Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders if any of you out there read the title of the post and assumed that this post would be about last night Republican Presidential Candidates debate…

Well, it isn’t. Your Maximum Leader isn’t paying attention to those people. They make his head hurt. Call him when the field gets winnowed down to two or three… And don’t call him until next year either… It is unseemly to be campaigning so early…

Anyhoo…

For those of you who follow such things… Your Maximum Leader lives in the 28th Virginia Senate District. The Hon. John Chichester has been representing this district for-evah. The Hon. Senator has decided that it is time to retire. So, there are now four men vying for the Republican nomination for this now-open seat. The four candidates were debating near the Villainschloss, so your Maximum Leader attended to hear what these men had to say about the issues.

Excursus: Just in case you cared, the Democrats have already selected their candidate - so there were no Democratic party debates to attend… If there were, your Maximum Leader would probably have gone to them…

Now… Allow your Maximum Leader to make a confession. Two confessions in fact. The first confession is that (honestly) he didn’t know walking into the debate which of the candidates he would be inclined to support. One of the candidates was endorsed by Senator Chichester and your Maximum Leader’s delegate, Speaker of the House of Delegates - Bill Howell. Those were two meaningful endoresments as far as your Maximum Leader was concerned… But he didn’t really have an opinon on any of the candidates, because (aside from the endoresments) he didn’t know much about them.

Oh yeah… The second confession… Your Maximum Leader walked into the debate and was shocked to discover that there were four candidates seeking the seat. Your Maximum Leader was only aware of three prior to the debate. Oops…

Well… There is something to be said for attending an event with fellow citizens and seeing how “the system” works. Your Maximum Leader will venture to say that of the 70-odd people in the room, he was one of perhaps 5 who didn’t seem to support any particular candidate. All other attendees appeared to have chosen their man beforehand and were there for moral support.

The format of the debate was interesting. The local GOP had six “subject matter” experts who each asked the same three questions of all the candidates. Questions ranged from Transportation (a hot-button issue), taxation, education, public safety, moral/ethical issues (abortion and stem cell research), and immigration.

Your Maximum Leader will admit that he was surprised to learn that there were going to be questions on immigration. Afterall, how much influence does a state senator have over the problems of immigration policy? Not much. But apparently that didn’t stop people from asking. The best response was from one of the candidates who said, like your Maximum Leader was thinking, that he didn’t think he would have much impact on the immigration situation and that it was a federal matter. If only the rest of the candidates said the same. (One of the candidates wanted to empower Sherriffs and the state police to arrest and incarcerate illegal immigrants for just being illegal immigrants. Further he said that illegals should be held until they can be deported. This got some applauds from some in the room. But your Maximum Leader sat there dumbstruck thinking to himself that when illegals are arrested for committing serious crimes the INS wants nothing to do with them. It is almost impossible to deport an illegal who has been convicted of a crime. So holding illegals in anticipation of them being deported seems preposterous.)

All in all… The four candidates attempted to “out-conservative” each other. Since they were in front of a “friendly” crowd this seemed like a reasonable strategery. The memory of Ronald Reagan was invoked by most of the candidates - which was nice, but is growing a little old for your Maximum Leader. Reagan was a visionary man of his day. We have many different problems facing our nation - and our community. And your Maximum Leader thinks it is hard to guage how Ronald Reagan would have felt about raising the speed limit to 60 mph on Route 3 east of Fredericksburg; or how Reagan would “fix” the intersection of Route 1 and Route 17 (which, by the way, needs to be “fixed”).

Your Maximum Leader thought it took real guts for one candidate to stand up and assert that Roe v Wade was the law of the land and for the most part there wasn’t much he could do to change the fact that abortion is legal. He indicated that he would consider reasonable restrictions within the confines of the law; but that he couldn’t change the law of the land. In front of the gathered crowd, it was a real bold move.

After the Q & A from the “subject matter experts,” there were screened questions from the audience. Your Maximum Leader submitted two questions - neither of which were asked. (If only they had known they were from your Maximum Leader!)

NB to Smallholder: Your Maximum Leader asked two of the candidates after the debate had ended if they had considered relaxing restrictions on the selling of raw milk. They both admitted they had never contemplated the issue. Although one of the candidates did say that he knew some organic farmers in the district and might solicit their ideas if he wins the nomination and the seat.

After the audience questions, there were brief closing statements and then time to mingle…

Allow your Maximum Leader to say something… There was a time when he thought he might get into politics and run for something. Well… Last night reminded him why he doesn’t have the patience to do it. He doubts he could remain civil to a voter who wanted to lecture him on the flawed science of global warming - as related to him by this friend of a friend who once studied meteorology at a community college for a semester. At some point your Maximum Leader would want to just strangle the lecturer. It is your Maximum Leader’s understanding that in a democracy, one can’t just go around strangling voters. Although, if the voter was an idiot one hopes an exception could be made…

If you are still reading this post - and your Maximum Leader doubts many of you are - you might be wondering who these candidates are and what your Maximum Leader is now thinking…

Well… By the end of the debate, your Maximum Leader had determined that he could support either John Van Hoy or Richard Stuart. Both men were thoughtful, reasoned, and aligned with your Maximum Leader on significant issues. In the end he’s decided to cast his vote on Saturday for Richard Stuart. There were a few reasons for this. The first is that Mr. Stuart was the candidate who admitted that he couldn’t change Roe v. Wade because it was the law of the land, and he also indicated that there wasn’t much he could do about illegal immigration as it was a federal issue. Your Maximum Leader respects a man who can get up in front of a crowd of ideological supporters and tell them something they didn’t want to hear, but that showed he understood the office for which he was running and its limitations. The second reason is that Mr. Stuart has won elections before. He ran for, and defeated an incumbent Democrat, to win the Office of Commonwealth’s Attorney in Westmoreland County. Unfortunately, Mr. Van Hoy doesn’t have that experience. This will be a hard-fought race and you need a man with some experience running for something.

Finally… Mr. Stuart seems more “senatorial.” And we all know that one must look the part…

Actually… Your Maximum Leader typed that last line just to get a laugh from Smallholder - who once had to fess up that a close relative of his voted for George H.W. Bush for President because Bush was “taller” than Dukkais. Since then your Maximum Leader has harboured doubts that the Smallholder himself gets all caught up in how a candidate looks in determining how to exercise his franchise.

Carry on.