There is a fascinating article in the Mechanicsville Local on the impending convention in the 97th delegate district. The article by Jim Ridolphi is very balanced. Here is the link.
There is in fact a huge concern that Supervisor Scott Wyatt was the Hanover representative to the 97th GOP committee and that the Hanover vote was weighted in such a way (based upon turnout and population) that his vote decided it unilaterally.
But when the vote did happen, Wyatt sent a proxy on his behalf. His proxy could have decided to vote for a primary.
I spoke to a high ranking GOP leader and he begged me to write an article about how all this was done properly and from all I have read I agree. All the rules seem to have been followed although I have not read party plans etc.
The delegate complained in the article that a primary is more transparent (he has a point although it is also true that partisans on the other side can interfere in a primary) and inclusive.
The article confirms that Boyd Marcus has worked for Chris Peace and just stopped short of saying Marcus is working this race. Marcus was quoted describing the way a person can be a convention delegate (must sign up and in effect run for the office and then local voters in each county from this district go to the local county meetings to vote for the delegates that will meet in the all district final convention) and stated it is (I quote the article) “…less inclusive and requires more steps…”
Wyatt and Peace exchanged barbs: The incumbent Del. Peace called Wyatt a “…self-interested ambitious politician…” and he has a “poor record” on the board of supervisors. Wyatt replied, “I don’t seek to have a career in politics similar to our current delegate who has been serving for 12 years…”. Wyatt also said he is for term limits.
So, this ought to be interesting. I think Scott Wyatt has some work to do to unite disgruntled conservatives and the delegate will need to ensure his people get out. The final convention should be in May.
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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Proxies are not supposed to exercise independent judgment. They are supposed to vote they way they were instructed. Scott Wyatt chose a convention, it’s that simple. If you get around to reading the RPV party plan, I would suggest looking at Article VII,Section J(2).
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SandySanders2
says:
I did not see in the RPV Party Plan any language that binds the proxy holder to a certain position. Yes there is a huge potential for a conflict of interest and thus, Wyatt recused himself. I am not crazy how it was done. But now it is done. Let’s see who wins.
Sandy
No, there is not a potential for conflict of interest, there WAS a huge one since Scott Wyatt was a candidate. He did NOT reveal his conflict of interest in writing to the committee as required by the RPV party plan (look again at the section I referred to). No, Wyatt did NOT recuse himself, he voted by proxy. Wyatt should have ACTUALLY recused himself and let the Hanover Republican Chair appoint a new representative to the LDC. As far as I know, he’s STILL on the LDC and will select the date and location of the convention he chose.