UPDATE 06/30/14 11:49 AM: This article has been updated to reflect Marshall Pattie’s current status as a Republican and member of his local GOP committee.
Augusta Supervisor Marshall Pattie
For years, Hanger has drawn the ire of conservatives disaffected by his penchant for voting with Democrats in Virginia’s Senate on a variety of marquee issues, including the largest tax increase in Virginia’s history last year. More recently, Hanger had been among the Senate’s “Gang of Three” Republicans who had joined with Governor McAuliffe and Senate Democrats in supporting Medicaid expansion. Hanger, along with Sens. Walter Stosch (R-Henrico) and John Watkins (R-Powhatan), eventually caved on the issue at the peak of the #BLACKorBUST movement on June 12, when their House and Senate colleagues convinced them of the political reality that no budget would be passed without language blocking the Governor’s ability to expand Medicaid unilaterally. Hanger’s last primary contest came in 2007, when he bested conservative challenger Scott Sayre.
Pattie is a somewhat unconventional alternative to the uber-moderate Hanger. Prior to his run as an independent for the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, Pattie served as Chairman of the Augusta County Democrats. Pattie left the Democrat Party when he said felt like he no longer fit. He won his supervisor race handily, garnering nearly two-thirds of the vote and besting another independent and a Republican candidate in a highly Republican district (Cuccinelli 70%, McAulife 23%). Pattie’s success among this conservative electorate is credited to a steadfast opposition to tax increases, and a mastery of local issues and personalities. Although elected as an independent, Pattie now identifies as a Republican and is a member of the Augusta County Republican Committee.
Notably, Sen. Hanger is a constituent of Pattie’s North River district.
Recognizing that GOP primary voters who might be looking for a reliably conservative alternative to Hanger will naturally be wary of someone who was a Democrat party leader just three years ago, Pattie is working to burnish his conservative bona fides. Republican operative Cole Trower, an official with the Pattie campaign, told The Bull Elephant that the campaign will soon be releasing a list of endorsements from trusted conservative leaders who believe Pattie is the right man to replace Hanger.
Pattie is the first challenger to announce, but he may not be the last. Republicans in the district report that Augusta County GOP Chairman Dan Moxley is also set to throw his hat in the ring. Some supporters of Moxley speculate that Pattie’s candidacy is the product of yet another deal between Democrats and Sen. Hanger, where Pattie could secure Hanger’s support if Hanger decides to retire in exchange for Pattie crowding the field (and splitting the anti-Hanger vote) in the meantime. Clearly this kind of thing is hard to prove or disprove, but we report it as something suggestive of a narrative likely to emerge as the campaign unfolds over the coming months.
In other words, politics in the Valley is always interesting, but this race promises to be barn burner, whether or not a challenger succeeds in unseating Sen. Hanger. Stay tuned.
44 comments
[…] While this Gang of Three is generally pro-expansion, they’ve shown a willingness to apply the brakes. (Interestingly, Senator Hanger has already garnered a primary opponent.) […]
So how do Marshall Pattie supporters feel now that their candidate deliberately blew off pre-filing for a convention because he thinks “special interests” are at work. Yeah those “special interests” Marshall, they are called grass roots conservatives and we generally don’t like Democrats voting in our nomination contests.
Tell us some more Cole Trower about this “rock solid” conservative who is afraid to participate in a convention? Oh that’s right, he “prefers” a convention, but has to uphold the law, no matter how unconstitutional that law is right? Please. Go back to the Democrat party because Marshall just disqualified himself as a Republican candidate.
[…] Marshall Pattie is also running against Emmett Hanger for the Republican nomination. […]
EW Jackson won this district by something like 65% and a former head of the Democratic Party is the best we can do?? Are you kidding me? If this guy was leading the Democratic Party just a few years ago, what makes anyone trust that he has suddenly “seen the light” and will be any better than RINO Hanger? He is mistaken if he thinks that Republicans are as uninformed as Democrat voters!
