Hanger: Pot Calls Kettle Black

Emmett Hanger seemingly criticized consumers who took advantage of low interest rates to build these big houses, and buy these gas guzzling cars, and now the taxes to pay for these amenities are coming back to bite them.



This revelation came about on the latest The New Dominion Podcast.


Well Emmett how about a little introspection on your and the 'Senate Leaderships' part. While the General Assembly was enjoying high revenues, as a matter of fact high enough revenues to double the Commonwealth's budget in the last ten years didn't the General Assembly build us a big tax guzzling Government?

This is literally how 'out of touch' Emmett Hanger and the Senate Leadership are and literally how they view those stupid Virginians pursuing the American Dream?

This same Leadership spent an anticipated 6.5% in projected growth in tax revenues but come to find out our economy could only provide an increase of 3.5% in new tax revenue. As a matter of fact Emmett admits in the podcast that the Senate Finance Committee was aware of the slowdown in the new home building market, but took no steps to account for it, or if they did, just plain blow it!

Now of course we all know what happens when we have a budget shortfall right? The 'gap' needs to be bridged with new and or higher taxes, doesn't it? However, you have all those people who are just 'Mad at the World', and do stuff like volunteer at the grassroots level of the Republican Party, and/or sign crazy things like 'No New Taxes Pledges'.

Hanger Blurring Party Lines in Augusta?

An interesting conversation occurred in the comments thread of the post "Are Breeden's, Pyles Hands Tied?". I felt that the conversation regarding Pyles and Hanger should be explored a bit further .

According to sources in Augusta County, Democrat board of supervisors member Tracy Pyles was going to run unchallenged. Some GOP party members and elected officials were reasonably satisfied with Pyles work and did not see if necessary to challenge him.

However, Pyles made the fateful decision to enter into Republican politics (which seems to be a violation of the state democratic party plan). He united with other elected officials and endorsed Senator Emmett Hanger for the 24th Senate Republican primary. This begs the question, why would a democrat get involved with, and endorse, a Republican candidate? What was the agreement made between Hanger and Pyles?

The problem is, this altruistic gesture has come back to bite him (for lack of a better term). The Augusta County Republican Committee has lined up a candidate and now Mr. Pyles has competition.

This leads us to pose the next (series of) question(s)--what will Emmett Hanger do? After all, he solicited the endorsement of Supervisor Pyles. Will he return the favor and endorse Pyles? If he does this, he breaks with the party and endorses a Democrat over a Republican (wonder how that will play out in the polls).

If he endorses the Republican candidate, then is he disloyal to Tracy Pyles. And remember, it was Hanger who got Pyles into this mess in the first place.

On the flip side, what will Pyles do now that there is a Democrat candidate (William Hrovat) in the race? What will Tom Long and the Augusta County Democrat party do with this apparent renegade? And, who will Pyles endorse? There appears to be a division amongst dems in Augusta County, with Pyles supporting a Republican and Long working with the Democrat.
Hold on to your seats folks, this is going to be one wild ride.

X posted at Inpolitically Correct

Are Breeden's, Pyles hands tied?

The 24th District Senate race is heating up. In Rockingham County, Mr. William Hrovat of Churchville, announced last night his intention to seek the Democratic nomination. According to the Daily News Record, Hrovat is a retired power plant operator for Dominion Power.

The addition of Mr. Hrovat, adds more spark into an already tense race. As has been widely reported, the Republican primary took an interesting turn in April, when Emmett Hanger sought the endorsements of local elected officials. We are all aware of the comments made by Hanger at that event which prompted the endorsements of grassroots party leaders for Scott Sayre.

However just when the dust began to settle, a Democrat enters the race. The obvious question people are asking is, which Republican do the Democrats have a better shot of winning against?

I think that Jeff Mellott with the Daily News Record raises an even more interesting question--who will Rockingham Democratic Board of Supervisor Mike Breeden ultimately endorse? Back in April, Breeden had stood side by side with his fellow supervisors in their endorsement of Senator Emmett Hanger.

Breeden is not the only Democratic elected official caught in this bind. As SWAC Girl discusses on her blog, Augusta County Board of Supervisor Tracy Pyles has endorsed Hanger as well.

Will Breeden and Pyles break with their party and continue to stand by Hanger, or will they rescind their endorsement and walk lock step with their party faithful?

How do the candidates "sell" themselves?

Seeing as how the 24th District is holding a Republican primary, with Republican candidates, it is a fairly safe bet that each contender does not differ drastically. That having been said, we are looking at two distinct individuals, with separate backgrounds, experiences and influences which they bring to the table. I wanted to take a look at each candidate to draw a comparison.

I visited their websites to see how each candidate was representing themselves. During my days as a webmaster, we used to say that the Homepage was the most important piece of real estate. This was where you predominantly "sold" your message. If you could capture the reader's attention, then they would delve in for more. I wanted to see and compare how these two gentlemen sold themselves.

Senator Hanger begins pleasantly enough, thanking supporters for the honor of representing them. He is courteous and polite for 2 paragraphs and then he says:

"As a member of the leadership of the Senate, my primary focus is to work for the best interests of the almost 200,000 citizens I am entrusted to represent, not necessarily the sometimes narrow viewpoint of any particular so called “conservative” group or local Republican unit that may be controlled by outsiders or special interest groups that may have an agenda that is not appropriate for our area."

He follows this vitriolic rant with the following:

"There are people out there that apparently think that politics gives you a license to misrepresent the truth (some people call that lying); and there are people that are so mean-spirited and partisan that it reflects poorly on them and all of us that engage in the process."

After those brief, but not so subtle attacks, Hanger proceeds back to pleasantries for the duration.

Scott Sayre welcomes voters to his site, with a brief autobiography as an introductory to the elements that have shaped and molded him. He tells voters what is important to him and then he says:

"I’m looking forward to working for the people of the 24th District in the State Senate. With your support, I will bring my values – and the values of our district – with me.

I’m asking for your prayers, hard work, support – but most importantly – your vote.I look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail.Thank you and God Bless."

When Sayre announced he was running, he pledged to run a positive campaign. It is obvious that he is honoring that pledge. I looked for a negative attack, a subtle jibe, even an off-colour joke, but could find none.

In the grand scheme of things, I have not been involved in politics for an abundantly long period of time. However, I have worked with enough campaigns to know that when a candidate begins to negatively attack, it is because they either 1) have not honed their message or 2) have no message to present. In regards to message, Conservative Viewpoints has an excellent post.

I would sincerely encourage Mr. Hanger to reconsider his opening page. Negative campaigning is the sign of a desperate candidate and it does not play favourably with the voters.