Posts Tagged ‘virginia beach politics’

Loyola

The founder of the Hampton Roads Tea Party Monday endorsed GOP’s Ben Loyola for congress in a move that could test the new activists’ political horsepower.

Karen Miner Hurd said Loyola best represents the principles of conservatives that Tea Partiers like her represent.

The Tea Party officials either know something about Loyola’s strength at the polls that we don’t, or Ms. Hurd is putting her neck on the line which in effect will test Tea Party strength in Tidewater.

Win or lose, the results will be interpreted as being for or against the Tea Party.

Either way June 8’s primary is going to get real interesting.

Loyola was born in Cuba.  His family fled the repressive communist government of Fidel Castro when he was a baby.

Loyola loathes socialism and Obama’s brand of Obummerism.  A self-made successful entrepreneur, Loyola is a patriot whose voice cracks and eyes begin to tear up as he talks of his love for America and the U.S. Constitution.

A grad of the U.S. Navy Academy, he is a retired Navy pilot who unflinchingly supports the military.

His beliefs, background, and campaign pushes all of the Tea Party’s hot button.

His closest opponent pollsters believe is car dealer Scott Rigell, anointed as the GOP’s establishment candidate.

Rigell has taken heat from hardcore right-wingers for a $1,000 contribution to Obama, support for 22% sales tax hike and a system of an regional government that would have given taxing power to an unelected.

Nevertheless Rigell has corralled a number of top Republican endorsements, nationally, statewide, and locally.

Even Gov. Bob McDonnell has endorsed Rigell in the primary race.  This reporter has covered VA politics since 1966 and is unable to recall a single time a sitting governor has gotten involved in local politics openly before a nominee has been selected.

Asked if those kind of endorsement deviations are indicative of problems with Rigell campaign, a top official said, “The top is a little shaky.”  Asked if he’d ever known of a previous incident of a sitting governor getting involved in a local campaign, he replied, “Never.”

Loyola and Rigell are in a 6-way race for the June 8 primary.  Other candidates are Scott Taylor, Bert Mizusawa, Ed Maulbeck, and Jessica Sandlin.

The winner of that contest will not only face Democrat 1st term incumbent Glenn Nye, but Kenny Golden, former chairman of the local GOP, who because  he felt the party deck had been stacked against him, dropped out of the primary to run as an independent.

He’s yearning for a Rigell victory because he thinks he’ll easily overwhelm both him and Nye.

A recent push poll for Rigell only included Loyola and Mizusawa among the questions asked about Rigell.

There’s no question Rigell has party’s national support, more than adequate funding, and is the recipient of professional party grooming and training.

The rank and file Republicans cover the spectrum.  Many support Rigell, but just as many are opting for Loyola and Taylor, rebelling against what they feel is unnatural national and state party interference.

Townes

Michael Townes was protected in the operation of corrupt Hampton Roads Transit Authority by his black ‘posse’ of supporters who knew of his incompetence.  Knew he was incapable of running HRT and the light rail project.

The posse knew months before the HRT board found out that Townes had overspent his budget by $108 MILLION.  They knew it was behind schedule

They said nothing in circling the light rail project to protect the man because ‘he was a black brother,” inside sources have said.

“…the makeup of the board was heavily in favor of Michael despite the evidence.  I will leave it to you to guess why… facts unimportant to them and they had enough votes to keep him on,” VNS learned.

As we have always said about Townes, he rallies the posse at the least hint of a threat to him or of any criticism of his mis-management style.  The black posse’s role was to support his yelps of ‘racism’ as the excuse to cover his problems and inadequate ability to handle the job.

It wasn’t until after the $108 MILLION overrun was made public and officials began to take heat through the media that they were able to override the black posse who stood with Townes to the end.

Sources told VNS that Norfolk Mayor Fraim, Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms and the city manager of Norfolk threatened to pull the plug on the entire project that the HRT board was able to force Townes out.

Why did he get his ‘black’ parachute of about $180,000 for a year?   Because he had a tightly written clause in his contract.

The HRT board was afraid to fire him because it felt that he would go public with his racism charge and take them to court.