[…] The Bull Elephant previously reported on Mr. Pattie’s candidacy in the 24th district here. More on Marshall Pattie […]
[…] While this Gang of Three is generally pro-expansion, they’ve shown a willingness to apply the brakes. (Interestingly, Senator Hanger has already garnered a primary opponent.) […]
[…] While this Gang of Three is generally pro-expansion, they’ve shown a willingness to apply the brakes. (Interestingly, Senator Hanger has already garnered a primary opponent.) […]
Sorry to be an interloper on your blog but since Mr. Pattie has announced his run for State Senator I have been trying to understand how this happened. Mr. Pattie came to me when deciding to run Augusta Board of Supervisor. He wanted to run with me as did 2 others. Two of the 3 who ran with me were elected. It was a successful campaign built on removing party politics from the local level. It focused on among other things job creation, economic development. Pattie abandoned these on taking office and now his political re-birth is nothing short of breath-taking. My hope is that in taking up this campaign, when he loses (as he surely will), he does not run again for the Board of Supervisors. At the local level we need people who are working to actually get things done, to make the tough choices that move our County forward. He recently voted against a water tower—a water tower!—because he couldn’t say he never voted for debt if he did. We had just visited Shamrock Dairy, at our industrial park, who commented they couldn’t do fire suppression tests because of lack of water. We had been advised that week, by the people who want to develop the land at the northern intersection for an upscale retail center, sort of like Short Pump, at I-81 and rt-262 that potential stores and restaurant would not commit until there was assurance that necessary fire flow would be present to protect there assets should a fire occur. So he voted against the infrastructure that would give our industrial park and our greatest opportunity for the very useful sales tax revenue from a big retail center, ISO standard water pressure. And yet he was pushing to get figures on the jobs “we” have created to show what “he” has done. What a phony! You are welcome to him but expect to be burned as that is what he did with Democrats, Independents. As I had a hand in his election I will be sharing all I know about this guy. Being the prettiest guy in the room doesn’t make you the smartest guy in the room, Core conservatives, who seek public office, need to bring the value of “principled purpose” to their work. That is be willing to expend your self for the good of the people. The goal must be good government not higher office.
Supervisor Pyles, your comments are more than welcome here. I’m
sorry to hear your “colleague” on the Board has been looking out for his own interests, rather than the people’s. Please do continue to expose what a fraud Pattie is.
So what you’re saying is that Pattie clearly supported all these moderate solutions when he ran with you for Supervisor, but immediately broke his campaign promises, and voted the opposite.
What were some other moderate/liberal positions Pattie expressed to you when he ran for Supervisor (as a fake Independent)?
I ask because we don’t want to be burned by Pattie either!
· Pattie has clearly burned Democrats and Independents.
· He has already burned Goodlatte-supporting conservatives who initially supported him… until they discovered that he is clearly lying about how as Dem chairman, he tried to be the Dem nominee against Goodlatte.
· He (and his proxies) are currently burning every conservative who stand in his way for state senate.
· He will burn every conservative who stands in his way for Congress or Lieut. Governor.
So it’s most important for conservatives to appreciate your warning and know about his old positions.
For anyone wondering, here’s Pattie Marshall’s record on “Rate My Professor”, a website that uses student reviews to gauge how well a college professor is at teaching their class (it’s very popular among JMU students). http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1490830
Don’t know if you received the following or not. Please include in the discussion so everyone has a better understanding
For those of you who are making comments that Rush Limbaugh would call the
Low-Information: Those who want to run their own candidate against Hanger are at the root of the whisper campaign against Pattie. As in so many instances,
the rumormongers simply want to deflect you from knowing their weaknesses. No different than what Democrats do – so who is calling whom a Democrat?
1 – Correction – Pattie is a member of the Augusta County Republican Unit. He left the Democrat Party more than three years ago AFTER one year of membership and discovering the Democrats did not hold with his values. (Do you similarly castigate Artur Davis for having once been a Democrat Congressman?)
2 – He was an Independent until this past spring. When he ran for Board of Supervisors, now three years ago, the Republican Party had its own candidate. Thus he ran as an independent. His District is the one in which Hanger lives and he, Pattie, has the support of those in his district because he has gone door-to-door and listened to those he represents.
3 – He is the only member of the Augusta Board of Supervisors (BoS) who has voted against every tax increase. He has consistently made the argument that responsible planning, not tax increases, would have provided the county its needs.
