Elections should be about issues and ideas, not endorsements; but many of us at The Bull Elephant want to let our readers know why Denver Riggleman’s candidacy is so important to us. Steve Thomas, Robert Kenyon, and I have been hoping for a change agent to enter the gubernatorial race for well over a year now and we finally have a candidate worth volunteering for and supporting.
Denver Riggleman is a guy just like us. He’s not a career politician. He’s not ambitious for political power. He’s running to change things in Richmond which have negatively affected all of us, strangled our small businesses, marginalized our local governments, and to sign reform legislation to replace laws that have made it harder for average Virginians to find high paying jobs in the Commonwealth.
You can see where Denver Riggleman stands on the issues here, and you can meet Mr. Riggleman this Saturday at Silverback Distillery in Afton, Virginia. I would encourage you to do so. I recognize that Denver is going to need to establish name ID quickly, but I believe once people become acquainted with Denver that they are going to want to support him… Because he supports us.
From Steve Thomas:
So much of the future of the GOP, both locally and nationally, depends on whether we learn the right lessons from 2016. Very few saw Donald Trump coming, yet he did as well in Virginia as he did in Rhode Island as he did in Texas.
That lesson? The American people think both parties are corrupt, they have perverted the system to their own ends so it no longer favors the common man, and they are dominated by soulless politicians whose only interest is personal gain.
That is the lesson we must learn, as a party, to be successful. And to that end, next year’s primaries look like a good test.
Do we nominate a candidate who was a career lobbyist, who authored and promoted the 2007 unconstitutional transportation taxes?
Or does the candidate who has stood up to the state’s most powerful lobbies, at great personal risk, sound like more of what the common man could relate to?
Apparently the people of Virginia agree, because in the most recent survey taken right before the holidays, Mr. Gillespie was mired with less than a quarter of the primary vote despite being the only candidate among the four to run a statewide race (and the only candidate among the four to lose a general election). In that poll, taken before Denver announced, 58% (almost 6 in 10) voters were undecided.
Folks, that’s not electable.
The Commonwealth has problems, serious problems. We were ranked the 4th most corrupt state in the country in 2015, and the last 2 governors have made it clear Richmond is a cesspool of corruption where unseemly behavior is not only tolerated, but encouraged. It is a swamp that needs draining, not managing, my friends.
In the middle of it is Dominion Power, its tall building standing in Richmond like a middle finger pointed at the people of Virginia. The biggest donor to Republicans and Democrats. They donate massive amounts to those who regulate them. And they operate with impunity.
And yet, one man stood up to them: Denver Riggleman. And if he can stand up fearlessly to the most powerful oligopoly in the state, it’s a good bet he could stand up to the powers that be to make the changes that the corrupt Richmond system desperately needs. His liberty-minded and anti-cronyist platform is a perfect fit for Virginia in 2017. His nomination would announce proudly that the Republicans in Virginia have learned the lessons of 2016- even as Democrats now face that very same choice. Â
It’s time to elect the only candidate who will drain the swamp. His folksy style and hefty business contacts will make him a fundraising dynamo among individual donors, ie, the voters he will be beholden to. He would also be a tough candidate to beat in the general, with no baggage to attack, a decorated military service background and impeccable business resume.
It’s time to stop settling. Let’s use this time, this unique moment in our history, to actually change something for the better, to actually protect our liberties instead of negotiate them away, to clean up the putrid mess in Richmond.
Denver Riggleman is our man. We’re in.
Mr. Thomas speaks for many of us who are looking for someone with a record of going toe to toe with the corporatist, special-interest driven agenda which has gone unopposed for decades in Richmond.
Robert Kenyon echoes Mr. Thomas’ position:
We also must stand against the incarnation of corruption and political evil in RPV. Let’s not forget what these folks are about. We need to make an example of this candidate.
Lastly, the candidate who will take, and abandon, any position, or group of supporters, for even temporary political advantage, is not an option for conservatives. One cannot play the populist and feed off the Trump rage and still play ball with PWC developers.
This is the year to take a risk. It’s clear the same old inside baseball won’t solve the Old Dominion’s problems. Radical, authentic change is needed. Denver Riggleman is the only candidate in the race who can offer that.
As for myself, I am supporting Denver Riggleman for Governor because of his positions on School Choice, Tuition Reform, Property Rights, and his unwavering commitment to taking on the Bureaucracy in Richmond. Remember, Governors are not legislators. As Governor, Mr. Riggleman would not be in charge of which laws make it to his desk.
