Wednesday morning, I called Greg Aldridge, a longtime leader of the Roanoke Tea Party. I sought his assessment of Tuesdays election. All three Roanoke Tea Party-backed candidates lost Republican primaries for the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.
One, Hollins Supervisor Al Bedrosian, was an incumbent. Another, Harry Griego, lost two previous GOP primaries. For the third, Scott Faw, this was his first campaign.
What happened? I asked Aldridge.
Are you asking me because you want to discuss it, or is this for something youre writing ? he said.
Im writing about it, I answered.
Heres my 21-word statement. Are you ready to write it down? Aldridge cautioned me to make sure I got every word. I told him I was ready.
Theres no limit to what you can make happen when youre willing to lie to people who trust you, Aldridge said.
What does that mean? I said.
He refused to elaborate, on the record. I was unwilling to discuss it off the record. In politics, people often want to talk off the record when theyre trying to influence what youre writing without taking responsibility for it.
I asked again for an on-the-record explanation.
Were not going to do that, Aldridge said. God bless you, Dan.
He sounded somewhat bitter. Thats understandable. After all, the Roanoke Tea Party has little to show for all the effort its put into local and statewide politics.
The group launched in 2009, not long after former President Barack Obamas first inauguration drew record crowds to the District of Columbia. Tuesdays primary shutout was the latest in an almost unbroken string of Roanoke Tea Party election defeats.
The group scored a win, if you want to call it that, with Bedrosians 2013 election to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors. He earned the GOP nomination by drawing lots from a bag after a June primary vote tie, and took Novembers three-way general election with less than 50 percent of the vote.
Other Roanoke Tea Party-backed candidates have lost.
In 2010, Mike Powell won two of 33 precincts in an unsuccessful campaign for the Roanoke City Council. In 2011, Tripp Godsey of Raleigh Court fell by a 2-1 margin in a GOP primary for the state Senate. In 2012, Roanoke Tea Party leaders backed E.W. Jackson for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination. Jackson ran fourth among four candidates, pulling only 4.7 percent of the vote.
In June 2013, running against tea party target Joe McNamara, RoxAnne Christley lost by five votes in a Republican primary for Roanoke County supervisor.
That November, Jackson was trounced in a bid for lieutenant governor. His showing was the weakest by far of three Republicans on the statewide ticket. Aldridge and Chip Tarbutton, former Roanoke Tea Party president, ran Jacksons campaign.
In 2014, former Roanoke Tea Party board member Hank Benson ran for the Roanoke City Council and finished seventh in a 10-way race for three seats. In 2015, Roanoke Tea Party member Brian Velkoff lost the GOP nomination for Cave Spring District supervisor.
That year, Griego lost a Republican primary to Chris Head in a House of Delegates race. In 2016, Griego lost the GOP congressional primary, running against Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County.
So what happened this year? Aldridge refused to go beyond his statement. But lets hazard some guesses.
One: Roanoke County voters are tired of tea partiers literally tilting at windmills, as they did in opposing electric-generating turbines on Bent Mountain.
Two: Voters have moved on from bizarre conspiracy theories, such as the one about the United Nations trying to take over land use planning in Roanoke County.
Three: The electorate is weary of silly and unnecessary controversies about opening prayers at board of supervisors meetings. Recall in 2014, when Bedrosian refused to stand for a Hindu invocation? In 2015, he did the same with a prayer offered by a gay Christian pastor.
Five: Voters flatly disbelieve that Roanoke County suffers from fiscal mismanagement. All three tea party-backed candidates this year centered their campaigns on that ill-informed argument.
Its little wonder the Roanoke Tea Party went 0-for-3 in Tuesdays low-vote party primaries (the easiest kind for insurgent candidates to win). Over and over again, the group has engaged in the politics of folly, sounding ridiculous and preposterous themes under an arrogant, misguided mantle of constitutional stewardship.
Perhaps the 2016 presidential election caused voters to realize that clownish hucksterism is a rotten substitute for bedrock competence.
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CASEY: Roanoke Tea Party strikes out in board of supervisors ... - Roanoke Times