It seems Loudoun County Republicans have a problem with some Independent candidates who are running for office in November but not all Independent candidates who are challenging Republican candidates.[read_more]
Two days ago we learned that disgraced Supervisor Shawn Williams is circulating petitions to run for Chairman of the Board as an Independent. The next day the Loudoun County Republican Committee sent out a sharp criticism, not of Shawn Williams, but of Steve Simpson, a likely candidate to run for sheriff, as we reported two weeks ago. Huh?
In a sternly worded email to all members of Loudoun County Republican Party Chairman Mike Haynes said,
“For the past few months Steve Simpson has been frequenting Loudoun Republican meetings, attending fundraisers and events and apparently trying to be part of the Republican Party again,” said Haynes. “For him to now be considering a run as an independent is very unfortunate and unacceptable.”
“Four years ago the voters of Loudoun County made a change in the Sheriff’s office and effectively removed Steve Simpson as Sheriff,” said Haynes. “At lease part of the reason for his removal was that a few years earlier he had lost the Republican primary and then ran as an independent. Being a Republican has to mean something and you can’t jump in and out of the Party to further your political career. Loudoun County voters want elected officials to stand for something and not just be in politics for selfish reasons.”
“Steve Simpson is more than welcome in the Party if he is going to support our nominees like he promised to do in writing only a few short weeks ago by signing the Delegate filing form. But if he is going to run for office as an independent we will make every effort to defeat him in November just as we will the Democrat in the race.”
Ok, fine, but what about the guy running as an Independent for Chairman of the Board, a position most people in the county consider to be THE position of leadership in the county? Apparently LCRC is fine with an Independent challenging our candidate for Chairman of the Board but they draw the line at challenging Mike Chapman for Sheriff.
And why the attack on Simpson now when nothing has changed with his candidacy in the last two weeks?
When I spoke with former Sheriff Simpson last night he seemed rather puzzled by the communication from LCRC since he has not declared a run for office and is still gathering signatures for a possible challenge. (Just like Shawn Williams.) Simpson had no idea why Mike Haynes chose to attack him at this time. Nor does anyone else. Sheriff Simpson was also puzzled as to why Mike Haynes has not called him to discuss his possible run against Sheriff Chapman. Simpson went on to say that he is gathering signatures and talking to people, “checking the pulse of the community”. He added that support for his run has been “overwhelmingly positive” from all sectors of the community. Simpson said his phone has rung constantly since the Republican convention with voters and employees of the sheriff’s office urging him to run. People want yard signs, they want to work on his campaign, donate money, all the things it takes to mount a winning campaign.
“The support for my candidacy has been huge.”
When questioned about the Republican party pledge that all delegates made at the recent Republican convention Sheriff Simpson said,
“public safety is bigger than party politics. I care too much about Loudoun county and the safety of the people to stand idly by.”
Since Sheriff Simpson has not declared his candidacy (but is clearly headed that way) he felt LCRC Chairman’s email attacking him was pre-mature.
So why the double standard from LCRC? Why is the party blasting a former Sheriff for his possible run for office and saying nothing about Shawn Williams possible run? Both candidates are doing the exact same thing, circulating petitions with an eye on running for office as Independents. Neither has officially announced a run for office. Sheriff Simpson has an honorable background. He honorably served our county as Sheriff for many years. Shawn William’s background is a disgrace.
However, some people in the Republican party, such as the close supporter of Sheriff Chapman, Brian Reynolds, feel that Williams run for office poses problems for Republicans in Loudoun,
“it puts a lot of people in Loudoun at odds between their dedication to the [GOP] nominee or choosing someone who, while in office, has done a very good job,”
The same can be said about Sheriff Simpson. So why the double standard?
More on the story here.
16 comments
See I would have a problem with a sheriff who took an oath and then broke it
A problem with a sheriff who did that but not a Supervisor who is doing the same thing?
Yes it is troubling, but I prefer to side on the power of the voter. Politicians have no problem breaking promises or changing positions when it is politically advantageous for them, and these are the ones that are the nominees from either party. It seems that delegates / voters hold these politicians to such a rigid standard on one hand and yet ignore most of the other broken promises. I agree both Cooper and Touchstone that in a perfect world it would be nice to have unity and support from all who participate, but that is not the animal of politics. Especially coming from the side of the politician. The power lies in the hands of the voters/delegates not the other way around, I try to not hold politicians on such a high pedestal and I’m not saying anyone in these posts do either, but it is frustrating to see nominees get it both ways and someone who runs and loses or signs a pledge has to abide by it, especially when it comes to public safety. All “quality” candidates for Sheriff should be heard and allowed to explore their options and run for office. My opinion is that public safety will always outweigh public sentiment or party wishes, especially when there are valid internal issues and a lack of vision or leadership that can be articulated for voters to pause and evaluate.