A Governorship is an executive position. I want to elect/hire Denver Riggleman as the CEO of Virginia. I want a Governor who knows how to stand up to special interests, lobbyists, and cronyism. Denver is the only candidate I trust to represent us. Learn about his story and you’ll understand why there is zero chance that Denver would sell us out on behalf of corporate interests. If anyone has the motivation and ability to drain the swamp in Richmond, it’s Denver Riggleman.
Let’s bring prosperity back to Virginia. Let’s make Virginia a great place for business again. Let’s nominate Denver Riggleman for Governor.
59 comments
I am interested in Riggleman, but it is disconcerting to me that Tucker supports him.
Yep, SBT support is not necessarily disqualifying but is a huge red flag.
Also not good news for Riggleman, SBT is developing a Comstock touch for picking winners.
Ahhh, I was just poking SBT, we’re friends. As for Riggleman, he has at least a boxer’s chance. And in the current environment maybe better.
You aren’t kidding.
A Red Flag? Are you calling me a communist? 😉
If the flag fits ,wave it. Comrade.
Ruby – why? I get confused sometimes on how people see me. Is it that I’m too far to the right? Too Libertarian? Too Establishment? Too Liberal? I’ve heard it many different ways.
I don’t think you really want me to say what I think. I tend to be pretty darn blunt about subject matters.
Do you have Riggleman’s scheduler’s email by chance? It isn’t on the website.
I don’t understand why this one salient fact is so hard to process for Republican’s and associated supporters running for state wide office as well as the party itself – IF you can’t pull at least a sizable plurality vote out of Northern Virginia and the urban tidewater area you just have NO chance to win a general election today. How many times do you need to be clubbed before this reality sinks in?
Corey Steward has some small chance as he comes with an existing installed base in the northern tier, Gillespie less then Steward given the post Trump election events and that is likely shrinking, Riggleman the distiller from a rural unincorporated community in Albemarle and Nelson counties in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with no political experience or connections per se into these urban areas has absolutely no chance, a pipe dream to waste a vote on
This “isn’t” a local district election where an unknown can just step in and carry the day aka Brat, this is the belly of the beast, and you need to be somewhat competitive in the heart of the state’s Democratic areas of urban control to even begin to consider winning anything. Just forget political posturing and try to think rationally on only one issue and that is WHO has any chance to win given these “real” circumstances on the ground?
That three local political bloggers believe some candidate is the penultimate choice for governor is simply and totally irrelevant to that reality IF he has no shot of winning the general election given the current state of conditions necessary to accomplish the feat.
This may be painful for some to incorporate but if your end goal is to win (and I frankly doubt that is always the bottom line for some) then you need to place your bets on the entry that has some likely shot at succeeding given the existing track. If you want to constantly bet on the long shot you may want to get a grip on why they are called that as “the long shot hardly ever winsâ€. The perfect candidate that can’t win is like the perfect plan that won’t work, it’s useless unless your end goal is to just continue to be ineffective.
A guy born and raised in Manassas and with deep ties in the Defense and DOD Contracting community (and still consults for the Pentagon) cannot do well in NOVA? Interesting theory.
Workplace employment and past domicile is NOT political influence on the ground in 2017, if you don’t understand that I can’t help you and I doubt you will be of much assistance to your candidate either. All he will achieve in my opinion in these areas is to siphon off a small but possibly significant number of votes from Stewart and Gillespie and further fractionalize any small chance the party may have of recapturing the governorship. Nice entry for your resume post Brat and the Democrats will be most appreciative of the effort going into the general.
Zach, we should look into this Steward character.
Beneath you.
Probably.
Mr. Riggleman Goes Back to Washington?
More connectED??
If the candidate with the most “political experience” and “connections” wins, Jeb Bush would be our President Elect. I don’t see any harm in getting a newcomer in the mix to test his support, though I agree Riggleman is a long shot with zero name recognition (not that Northam or Perriello are great household names in Virginia either).
If Stewart and / or Gillespie can win the nomination, I’ll happily support either one of them. But in the meantime, I’d like to see Riggleman make a real contest with his interesting platform, until a stronger candidate proves they can beat him.
It has nothing to do with Bush whose issues were “within” the Republican Party itself, the issue here is who can pull all (or at least the vast majority) of that Republican support PLUS attracting the urban independents and a few crossover Dem votes to carry Virginia statewide. Two completely different situations all together. There was a reason Trump couldn’t carry Virginia and one significant (but not likely only) reason was he simply didn’t generate enough moderate Republican and independent votes in the urban areas to compete against the Democratic Hillary base.
