Former Cantor consultant and long-time GOP insider Ray Allen has weighed in publicly on the impending primary contest between Virginia House Speaker Bill Howell and former lieutenant governor candidate Susan Stimpson. Allen’s sage contribution to the discussion? “Howell will beat Stimpson like a rented mule.” [read_more]
The quote was published earlier today in a story by the Washington Post’s Jenna Portnoy. The Post article confirms news broken by The Bull Elephant on Sunday indicating that Stimpson is set to challenge Howell in a primary for the GOP nomination for the 28th district House of Delegates District seat in Stafford and Fredericksburg.
Politics ain’t beanbag, and certainly in primary contests against entrenched incumbents there are going to be inflamed tempers. That said, I do find this kind of rhetoric troubling.
It’s not that Ray Allen doesn’t know anything on the subject of jackasses and getting beaten badly (in fact, I’d say he’s pretty much a well-educated expert on both topics). But really? The woman candidate is a rented mule? To be beaten and abused? I expected better of a supposedly professional consultant who was last seen not doing a very good job at keeping a low profile around Barbara Comstock’s campaign, which benefited greatly from such less-than-fully-thought-out verbiage from John Foust. I can only hope this isn’t a sign of even more callous and degrading things to come, but if last year’s LG race is any indication, it’s probably only going to get worse.
But the real critique here is less about the attitude behind the diction and more about the arrogance of the message. Only a fool thinks that even the strongest incumbent is invulnerable (for example: “‘We’re going to win by a much stronger margin… our internal polling shows that,” said Ray Allen in reaction to a pre-election poll that had his client up by just 12 points). One might have hoped he’d learned a lesson about public hyperbole.
This is a district where both candidates have very deep roots, and a good track record at winning elections. The Speaker is surely the conventional favorite here, but the smart money is on a much closer race than Ray Allen apparently expects.
68 comments
Isn’t Ray Allen the one who told us Comstock was going to amend her financial report? Did she have to amend her tax forms also?
Ray Allen apologized for his comment, that in itself, is a first.
I hope Ray Allen trips on his way to the toilet, falling and losing control of his bowels, and spraying corn laden diarrhea up his back.
Ray Allen was trying to imitate James Carville. Fell flat. Now we will all remember Ray Allen as the “Jackass Whisperer”
[…] Albertson of The Bull Elephant has […]
I am pleased to report that the House Republican Caucus press spokesman Matt Moran had this to say on his personal Twitter account immediately after we posted our story last night:
“That quote is reprehensible. Divisive comments/attitudes like that feed liberal media narrative that our party is divided & fractured.”
https://twitter.com/mmoran0226/status/533069738633867264
Good for him. I hope he speaks for his boss, and the rest of the caucus. Let’s keep this race clean and issue-oriented.
Can we have a poll? Howell, Stimson, and who else?
Why not let people ask Stimpson how she would vote on budget increases, tax increases, and other fiscal issues? What would she cut?What would she do different than Howell?
Since this is a GOP forum, everybody is making some semblance of sense. First, I agree with Max Shapiro. This was not a misogynistic utterance, but rather gender-neutral, political smack talk. It does us no good when we start acting like PC progressives. Second, while I do not doubt the Bill Howell, in his own way, works hard for the voters of VA, his style is reminiscent of the old House GOP Minority Leader, Bob Michel. Nice guy, but basically let the Democrats run all over him. But Mr. Howell has no excuse. He presides over a majority. So, in my view, he should ensure that every penny of every tax dollar ostensibly raised to finance transportation, should go to that end, and only that end. If the law prevents such a channeling of tax funds, then he should have changed the damn law. I am tired of GOP leaders allowing Democrats to employ Jedi Mind Tricks and get away with (pun intended) highway robbery. Third, while Speaker Howell can raise money for incumbent Republicans locked in close races, the gerrymandered districts ensure a solid Republican majority for well over a decade. We need a fighter NOW – not a defender of the status quo. I will work tirelessly for the type of representative I know Susan Stimpson will be. It is up to the Howellista’s such as Ike Eisenhower to do likewise for their guy.
What was the name of Ray Allens partner? Ummm.. Oh darn.
