So a less than stellar turnout for the Shad Planking down in Wakefield just means that fewer people had to look at Jefferson Davis’s airplane:
Two lost causes in one frame.
I’m going to let folks smarter than me go ahead and sort out whether or not that violates Virginia campaign finance law (HINT: it does) and find out who is actually going to put their name to it in order to take the call from the Virginia Department of Elections. But that’s not even getting to the fun part of this weekend.
The fun part is that four members of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors have endorsed Stewart’s opponent — GOP frontrunner Ed Gillespie.
From the press release:
Longtime conservative leader, 2014 U.S. Senate candidate, and 2017 Republican candidate for governor Ed Gillespie announced the endorsements of four Prince William County Supervisors on Saturday: Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Jeanine Lawson (R-Brentsville) and Supervisors Ruth Anderson (R-Occoquan), Pete Candland (R-Gainesville), and Marty Nohe (R-Coles).
…but wait, Mrs. Lincoln! The play gets even better!
Sheriff Glendell Hill, who had previously endorsed Corey Stewart, also announced that he is switching his support for Gillespie. The endorsements add to Gillespie’s growing momentum as he heads into the Republican nomination contest this June.
“Today, I am pulling my endorsement of Corey Stewart for Governor. He is a friend but his campaign has become more focused on division, rather than the unifying values and the history of the Republican Party. I now support Ed Gillespie to be our next Governor.”
Ouch…
The Stewart campaign’s response? Was to take aim at… wait for it… Dominion Power!
Yes, that Dominion Power… the one that progressive liberals from Minnesota rage on and on about? The one that Bernie Sanders acolyte and George Soros-fueled progressive Tom Perriello is capitalizing on?
From the Stewart fundraising appeal:
Corey Stewart’s opponents have been taking campaign contributions from Dominion Power, a for-profit company that enjoys a monopoly status enforced by Virginia Law.
Wealthy corporate donors expect favors in Richmond when they invest that heavily in candidates. This company bought Terry McAuliffe during the last election and it looks like they are buying a few more candidates.
But Corey Stewart can not be bought. He is running for governor to serve the people of Virginia, not Dominion.
Of course, we understand that Corey is going to be very hard pressed now to attack Dominion Power after our friends in the Virginia Line Media dolled up the logo a bit.
So let’s review the hat trick of pain that has pretty much wrapped up Corey Stewart’s weekend thus far (and yes, it’s only Saturday):
- Potentially violated Virginia campaign finance law with a stunt no one really saw;
- Not only did he get un-endorsed by his own sheriff, but had just about every Republican supervisor in PWC endorse his opposition, and;
- …to put the icing on the cake? Stewart picks up the Perriello campaign line and attacks Virgnia’s energy independence, in service to George Soros and the progressive left.
To make matters slightly worse? The Jeffersoniads was able to obtain on background the following observation from a longtime PWC campaign observer:
Corey was so upset about today that he skipped the Chesapeake GOP Dinner (that he committed to attending) and went out drinking with staff in RVA.
…because that doesn’t reinforce any stereotypes, does it?
But hey — let’s cheer up a bit. Corey Stewart’s campaign has another 24 hours to go to really make this weekend craptastic… right?
UPDATE: Steve Albertson over at The Bull Elephant offers some thoughts on the whole affair:
These supervisors (Jeanine Lawson, Pete Candland, Ruth Anderson, and Marty Nohe) join Sheriff Hill, the Prince William delegation to the General Assembly, and two of the three Republicans on the county school board (Willie Deutsch and Allison Satterwhite) in endorsing Gillespie. (The third school board member is currently serving on active duty as part of his reserve commitment, and cannot engage in partisan politics at the moment). That means that every single elected Republican in Prince William County who has made an endorsement has endorsed Ed over Corey.
The people who know Stewart best have clearly and soundly rejected him. Given his painfully weak fundraising, and his ineffective messaging (are we draining the swamp or are we refighting the Civil War?), and lack of support from his home base, it’s beginning to look like just a matter of time before the rest of Virginia will do the same.
Bearing Drift has yet to chime in, but one suspects that the editors there are sincerely non-plussed about what the weekend portends for ol’ Corey.
UPDATE x2: Oh yeah, that dinner Corey was supposed to be at?
Zero votes. Like… not a soul.