We need to get out of the “interesting platform mode” and into the who has a real shot at competing and winning mode or frankly just accept potential long term minority political status in Virginia. This Riggleman effort is just spinning your wheels on a low probability candidate event that will never come to fruition. I find it pointless but grant others may well not be as sick of recurring defeat at the state level as I am.. How many spins on the wheel do you believe we have left if winning is your priority and without that “first” statewide win (pushing a decade now) NO wheels will EVER be set in motion for a party statewide election recovery strategy to even begin..
You usually make a lot of sense, but this argument that we have to dismiss Riggleman because he just can’t win is nonsense. That’s the kind of thinking that got the Democrats in trouble by ramrodding Clinton through as a coronation. No one knows who can win until the candidates are tested. And what difference does it make if Cruz supporters like Riggleman? Cruz supporters discovered that Cruz wasn’t a good enough candidate, and most of them ended up supporting Trump after all. Yes the Nevers were a big useless pain in the ass, but fortunately most Republicans came around. The Republicans had seventeen candidates and it didn’t seem to hurt them one bit. It actually helped. I see no reason why Virginia can’t show a little more diverse thinking with four or five candidates for governor. Republicans will do the right thing and pick the best candidate in the end. There is no need to start another Never movement against Riggleman. If you don’t like him, support another candidate and let it go.
I don’t know the man so I hardly have an opinion on him personally my only base position here is that this is NOT a national presidential primary, this is not a local district state race, this IS a race with well known and proven voter demographics in a well defined blue state with a very, very, very narrow path to any chance at statewide Republican election success as thoroughly demonstrated by over a decade of abject failure by candidate after candidate from both the establish, the right and even with the emerging Trump movement.
If you want to disavowal those realities that is your call but I have no empirical belief or faith that Riggleman has any chance to win such a structured contest so the reality for me is certainly not never Riggleman it’s more that our best shot is to focus this to a clear two man primary race between Gillespie and Stewart who represent two very distinct choices for the voters and leave the wannabes the opportunity to run when we have secured a foothold in statewide office again. You can afford spoilers when you have some semblance of party control at the statewide level, until then they just contribute to more defeat. The conservative right needs to get back to the voter main stream, align themselves with candidates that can win under the present circumstances in the state or accept becoming a minority splinter that continues to produce nothing.
I agree that Riggleman is a longshot. I’ll also add that there isn’t much time left for a newcomer to get traction for a primary five months from now, nor an election in ten months. I also understand that Virginia is blue. I wonder if a Republican can win under any circumstances. Where I differ with you is the idea that Republicans must chase the moderate vote. I’m not so sure that a Republican moderate can win anymore, because moving to the left just disgusts the huge number of people that think the left has already gone far too crazy leftward, and they want that craziness stopped.
It’s better to move orthogonally, ala Trump. It’s better to run against the craziness of both left and right. I’m not sure Gillespie is up to it. Neither am I confident in Stewart. I’d like to hear more from Riggleman. I hope it doesn’t fracture the party; I understand the difficulty in getting the right plurality to emerge from a four candidate primary. But if you are right that Stewart and Gillespie are the only two that can win, then they will quickly turn the primary into a two man race anyway, maybe even an outright majority.
All excellent points.
Actually, according to the Mason-Dixon poll today, Denver already has 25% name recognition. Same as Wagner. Ironically, despite having already run a statewide race, Ed still has 25% of primary voters who have no idea who he is.
God what baloney
He was just pointing out that Name ID wasn’t as big of an issue as Frank was worried about.
First, to nitpick your comment, penultimate means “the one next to the last” — probably not what you meant. That not withstanding, if Trump quickly starts accomplishing things (l think he will) , I believe it will give an outsider like Riggleman an advantage.
No nitpick you are quite correct meant ultimate and used wrong word, thanks for catching the error, I corrected it above.
Please tell me more of these Horatio Bunce-like luminaries and the political wisdom experience, and savvy they bring to the table.
IOW, who are these people and why should I care?
I don’t know Denver Riggleman, but I have been watching him closely, and I like what I see so far. I sent my first donation to him immediately after his announcement.
I am not against Gillespie. I would vote for Gillespie, if he becomes the nominee. But I like Riggleman’s clear thinking and straightforward language. He also appears to be the kind of guy that will fight hard enough to win. He reminds me of another dark horse that won recently.