1st off, I’m no fan of Susan Stimpson. But with that being said – how stupid is Ray Allen? Oh yes, he’s the guy who swore up and down that Cantor would win by 30%, while anyone in the know in the 7th District could see that people were fed up with business as usual.
And didn’t we go through an election phase where we insisted that GOP candidates AND THEIR IMMEDIATE STAFF NOT SAY ANYTHING STUPID?
Talking about beating a woman like a rented mule? How pitiful can one be?
So basically anything derogatory said against a candidate who happens to be a woman is by default a sexist statement? That’s basically your argument here and that is in and of itself sexist. Men can be beaten like a rented mule just like a woman can. Its still a nasty thing to say, but no one does themselves any favors when they take every negative statement in the absolute worst way possible. Stimpson’s campaign did that during the LG campaign and look where it got her. 2nd place on the first ballot and then downhill after that because she was a lot of people’s first choice, but not nearly as many peoples’ second, third, fourth choice etc..
Yea, well Speaker HB 2313 Howell beats the taxpayer for more like a rented mule now doesn’t he?
Isn’t that the real point?
I think the taxpayers beat themselves by not demanding the GA shift dedicated revenue streams to transportation from wherever else was necessary. Transportation is a core function of government, it absolutely had to be funded at higher levels than it had been in the past. Therefore the amount of tax revenue going to transportation had to be raised. Personally I think the tax increases should have been offset elsewhere, but the argument that taxes for transportation didn’t have to be raised doesn’t have a mathematical leg to stand on. If we didn’t increase the taxes directed towards the Transportation Trust Fund and/or redirect new dedicated income streams, we would have lost matching Federal funds within the next few years and our roads would literally start collapsing and falling apart.
I did demand, he (they) do not listen. You want to place the blame for HB 2313 on the taxpayer, instead of where it belongs. Speaker Howell. Typical Republican tactics, blame the other guy for what you are doing!
The taxpayers put Howell in office to make responsible decisions. Such as move money around, instead of raising taxes as you say. Translation, make spending cuts.
But instead, Howell raised taxes. So, I the taxpayer now demand Howell ‘s replacement.
You, along with others who read these comments refuse to name one fiscally conservative budget, or legislative fiscal cut that Howell ever made?
Also, contrary to what Republicans think, higher education is NOT an entitlement!
One question that Howell needs to answer is when does he plan to start making campaign commercials for the Democrats like John Chichester did?
The taxpayers elected conservatives, and I’m not talking about Howell, that refused to either raise taxes directly or get rid of corporate welfare to raise revenue. I don’t view it as conservative at all to oppose closing tax loopholes that distort the free market on the basis that it will raise taxes for someone. It’s not a real tax increase if the person didn’t deserve the special corporate welfare tax provision to begin with.
I don’t like Speaker Howell much either, but in order to stay Speaker, he needs the support of the majority of his caucus. Until someone challenges him for Speaker, replacing him as an elected official won’t change the dynamic.
And as for the increase in cost of government as far as I know, and someone please correct me if I’m wrong, most, if not all, of the increases, prior to the transportation tax increase and after the last set of state level tax increases, have to do with increased Federal pass through spending, like for Medicaid and Education. It’s not Howell’s fault that the Federal government keeps raising taxes and sending more money to the states to dole out in welfare programs.
Conservatives make cuts, if the taxpayer’s elected conservatives, then where are the cuts? If what you say is true, the Feds made me do it, then what difference does it make whether we elect Republicans or Democrats?
If what you say is true why could McAuliffe make budget cuts 2 months ago due to revenue shortages? Why did it take a Democrat governor to force the Republicans to make budget cuts?
HB 2313 never was about transportation. It was a tax increase for growing government.
Why is it that people like Comstock run on going to Washington to cut federal spending, but yet while in Virginia government, they thrived on spending the Fed money?
Does Howell need to enjoy the support of his caucus, or, more importantly, James Beamer? Who really runs Virginia Government?
Is the name of Howell ‘ s PAC really just a coinsidence?
