Ed Gillespie piles up Delegates, while Shak Hill just now announces Staff.
In dueling blast emails yesterday, both major candidates for the GOP nod to take on incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Warner heralded major developments for their respective campaigns. Gillespie struck first, with an announcement that his campaign had already signed up over 1,000 Delegates to the Republican State Convention, where GOP activists from around the state will gather in Roanoke to choose the nominee in June.
Over the weekend, Ed’s campaign for U.S. Senate reached a significant milestone. In one month on the trail, we’ve recruited over 1,000 delegates to support Ed at the June 7th Republican Party of Virginia Convention in Roanoke. This is a huge sign of the momentum behind Ed.
Join them by signing up to be a delegate today: http://edforsenate.com/delegate/Folks are excited about this campaign. They speak about the energy & enthusiasm Ed brings to this race. Virginians are ready for Senator Mark Warner to have a serious challenge this year — and Ed is doing just that.
Conservatives are uniting behind Ed and we would like to see more Virginians of all walks be a part of his campaign. Please continue to direct people to www.EdForSenate.com and encourage them to get involved with the campaign.
Hooff Cooksey
Statewide Field Director
Ed Gillespie for Senate
This is an impressive showing at perhaps the most crucial time of the campaign: before most local GOP committees have their mass meetings to select Delegates to the Convention. What it means is that the Gillespie campaign has been working the phones and the shoe leather to identify, meet, persuade, and spur into action a number of delegates likely to be 25% or more of what they need to secure victory on the first ballot (assuming these Delegates actually show up in Roanoke).
Meanwhile, in what can only be described as an unfortunate coincidence of timing, the Shak Hill campaign released an email shortly after Gillespie’s was hitting Republican inboxes that touted not the successes they’ve had at recruiting Delegates, but that the Hill campaign had finally recruited the staff who will recruit the Delegates. For what it’s worth, Gillespie’s staff announcement came nearly a month ago, on January 21.
The good news for Shak? He’s assembled a great team, with some very solid and respected players in Virginia conservative circles, including Chris Shores, Chris Farmer, Meg Jaworowski, and finance guy Steve Thomas:
Christopher Shores, Campaign Director
Christopher brings over 20 years of local, state-wide, and Congressional race experience to the team. He has worked for numerous conservative candidates in both paid and volunteer experiences beginning as a young volunteer with Mike Fariss for Lt. Govenor in 1993. Christopher has also worked as legislative aide at the State Senate of Virginia. He has served several terms as the Chairman of the Cumberland County unit committee and is currently serving in his third term as a State Central Committee representative from the Fifth Congressional District.
Chris Farmer, Political Director
Chris Farmer is a veteran of Northern Virginia political campaigns at all levels. He is an active member of several Republican clubs in Fairfax County. Last election cycle Chris helped the statewide candidates as a Field Director in North/Central Virginia.
Steve Thomas, Director of Finance Committee
Steve has long been active in Conservative Republican politics and is a veteran of Seventh District politics. Most recently he served as Finance Director in the EW Jackson campaign for Lt Governor, where he led in raising a record number of small contributors in a statewide race.
Meg Jaworowski, Director of Scheduling
Meg worked recently at Americans For Prosperity as a Field Director coordinating grassroots activities in eastern Virginia. She lives in Fredericksburg with her husband and children.
Larry Ward, Director of Social Media
Larry is a communications professional who has worked on a large variety of campaigns. He is the president of Political Media, Inc.
John Clark, Speech Writer
John has published numerous articles and books relating to home schooling and the life of Catholic parents.
Given the tight turnarounds involved, most local committees have chosen to schedule their mass meetings in March, so this means the Delegate field is still wide open for both camps. But it appears Gillespie, so far, has taken a significant early lead.