I won’t be bad mouthing Gillespie during this primary. I won’t be bad mouthing Stewart either… nor Wagner. After a long 2016, I believe it’s time to at least try to simply advocate for what we want and who we want, without targeting and ripping other candidates and one another. I’m cautiously optimistic for a positive and uplifting Gubernatorial primary.
A long-long-long 2016. That year needed to die faster.
You aren’t kidding.
You know, I fear the TBE has made me jaded, when I read the first sentence of your comment, what do you think my immediate response was?
BTW, only way we will be getting a positive and uplifting primary is if we are high to begin with.
Good to see active debate and awesome conservatives like Denver trying to make a difference for our great Commonwealth.
Ed Gillespie is as conservative, and qualified, as they come, and to read the same false “career lobbyist” attacks that Mark Warner used is beneath Denver, and should also be beneath his supporters. We’re better than that.
I look forward to a great race. Let’s not get bogged down in the same personal attacks between primary candidates that destroyed Trump’s chances in Virginia. Obviously, the Virginia electorate wants better than that.
I won’t go negative on Ed. He’s shown he understands that he needs conservatives on his team.
Wait for it…
Obvious troll is obvious.
Not always so obvious.
“He’s shown he understands that he needs conservatives on his team”
Yes, now why is that? Is it like a token or set-aside?
Ed’s a swell guy, signed the petition, signed the side of the RV. He is probably one of the most conservative establishment guys.
I would prefer an established conservative rather than look at Ed wearing the coat made from 101 conservatives.
But I’m still not seeing his path to McAuliffe House.
As opposed to being a conservative and understanding he needs others on his team. Ed just smacks of Jeb! and I can do without that.
Ed is Virginia small business owner and NOT a lobbyist. He’s been focused on the issues that matter to real Virginians from the beginning. Let’s not simply focus on tearing down fellow Republicans (unless we want to lose). Instead, let’s follow Ed’s lead and focus on conservative policy issues.
Best I can determine he’s associated with 2 “small businesses”:
Quinn Gillespie & Associates = Lobbying firm
Ed Gillespie Strategies = “Strategic consulting firm providing high level advice to corporations”, which sounds like 3rd party lobbying.
Am I missing anything here? Does he also own a plumbing supply company or something legitimate?
Why don’t you tell everybody who it is that is writing the Trumpcare plan?
Oh, you want me too? Ok, for those who do not know, the healthcare/health insurance, drug company lobby will be writing the new Trumpcare plan.
So, you had visions of hardworking members of congress staying up all night with their staff, eating cold pizza, sweating out the details now did you?
Nope, they ain’t doing s–t when the camera is turned the other way.
In other words, the same people who wrote ObamaCare. Doesn’t surprise me one bit.
Yep.
Watching Ryan on CNN answer questions about healthcare right now. It’s all BS. Lies.
If government is going to finance healthcare via tax credits, keep the pre-existing and stay on your parents policy until 26, why not keep Obamacare, and let government pay for it?
Obama was correct when he said healthcare will bankrupt this entire country.
The Republicans do not have any idea or plan to replace Obamacare. They got nothing. Yesterday and today, Sen. Paul and Speaker Ryan did not even mention free market ideas.
They got nothing. Unless you count lies.
Look, Barbara Comstock has been and will be leading the charge of repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Look, it could be worse, he could be a lawyer.
Aidan, I’m with you 100% – but he was a lobbyist and a “party-man”, two things many Republicans find distasteful right now. That should not disqualify him however. I look forward to some great debates on ideas and policy initiatives. I think Denver and Ed will elevate these discussions.
Wait a min..who the hell is Steven Tucker??! Lol j/k GO DENVER!
hahaha (well, he’s not the devil. That’s already been established. Though I hear there is litigation over trademarks).
I haven’t picked a candidate to support yet, but Denver Riggleman wins the name game.
At least as unique and memorable as Tarek Salehi and Shak Hill.
I was very disappointed when I found out that Shak Hill wasn’t a 7ft tall black man.
lol
Or that he doesn’t actually sell propane and propane accessories.
Ha! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/464177f075d9d566ed2c5adfc4ce04638bdb1d6d5be55e9b684fe4ff771f1cd8.jpg
When talking about unique names, let us not forget the most unique name of them all, Barrack Obama…….
Not that unique, not true dubs, he’s a II, not a Jr.
Might just as well be the son of Foxtrot Mike Delta.