No argument there. I’m just saying, this is a really complicated situation and a lot of people are trying to oversimplify it. I guess my overarching point is that while Howell is definitely not living up to conservative standards, he consistently demonstrates he understands all the complexities and while I disagree with his decisions, he is at least looking at the big picture and trying to move things in some direction. My problem with Stimpson (since she ran for LG and underwent a political makeover) has always been that she either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care about the fact of political life that if you can’t get something passed, however imperfect, then we get stuck with the status quo, which is far more imperfect, in terms of the transporation funding situation. In other cases there are clearly times when doing nothing is better than doing something. We can’t afford to elect leaders that would prefer to do nothing and let problems get worse to prove a point. The votes didn’t exist to cut spending enough to properly fund transportation, so what was Howell supposed to do? Just let us lose Federal funding and have our rode system collapse and kill any future economic growth for the state?
(edit) There is certainly a case to be made that had Howell acted over years to cut the budget and grow the economy that we could have funded transportation without increasing taxes. But that didn’t happen. I wish it did, but we have to deal with the problems we have now and that required a solution that could actually pass and get signed into law.
I’d be willing to read any articles or watch any videos detailing how Howell made the case that raising taxes was not conservative or good, but that he was forced to do it. Anything that showed his regret in passing it, but acknowledging it was the right thing to do. Can you share with me that deep regret and his clear indication that what he was doing was wrong, but necessary?
That might help those unconvinced that raising taxes was the only option.
I have no idea if anything like that exists for Howell, its possible, and I agree it would go along way. What I wrote was just my opinion of what happened. We never should have let our budget priorities get so out of whack and I completely agree that most of the blame for that can be put on Speaker Howell. But I really do think that if you look at the math, you will see that at the point in time the decision was made, raising taxes was the only option. Now that being said, the way he went about it, in terms of what taxes he raised, was definitely not the only option. I think Conservatives too often make the case that we shouldn’t fully fund core functions of government because we are wasting too much money on things that aren’t core functions. Sure, you can have a debate about what fully funding things like education or law enforcement means, but in terms of transportation, there was no argument to be made that we were anywhere close to fulfilling our obligations.
How do you respond to a Republican Delegate with a very high Conservative rating, who voted no to HB 2313, and said it was twice the amount needed for transportation? This was at a town hall meeting just after the 2013 session ended. There seemed to be an overwhelming, unanimous ,negative response at that meeting to HB 2313.
Howell and Norment need to go, that is what it is. The question is will their replacement be any better?
Regarding real ethics reform, that includes all members of Virginia government, who is blocking that? It cannot be the Democrats.
What would be different with Cox?
To completely honest, in my opinion, we don’t need ethics reform, at least as far as conflicts of interest are concerned. What we need is actual enforcement. Cuccinelli and Herring both turned a blind eye towards enforcing Conflict of Interest laws. Commonwealths Atty’s across the state do the same thing. Look at Will Sessoms. Notwithstanding the fact that Stolle has the same legal conflicts of interest that Sessoms has in regards to Towne Bank, he could have chosen to prosecute Sessoms at anytime because he has always known what he was doing was against the law. All the laws in the world don’t mean anything if the people we elect to enforce them won’t do their jobs. The Virginia State Police requested Cuccinelli to sign off on a criminal investigation into Harvey Bryant, the Commonwealths Atty before Colin Stolle in Virginia Beach, for witness and jury tampering, and he refused.
Of course the out-of-order reading of the results had nothing to do with the subsequent votes. Of course.
I wasn’t there, but I’ve talked about the situation with Jared Hendrix, Susans HR Regional Director and Mike Cogar, who had the same job for Snyder. think it definitely influenced some votes, but the number of votes influenced are directly related to how many delegates placed electoral viability above principles and policy positions. So to claim that it had a large influence is to say Susan’s supporters and those who had her as a potential 2nd, 3rd, 4th choice, etc.. cared more about her ability to win than what she stood for. Maybe that’s the case, maybe not. I know I asked Jared what he thought since he knew most of the delegates personally through the whole process, but I can’t remember what his exact opinion was.
Do you all ever get tired of your vitriolic rhetoric? For starters, I imagine none of you know Speaker Howell and those few of you that do don’t know him well. He is a very humble man who has worked hard for Virginia. Let’s not forget that Susan Stimpson got her start in politics because of Bill Howell.
