This Saturday, April 29th, Delegate Will Morefield will try to survive a Mass Meeting against community-supported Bob Altizer. Very little has been written about this race and I think I can understand why. Delegate Morefield hasn’t done anything of note since taking office in 2010. Delegate Morefield boasts an impressive list of establishment endorsements from Republican Leadership who, as best I can tell, have absolutely no reason not to love Morefield’s obsequious presence as a Yes vote for whatever leadership asks for.
In speaking with folks in Delegate Morefield’s district, I was a little bit surprised that hardly any of them knew who he was. After a looking into this race, I’m now willing to bet that there are more than a handful of delegates in the General Assembly who don’t know who Mr. Morefield is or what he stands for. Over the past 4 General Assembly sessions, Delegate Morefield has missed an average of just shy of 9 days per session, for a total of 34.5 days out of 210. That comes out to a staggering 16% of all of his days in session over the past four years.
But that’s O.K., because it probably doesn’t require a great deal of effort to pick up the phone and, “Speaker Howell, how are you? You’d like me to vote Yea on 1634? Of course. What’s it about? Yes, sir. I was kidding. I don’t need to know.” Easy Peasy!
Another problem for Delegate Morefield is that, not only did he fail to jump aboard the Trump Train, but he failed to jump aboard the Trump Train in Coal Country. That’s a double whammy!
Mark Lloyd, one of Trump’s top lieutenants in Virginia explained, “I don’t remember getting any help from Delegate Morefield during the campaign, and neither do the volunteers I’ve spoken to.” I’m in no position to throw stones in a glass house, but I’m not running for office in Coal Country. Delegate Morefield is.
If Delegate Morefield’s entire argument to his constituents, whom he is asking to renominate him, is that he’s moving up in the ranks of leadership, then I think he’s making a pretty tough sell. The folks in Southwest Virginia have been hit harder than most by a bad economy and an Obama Administration that waged war against them. What has Delegate Morefield done on behalf of his constituents? Or, is Delegate Morefield’s constituency really just Speaker Howell, incoming Speaker Kirk Cox, and Majority Leader Todd Gilbert? While these three men seem to love Delegate Morefield, none of them will be able to cast a vote at Saturday’s Mass Meeting.
