Virginia 5th District Primary

As we saw on Tuesday, Robert Hurt handily won the 5th District Primary. Hurt beat runner up Jim McKelvey by more than 20 percent, proving the power Hurt has on the 5th District. The final election results were as follows:

Robert Hurt - 48%

Jim McKelvey - 26%

Michael McPadden - 10%

Ken Boyd - 7%

Feda Morton - 5%

Ron Ferrin - 2%

Lawrence Verga - 2%

Really, these results come as no surprise. Hurt is a state senator who was endorsed by the Republican Party before this primary began. McKelvey tried to buy an election by spending over half a million dollars. The other candidates just didn't have the funds or grassroots level support to really make a dent on Hurt.

However, what's interesting about this election is that McKelvey pulled off a large margin of the voters. McKelvey had absolutely no experience and really hadn't been heard of until February. Since he was able to pull of 26%, it really gives him an advantage in 2012 (if Hurt loses to Perriello). On the other hand, there are rumors that if Hurt won the Primary, McKelvey would endorse Independent candidate, Jefferey Clark. If the rumors are true, this would be political suicide for McKelvey.

Clark is an interesting candidate in the first place. Clark has been noted saying that his sole reason of running is to take away votes from Robert Hurt. It almost seems that Clark would rather have Perriello win than Hurt. However, Clark claims that he is a conservative. Let's digest the problems with this thinking.

Problem 1. A Congressional campaign cost on average half a million dollars. If Clark is against wasteful spending, he should check his desires before running. It would be a huge waste of money to spend half a million, just to take away votes.

Problem 2. If you are going to promote conservative values, why would you help Perriello win? I understand that you don't want Hurt in because you don't see him as a true conservative. However, even if he isn't a true conservative, he is most certainly not a true liberal like Mr. Perriello.

Problem 3. This problem is with McKelvey rather than Clark. McKelvey is set up nicely for 2012, if Hurt loses. He might even be set up nicely to run as an independent in 2012 if he feels the need. However, he would be shooting himself in the foot if he endorses an independent to take away votes from Clark. In a world where everyone has everything at their fingertips and the media is just looking for dirt. If they don't have any dirt on you, then why would you submit to their desires. McKelvey would be much better off by just not endorsing any candidate, rather then helping Perriello.

Nonetheless, this is going to be a nasty campaign on all three sides. If the economy stays where it is now, then Perriello should be a one and done. However, he could win a second term if Clark's campaign can take away enough votes.