem here. A prominent sentiment was that the county government has abandoned this community. I suggest we could extrapolate that sentiment to the fact that many, many of those who were previously involved in county politics feel betrayed by the LCRC. If the committee decides it will now be “issue-neutral” a lot of people who saw it as a vehicle for solving their neighborhood problems will not be motivated to participate.

When the call came out, I know a big message being circulated was “Ok, you are let down by the results of last November, and let down by the presidential campaign, but here is something you and everyone you know can do to help further the cause of immigration enforcement: Sign up as a delegate for these two Conventions.”

Not that everyone was motivated principally by the illegal migration issue, nor that the three elected all see that is their number one topic, but that’s the message we were circulating and I imagine those with other “conservative” causes were framing the Conventions the same way.

Oh, yes, I did say “Conventions, plural.

I think today’s result bodes well for Bob Marshall in his bid for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by John Warner. At least among the Help Save Loudoun PAC network, these two delegate assignments were being promoted as a package: Bob Marshall has been an exemplary legislator for immigration enforcement at the state and local levels in Virginia. He sought and obtained an opinion from Attorney General Bob McDonnell on HSL’s Honest Business initiative proposed to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors last year. He is not the typical politician, and I think the general feeling is “politics as usual” contributed to Sheriff Candidate Greg Ahlemann’s defeat last year. We and a slew of other local activists got a bunch of people to file as delegates.

Folks around here are willing to go to the mat to see Bob Marshall get a shot at the U.S. Senate. Although Jim Gilmore is heavily favored to get the Republican nomination, if this eastern Loudoun contingent shows up in Richmond it could get interesting.

Click here to contribute to Bob Marshall’s campaign.

Regardless of what happens in two weeks at the state Convention, the Republican Party of Virginia just got three solid advocates for the rule of law.