Furthermore, you all worship this woman as though she is the second coming of Barry Goldwater. Before deciding to run for Lt. Governor, she had done nothing for the Virginia “conservative movement” and was a little known supervisor in Stafford County. Suddenly, she sends out a few e-mails whipping people up over Medicaid Expansion and HB 2313 and she is the conservative darling? Give me a break…
Ray Allen should not have said what he did. Quite frankly, I agree with the assessment that he is not in a position to make such comments given the humiliating defeat he experienced earlier this year. But, I am amazed at how all of you just blindly follow Stimpson…Its pathetic.
In a year when the Democrats will pour resources all over Virginia and imperil our majorities in the House and Senate, you all would prefer to occupy the leader of the Republicans with a nuisance primary versus let him raise money and work for other incumbents who might be vulnerable in order to protect the House majority. This is the very definition of biting your nose off to spite your face.
As it is, I hope the Speaker runs and wins big and sends Susan Stimpson back to Stafford County where she can continue to engage in her nasty, incorrect hyperbole.
Oh, overlook all the damage the “humble” Speaker HB2313 Howell has done to the middle-class with,
1) HIS tax increase, HB 2313. Stand up and take responsibility Speaker Howell for the largest tax increase in Virginia history on the middle-class!
2) HIS support of CORRUPTION in Virginia politics by flat out refusing ethics reform. Virginia, 47th in the nation in ethics in government. Thanks Bill!
3) HIS massive budget increases to finance more big spending, bigger government. A 10% increase in the current budget over last year’s 2014 budget. In a flat, nearly 0 growth economy.
4) His job killing, anti-middle class .05 gas tax.
5) Is the name of his PAC a coinsidence? Really?
6) Name anything since 2010 that Speaker HB2313 has done that would indicate he is a fiscal Conservative? And really, let’s not argue about MEDX Expansion. I am waiting???
The question is what is your connection?
Exactly. The “loyalty over results” crowd needs to be marginalized. I don’t care if a legislator is a “humble, good person” if they are slowly easing a knife into the backs of taxpayers. The days of looking the other way because “your team” commits the foul are about over.
Don’t all State Republicans look the other way? Or are all of the focused on Obama? I appears that many State Republicans are just like Obama 1/2 American,
you know how the ” cohesive severe lack of intellect ” allow illegal aliens to violate state law operating illegal business and illegal employers. Obama will grant 2.5 Million Amnesty to the { public } protest of Va. Republicans all while the Republican Legislative Majority will sit on their hands and do nothing and fertilize the underground labor market fostered by the previous Republican Administration.
Yup how can a state Republican blame Obama when they have not stepped up and enforced Va. Law. We can agree we have a problem with a do nothing Congress and Senate , the do nothing Rep. gets his start in the do nothing General Assemblies all over the Country .
I am saddened that Ray Allen is considered a long time operative in the Republican party. Really? We as a party are better than that. His arrogance and dismissal of Susan (or other challengers) should be considered a bell-weather of outcomes. (How did that Cantor race turn out for you, Ray?)
Ray Allen should look up the character traits of a mule. They are smart (smarter than their parents), know how to pace themselves, have more stamina than a donkey (yep, a metaphor), and have a very long life span.
Ray Allen is jumpy as a long tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs. More good ole boy Va politics.. One of ’em will lie and the other one’ll swear to it.
The “war on women”, lives.
Poor Ray..he was cryin’ and slingin’ snot the night Cantor won.. I mean he got paid and Cantor lost anyway..
Not only is the veiled threat of violence against women inappropriate, but flippantly dismissing animal abuse is unconscionable.
Ray Allen couldn’t pull a fat baby off a tricycle. Just saying’.
This is Outrageous Outrage, Steve. Do you truly think that Allen was equating Susan Stimpson to a mule? Where was this Outrage against George Allen’s “knock their soft teeth down their whiny throats” comment?
You could do much better than this.
Bruce, just who’s payroll you on?
SouthsideCentral’s payroll. And it ain’t enough.
Does one of the Dominion’s own or control them?
Nah. I used to work for Dominion though. Three points for that.
Bruce, I didn’t go over the top with faux outrage on this, but you have to admit the comment is a bit degrading. A political professional like Ray Allen should know better—even in an offhand comment—to avoid crap like this. But, like I said in the post, the biggest problem with the remark is its arrogance in assuming invulnerability. One would think he would have learned his lesson on that, but apparently not.