He’d keep ‘good blackmail book’ on what he considered racist slights and the board felt it would cost more to fight him in court for the rights of citizens than it would to pay him off for a year.

Other officials said he should have been fired for malfeasance, misfeasance or investigated for criminal activity.  Under this scenario, the contract and ‘black’ parachute clause would have been null and void.

One official said, for the above reasons, “We were very fortunate to strike the deal we did.”

It was said, “Unfortunately, he had a severance clause that was air tight.  Although it may sink in the throat, sometimes just paying the severance is cheaper than a court case. He will never again have credibility, I fear.”

While no one disputes his value in turning HRT into a professionally managed agency, X-VDOT chief Phil Shucet took Townes’ job at $336,000 a year, adding to the already costly venture.

Here we are paying an incompetent $180,000 to get out, Shucet $336,000 to come in, and the project is sitting on a $108 MILLION cost overrun.  If this is good government policy, we’d hate to see what bad government would cost and bring us!

The original documents whereby HRT applied for and got grants of $25 and $50 MILLION, respectively from the state and federal government – leaves Norfolk responsible for all cost overruns:  One reason why it is trying to suck Virginia Beach into to project – to help minimize its loss exposure due to the mismanagement of the corrupt agency.

The original documents whereby HRT applied for and got grants of $25 and $50 MILLION, respectively, from the state and federal government – leaves Norfolk responsible for all cost overruns:  One reason why it is trying to suck Virginia Beach into to project – to help minimize its loss exposure due to the mismanagement of the corrupt agency.

Crying ‘racist’ is a familiar tactic.

Townes yelled like a harpooned sea lion in Nov. 2002, after VNS reported he’d spent $50,000 in tax funds to provide free bus rides to the polls for a transportation referendum.  (See:  http://www.veritas-solus.com/VNS/Archive/axtax_hrt.htm )

He plastered the buses with illegal campaign signs promoting the referendum which would have resulted in a 22% tax hike.

Most of HRT’s ridership is black, but Townes joined Norfolk councilman Randy (I should have had an abortion instead of giving birth to Light Rail) Wright.

VNS reported that normally politicians, primarily Democrats, give blacks a half pint of whiskey and a $5 bill to sell their votes.

Townes didn’t confront VNS personally (in fact no HRT employee would speak for the record), but he called a now-deceased, but at the time rabid black legislator to attack VNS as being racist.

But after it was pointed out that the VNS editor had worked for a congressman and knew of what he spoke, the vocal squealers shut up.  Didn’t want to expose many of the political control tactics they used to control lesser educated black voters.

VIRGINIA BEACH – - Bill Fleming, self-employed and in the Democrat Party, is facing the biggest uphill battle of his career:  An run for the 8th District Senate seat against Jeffrey McWaters,  elected last weekend as the GOP standard bearer.

Fleming has only until January 12 to marshal a campaign against overwhelming odds of money and organization.  McWaters is still officially reporting about $165,000 in campaign funds received in his campaign against fellow GOPer, Councilwoman Rosemary Wilson.

However, insiders have speculated that when the final tally is in, it would run $500,000 to $800,000 from his special interest friends among a political machine that Mayor Will Sessoms’ hardcore of supporters are trying to build around him.

In an appearance before the Saturday Democrat breakfast of about 65 – 23 Princess Anne High School students, Fleming admitted his entry was a last minute move as he denied being ‘extreme,’ but admitted being an otherwise conservative candidate. Read the rest of this entry »

VIRGINIA BEACH (March 22, 2009) – - As the GOP churns… Two weeks ago, Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Free angrily told VNS he was going to run for his boss’ job after learning Virginia Beach senior State Sen. Ken Stolle was going to seek the office to pad out his retirement income.

Free said he didn’t care who was running, he was going to be the GOP candidate Musical chairs began with the original deal discussed around the city called for:

• Sheriff Lanteigne to not seek re-election;  after 17 years in the Senate Stolle would step down and run for Sheriff,
• And Free who’d been enticed to leave police department for a position in the Sheriff’s Dept., on promises of being the next sheriff, would kowtow and let Stolle waltz into the job.   Read the rest of this entry »