Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling commented on Wednesday that an
independent run for governor is not out of the question as he continues to poll
Virginia’s voters and meet with business leaders[1].
After Bolling bowed out of the Republican nomination process for governor, he
said he would consider a third-party bid instead.
The story about Bolling’s intentions was originally broke by
the good folks at the political blog, Blue
Virginia[2].
According to Bolling, “We’ve done some polling to assess
where we might stand in a three-way race. There’s a lot of due diligence to be
done to assess the feasibility of an independent campaign for governor…”[3]
If Bolling does run for governor as a third-party candidate,
he’ll primarily be taking away votes from his attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli,
the Republican front-runner for governor. Through a slavish following and some
adept political moves, Cuccinelli was able to relatively easily slip the
gubernatorial rug out from under Bolling’s feet, so to speak. Obviously,
however, Bolling isn’t quite ready to concede the race for governor to
Cuccinelli.
Democratic front-runner for governor, Terry McAuliffe, would
like nothing more than to see these two Republican representatives slug it out
like Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney did while he was a candidate
for the Republican nomination. And I would personally like to see Bolling and
Cuccinelli slug it out for the sake of entertainment.
It has already been interesting to witness the Lt. Gov. breaking
from his boss, Gov. Bob McDonnell. After
the mass killings in Connecticut, Bolling came out against arming school staff
while McDonnell supported it.[4]
Is all fair in love and politics or has this political fragmentation caused
real tension between the governor and his lieutenant?
If Bolling runs for governor as a third-party candidate, he
may force McAuliffe to move more towards the middle of the political spectrum. I’ll
leave it up for you to decide whether this is a good thing or not (not!).
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/bolling-testing-waters-for-independent-run/2013/01/02/302ce002-5550-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html
[2] http://bluevirginia.us/showDiary.do?diaryId=8420
[3] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/bolling-testing-waters-for-independent-run/2013/01/02/302ce002-5550-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html
[4] http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/bolling-testing-waters-for-independent-run/2013/01/02/302ce002-5550-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html
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