Roanoke On The Right: 1st Post

Today with my first post I'd just like to introduce myself and talk about this past weekend's State GOP Convention and a few other things. My name is Will Burton and I am a resident of Roanoke, Virginia as well as a student at Hampden-Sydney College. I've been reading blogs for a while especially conservative blogs and have been A. Very impressed and entertained and B. been motivated to start my own blog and get my opinion out there. I was also inspired to begin blogging by the sheer power that the blogs and Internet can play in society today.

First off I'd like to talk about the State GOP Convention this past weekend. I had an awesome time and was very impressed by everything that went on this weekend. I am a member of the College Republicans here at H-SC and we were enlisted to help Hampden-Sydney alum and Franklin County GOP Chair Bill Stanley in his bid for State Chairman. This was one of the best experiences of my life and my first dip into officially working for a real campaign. I had not met Bill before this past weekend but if you know anything about Hampden-Sydney when another Hampden-Sydney man needs help we would go to any extent to help that brother no matter what the sacrifice. Needless to say I was very impressed with Bill. He is a young, energetic, and smart leader that can really bring a lot to the table for the GOP. He has really done a lot with the GOP in Franklin County. Bill took membership and fundraising to record levels within a matter of months. His achievement was recognized at the 2008 Republican Advance, where the Franklin County Committee was named Fifth District Unit of the Year. I was really glad to be a part of a strong movement that went out and bucked the establishment this past weekend. Pat Mullins represented the GOP insiders of old that our party needs to move away from to succeed again and Bill represented a group of young and energetic grassroots Republicans that are ready to take the party to new and high levels of success that we've never seen before. Despite this I will support Pat Mullins as chairman as his job is very important for the Republican Party in Virginia in a time where we need to unite and come together. I really hope Bill sticks around the Party because he is a leader we need right now. It was such an honor and privilege to be part of Bill Stanley's campaign staff and I am grateful to have had that opportunity.

Friday night I had the opportunity to attend the Restore the Founder's Vision BBQ at the Science Museum of Virginia. I was very impressed with the turnout. This is one of the groups that has spun off from the Tax Day Tea Parties and is really starting to make some noise here in VA. According to their website the group is: "The Virginia Grassroots Conservative Coalition was established to restore the Founders' vision of an American Republic dedicated to the protection of our God given rights to life, liberty and property and to limiting government to preserve our freedom. We believe more government always results in less individual freedom and less prosperity. We must assume far greater responsibility for ourselves, our families and our communities in order to safeguard our rights and secure our future. We are committed to training, organizing, and mobilizing Virginians to be active participants in our communities, government and the political process." It is chaired by for State Party Chairman Patrick McSweeney. Virgil Goode was the MC and really got people fired up. The main speaker of the night was Ken Cuccinelli and he gave an awesome speech about his ideas for restoring the vision of the founders in America and Virginia. I was completely in awe during this speech of Ken's delivery and ideas. This speech IMHO was better than the speech he gave at the convention before the vote. He is really a rising star in the party and I am very excited about his nomination this weekend. I wasn't able to stay for the rest of the dinner because I needed to get over to the Marriott to help get Bill's hospitality suite set up but they had other speakers including Delegate Bob Marshall, Homeschool Lawyer Mike Farris, and a couple pastors. All in all it was a great event and I enjoyed it.

Next was the big day on Saturday. I really enjoyed Sean Hannity's speech. It was very funny especially when he joked on Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. It was really amazing and moving to hear all the different stories from the people who Bob McDonnell had worked with in the Army, AG's office, Business, etc. It definitely gave us a much larger sense of who Bob is and what kind of Governor he will be in addition to what we already know. I felt like they wanted to give us a more personal knowledge of Bob.

Next, I want to give my take on all the races. For Lt. Gov. I was behind Bolling the whole time. Muldoon just came out of nowhere and I was really frustrated by the fact that he even ran. He ran a huge attack campaign which just consisted of knocking a popular incumbent with false attacks. I really believe especially at this point in history our party needs to stick to what Ronald Reagan said: "Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican." Bolling could have been our nominee for Governor but he stepped back partly in order so we could come together and be united behind one candidate rather than having to deal with a long and drawn out primary/convention fight. I observed the 9th District counting of votes as an official counter for the Stanley campaign. The 9th district is probably the district which has the most beef with Muldoon. He is a former resident of the district and has failed in many bids for elected office there including a congressional bid against Rick Boucher in 1996. Local GOP leaders in the 9th really stood up against Muldoon sending out several emails explaining their past dealings with him and why they support Bill Bolling's candidacy over Mr. Muldoon's. In watching the counts he was getting from zero to one vote in each county and mostly zeros. Definitely a poor showing that could have easily been avoided.

Next for the AG race. My father first told me about Ken Cuccinelli about a year ago. I started following his candidacy, was impressed and got behind him. Due to my obligations over the past year as a missionary in Latin America and with my studies at HSC I wasn't able to meet him until this weekend and I had been looking forward to this for a while. I had heard through my father who had heard through an unnamed official that the Cuccinelli campaign wanted to win the nomination in one vote. I definitely was excited in hearing this but I thought it was a long shot because in my mind Brownlee was very close. I thought Ken gave a great speech though I would have loved to have seen him give his speech from the night before again. Brownlee gave a good speech and I was really impressed that he stepped out in front of the podium. He gave a good speech but by then I was tired of all the Brownlee people touting his credentials as a prosecutor. Although I didn't support Brownlee and don't agree with some of his actions as US Attorney I would love to see him run for something else in the future as he is a good conservative who has a strong following within the state. I was really impressed by Foster this weekend. He is a good guy who could have a strong future as a politician but just didn't have the experience that Ken has as a legislator and Brownlee has as a prosecutor. The school board doesn't really qualify you to be Attorney General IMHO. That being said I would also like to see him stick around and run for something else. I was definitely surprised Ken won in one vote. I thought Brownlee would be a lot stronger but I guess not. He definitely had huge numbers at the convention. I am really excited for the general election and Ken's future as a politician. I am also glad Ken has stuck to his true conservative values and never waivered to satisfy others.

Take a look at Ken's speech from the convention.

If you have a video of Ken's speech from the Restore Founder's Vision dinner let me know because I would love to post it on here. I have been unable to find it on YouTube so far.

The last person I'd like to talk about is Melvin Williams. Melvin is running for retiring Delegate William Fralin's seat in the 17th District. The primary is June 9th and I'd really like you all to consider giving Melvin your vote. Melvin is an attorney at Grimes & Williams, P.C., specializing in litigation of civil and criminal matters in the state and federal courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Melvin also has served as an interim Pastor at the Church of the Holy Spirit – The River, in Blacksburg, Virginia. He is a great guy and another bright, young face in the future of the Republican Party. He was another guy I had been looking forward to meeting this weekend but had not been able to meet for the same reasons I hadn't been able to meet Senator Cuccinelli. I was very impressed with Melvin. He definitely has the tools to represent the 17th district in Richmond and bring us back to our roots of small government, property rights, and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Check out his recent YouTube video about his social conservative views to get to better know Melvin.