Virginia’s Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling
won’t be alone in his criticisms of the GOP’s “hard right” turn anymore (get
it, ‘Bolling alone’?!), as a new political action committee (PAC) was announced
that will allow the deputy executive to speak his mind with what he hopes will
be a sound financial backing.
The new Bolling PAC is called the Virginia
Mainstream Project, the latest move by the Lt. Governor to espouse the
virtues of ‘mainstream
GOP candidates’.
Since his withdrawal from the
campaign to be Virginia’s next governor, Bolling has publicly criticized
Virginia’s Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, for leading Virginia’s Republican
Party down an extreme right path that will isolate more voters in Virginia than
it will enamor.
In a statement made about the
Virginia Mainstream Project, Bolling said, “As I’ve said many times over the
past several months, there is a growing need in the Republican Party in
Virginia to recruit and elect mainstream, conservative candidates to state and
local office and promote responsible policy solutions to the most important
challenges facing Virginia.”
According to Bolling, the new PAC
will look for mainstream candidates for the 2013 House of Delegates election
and the Virginia Senate races in 2015.
Needless to say, if Cuccinelli
loses this year’s election for governor, the ‘Bolling brand’ could become a
much more sought after ‘commodity’.
While I’m hopeful that the
Republican Party will veer back more towards the middle of the political
spectrum, there is little evidence to suggest that this will occur anytime in
the near future. With a lot of anger, confidence, and wealthy financial backers,
the extreme right, while a relative minority of the Republican Party, will probably
be a powerful player in Virginia politics for some time.
Thanks in part to Bolling,
however, Virginians don’t have to dream or look through the history books to
remember a kinder, gentler, and saner Republican Party of Virginia.
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