Oh, come on. LCRC leadership only heard about Shawn Williams’s petitions two days ago and we started looking into it right away. Frankly, we were totally taken off guard by it. We were half expecting Scott York to announce, but Shawn was not even on our radar after everything that happened this year. That said, this issue has become our top priority this week. We hope that Shawn will not run–and he has not announced–but we are working on this situation.
LCRC will support BOTH Mike Chapman and Charlie King, as they are the GOP candidates. There is no “double standard” at all in any of this. That is false and frankly, an unfair assumption based on nothing. Your article makes a lot of assumptions. Because we didn’t issue something the very second we heard the rumors, we are ignoring it? Please. Simpson’s rumors were flying around for awhile before they were addressed. Rumors need to be investigated first. That is what we are doing right now. Speaking of which, you should update your article. LT reported today that Simpson has confirmed that he IS running as an independent.
Mike Haynes was not attacking Simpson. He was calling on him to not run and support our candidate. If you try to reread objectively what he wrote, he makes valid points.
Why is this article so obviously pro-Simpson?! Aren’t you planning to support the Republican candidate, Mike Chapman, for sheriff? This article is written with a bias that would suggest otherwise.
We all need to support our GOP candidates and focus on defeating the Democrats, not each other.
I find this to be all the more reason that Loudoun County is in desperate need of a PD and removing much of the politics out of law enforcement (patrol and investigations that is). I agree with the sentiment of Simpson and that public safety outweighs the needs of any political party. I believe both parties should not concern themselves with any independent run. When one party, or the other (maybe even both) begin to bicker about it, then it shows insecurities and vulnerabilities. If Chapman is such a great Sheriff, then this news should not cause his people much concern. However, if they begin to post and attack then I think there may be something to what Major Noble and others were campaigning on and what some posted. Time will tell how this plays out. Count me in for as many quality candidates as possible so that voters have choices, particularly with public safety.
Can I get an AMEN to the PD idea?
Agreed that we shouldn’t worry about in independent run, but it’s a shame to see it from someone who pledged support for the Republican candidate less than a month ago. People should care more about their word.
Touchstone is right. Jeanine, time for you, as a Republican, to uphold your own pledge and support Chapman, the Republican nominee for sheriff.
I always support Republicans although I fail to see what that has to do with this article about the double standard in Loudoun GOP.
Hahaha, what a liar. Come on Jeanine, do you really think people aren’t aware of your great disdain for both Williams and Chapman? Don’t you have an ounce of integrity?
I don’t think there is a double-standard from the LCRC *yet*. The rumors of Simpson’s candidacy have been around for a few weeks, and it is only since NOVA Town Hall broke the story on Monday that any of us knew that WIlliams was considering.
Let’s watch the LCRC closely on this for the next week or so. They should certainly make a similar statement about the Williams rumors, because that’s what the Party should be about–supporting the Republican Candidates. But lets not cry foul just yet. I know personally that it takes the LCRC at least a few days to put this sort of thing together.
And in the meantime, let’s all of us so-called republicans support Mike Chapman (I’m looking at you Jeanine) and Charlie King (Please Mr. Williams, you should’ve stayed in the race for the nomination if you wanted ANY Republican support).
But for the next few days or a week. Let’s assume that Mike Haynes and the LCRC leadership will do the right thing, as I’m sure they will. We can’t have Republicans breaking off and running as independents every time the convention gets ugly. That’s the best way to hand the win to the democrats.
Since it took LCRC two weeks to issue a statement about Sheriff Simpson’s possible run for office should we expect LCRC to respond to Shawn’s possible run for office in two weeks, which would be June 9th, the closing date for filing? Sounds convenient for some.
Well I would hope sooner. I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense to declare inconsistency within 48 hours of the news about Williams surfacing when, as you point out, it took two weeks to respond to Simpson.
It’s just not even remotely a fair accusation yet.
But then again fair accusations take a little more time than a hit piece. You don’t get to be ahead of the news cycle if you wait around until the facts are on your side.
It’s a lot of fun to rail against the establishment, so why would you wait until the establishment has time to respond correctly? There wouldn’t be much of a blog post to write then.
The ‘establishment’ was well aware of Shawn’s petitions when the email was sent to committee members. How difficult would it have been to include Shawn Williams in the blast against Independents running against Republicans?
Jeanine…you are coming off as being very nervous about Williams and he hasn’t said he was running. In other words, it’s not a story, yet you are wedging his name into every possible blog post you can. What are you so nervous about?? If he’s the person you say he is, then I guess the voters will decide and it’s a moot point, right? Or are you concerned that he might have a chance? You are coming off as the latter of the two, IMO.
Yes, I think Shawn Williams is an embarrassment to Republicans and I hope he won’t run. He will only embarrass himself.
Seriously is right, when and if Shawn announces then it is an issue. The only person getting embarrassed here is Jeanine. Jeanine, you are so transparent, regardless of how clever you think you are.