I expect we will see a lot more of this type of angst emanating from the RPV’s paid political consulting class (hopefully less offensive) especially if the new chair undertakes a serious consultant divestiture program which is long overdue given the results they have produced and as their support base continues to erode.
No. It’s political trash-talk. It’s the same as when I played hockey. You start the game on your side of the red line and face your opponent. I’ve been known to give a cold stare and say “I’m gonna kick your ass.” The idea is to unnerve your opponent just enough so that you can catch him off guard on the opening play. The center wins the faceoff, defenseman passes back to the center, he makes a perfect pass to me on the right wing, and I one-time it into the top right corner of the net. I’m risking a 2-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, but it’s worth that risk.
Fair enough. Consider the apology we forced from Ray to be that two-minute power play.
Anybody can say what they want, but this thread and the subsequent comments prove that all is not well with Speaker Howell’s performance, and his “signature” tax increase.
You see, President Obama has the ACA (ObamaCare) as his signature accomplishment while President.
Speaker Howell, now he has the LARGEST TAX INCREASE in Virginia history on the middle-class, his HB 2313, as his “Signature” accomplishment while Speaker!!!!!!!!!
I intend to “tattoo” HB 2313 to his political soul as long he is in office. You own HB 2313 Speaker Howell!
Do your Party a favor Speaker Howell, Resign!
Think I’ll run this one by Bobby Orr and see how unnerved he was by face-off trash talk or the risk of 2 minutes in the penalty box by professional bad behavior. I think they call it bush league Bruce and that’s Ray Allen to a tee (or in this case I guess to a puck).
When you do that, ask him about how he got along with Pat Quinn. My professional hockey experience was limited to a 5-day contract with the Madison Monsters because they were below the minimum team roster number. One goal though, scored when I was flat on my back on the ice seeing stars. Somehow, the puck ricocheted off my skate, hit the post, bounced off the goalie’s butt and trickled over the line. But that’s another story…
I believe we use to call those in Boston “Benders”, players not the shot that is.
yep. same in soccer
OMG, please spare us the tortured metaphor.
Susan Stimpson in 15′! A campaign of hope for a “better tomorrow in Virginia today!”
Stay focused!
The only person not talking about Susan Stimpson’s alleged campaign venture is Susan Stimpson herself. I get suspicious when things like that happen.
Really, “only person”, what is the tax raising Howell himself saying about the campaign?
Or, are you counting his lieutenants coming out of the woodwork like little cockroaches on the floor, the same as the Anti-Ethics Speaker HB2313 Howell himself speaking?
Um… yeah. I’m pretty sure that Howell is getting his own version of bug spray ready.
Come primary time, the voters may become “kryptonite” to “The Superman of higher taxes, big spending, and big government”! Bad mannered Speaker Howell!
You mean Bill “TaxMaster” Howell. We need to be accurate here please.
Virginia Gasoline Price
2.559 +
.050 “Howell Tax”
——–
2.609
http://www.virginia.org/Listings/PlacesToStay/FortValleyStableHorseMuleCampgroundRentals/ This looks like the best place to rent a mule in Virginia. I hope they don’t let Ray near their animals.
Ray reminds me of the jackass whisperer.
I am enlisting in Susan’s army of Stimpson Stumpers to work tirelessly to Cantorize this Go-Along-To-Get Along Speaker.
Normal people have a filter that prevents this kind of random misogynistic utterance. Perhaps this is just a brilliant ploy by Allen to make people think he is nuts so they underestimate him.
Or maybe he really is just nuts…
He sure needs his head checked!
Just like we underestimated him in the Cantor meltdown. He is so transparent and spiteful. He has not learned to treat opponents with respect.
The only “rented mule” here is Ray Allen. 7th District voters rejected Allen’s union-boss style of politics and if the voters of Stafford do the same, more power to them.
Gonna slap Howell so hard when he quits rollin’ his clothes’ll be outta style.
That may be true, but the 7th district voters (including myself) are going to realize real soon just how much worse their decision will prove to be.
No, they’re not. As a 7th District voter I couldn’t be happier that Cantor and Cobb are out of a job in politics.
Only time will tell.