Sen. Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach)
“Slating” is the parliamentary trick whereby supporters of one candidate strip the votes away from the people supporting his opponent. In Virginia Beach, that means that if Wagner’s allies in his fight to become chairman of RPV’s Second District are successful, then 100% of the delegate votes from Virginia Beach will go for Wagner. And, because the vote in Virginia Beach constitutes fully 64% of the vote at the Second District convention, that means Wagner would win the election by disenfranchising anyone who is not on his preferred slate of delegates. The Second District Convention would essentially become moot.
When called out on this last week, Wagner was dismissive, and said that if the Virginia Beach mass meeting being held tonight decides to slate off people he doesn’t like that he’s just fine with that. In fact, it appears that his allies are maneuvering to try to jump the gun on delegate votes by turning out all their supporters early tonight so that they can slow down late registrations and have the vote to slate even before their opponents have been allowed to join the meeting!
As a reminder, Wagner was the member of the General Assembly this year that was leading the charge to abolish conventions altogether ostensibly because Department of Defense regulations excluded participation by active duty military. Wagner has now exposed himself as, at the very least, a hypocrite, as the practice of slating in Virginia Beach will make certain that not only will no military be present at the Second District convention, their representative voices will not be heard either when his allies deny them the right to be represented by others at the convention. Of course, this doesn’t hurt just the military…there are potentially several hundred people who will be effectively disenfranchised by this despicable move.
There is one way to stop this, folks, and that is to turn out to the Virginia Beach mass meeting tonight. Get there early, and don’t leave until the issue is settled in favor of full representation of all voices. If you’re a registered voter in Virginia Beach, be at Frank Cox High School, 2425 Shorehaven Dr. tonight. Registration opens at 5:00 PM and DOORS CLOSE PROMPTLY at 7:00 PM—so get there early so Wagner’s allies cannot lock you out of the meeting by slowing down the registration process.
If you so desire, you may reach Sen. Wagner at 757-438-0900, 757-671-2250 or 804-698-7507, or via email at district07@senate.virginia.gov to let him know what you think of this despicable, vile, and underhanded tactic to shut out the legitimate voices of hundreds of Virginia Beach Republicans.