4 – He submitted a resolution to the BoS for the Board opposing Medicaid Expansion. The other members of the BoS, including the then four Republicans, refused to vote for it.
Do yourself a favor. Go to the Augusta County Government Web Page and under the minutes for the BoS read all of this and more, including the man’s voting record. Become informed, be smart, and know the facts. Stop sounding like those in the Democrat Party who have been taught to hold out their hands for freebies and believing everything their little brains have been fed.
Marshall Pattie was a Democrat in the past. That does not mean he should automatically be disqualified from running as a Republican.
What it does mean, though, is that the bar is set a lot higher for him to gain voters’ trust that he’s truly one of them. A record like this is certainly a good start in that direction. I’ll be interested to see more, and to see whether the Republicans who know him best line up behind him or another candidate.
I will be keeping an open mind because I know people who have switched parties. I recently moved to VA from Frederick, MD and even though Annapolis is overrun with liberals, Frederick is very conservative at the local level. Our county commissioner, Blaine Young was once a democrat, but changed parties and became a Republican and he’s been great at keeping property taxes low and limits spending. We even received a refund check a few years ago when they had a tax surplus. Has that ever happened here?
Well good for him. after spending his whole life as a Democrat he has manged to figure out that he wont have a political future in the Valley as an Obama supporter.
This is comical. He took the chairmanship of the Augusta County Democrats AFTER Obama was elected. So please spare us the “he found out that Democrats were liberals” after he became their leader in Augusta. Do you actually buy this?
Im am so tired of Marshall Pattie sycophants claiming that the only reason those of us who have reservations about Marshal Patties sincerity is because we “dont know him” dont have the “facts” or haven’t “spoken to him”.
Maybe it is because we dont understand how someone goes from Obama supporting Democrat to hard core conservative in such a short time. And even if they do, anyone that changeable probably isn’t ready to carry the conservative banner to Richmond on our behalf.
So how about you do yourself, and your candidate a favor and stop pretending that we dont have valid concerns. Unless of course your strategy is to insult your way to victory.
Blue Virginia has an interesting perspective from their side on this guy
http://bluevirginia.us/diary/11803/marshall-pattie-political-chameleon
chameleon alright! He goes from Dem chair, to independent, to a republican challenger… Really? His picture with Bill Bolling shouldn’t give anyone comfort, considering what Bill did to our party last year.
Marta, when was the last time you talked to Marshall Pattie?
at no point did I say I talked to him. My comment is based on facts, which can be very inconvenient at times, specially in politics.
because if only you talked to him that would make all of his Obama supporting actions before conveniently becoming a Republican to run for office disappear!
I can’t comment, every time I do some people run for their blood pressure meds…..
Well take off running!
[…] Sen. Emmett Hanger Draws Primary Challenge (TheBullElephant.com) […]
Marshall Pattie has a rock solid voting record of the Augusta County BOS. Member of the NRA and solid Christian. Remember that Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat too.
I find it odd how you claim to be backing a “solid” conservative, yet that conservative was supporting Obamacare just a few years ago.
Reagan was a Democrat once, yes, but that doesn’t mean Reagan supported the Johnson administration or held fundraisers to support the Great Society.
If I recall Christian, you were EXTREMELY interested in helping Marshall run against Emmett Hanger at the last JMU College Republican meeting of the semester. Even after he told you about him being a Democrat in the past. I find it odd that you offered to become a volunteer for Marshall Pattie’s campaign and loved him but, now you are trashing him on every web page you can free exposure on.
Excuse me? I’m trashing him now for pointing out his completely odd history? Being a political convert can be a good thing, but Pattie was thinking about running against Goodlatte a few years ago and now he’s planning on running as a State Senator as a Republican? Something isn’t right here…I was interested in a challenge against Hanger and that meant I was naturally interested in Pattie. The more I learned about him the less excited I became sadly.
I learned that Pattie had planned to challenge Goodlatte, a “solid” conservative, just a few years ago.
I learned that Pattie can be an arrogant and egotistical college professors towards his students (which helps explain his low scores on Rate My Professor)
I learned that he completely alienated Culpeper Republicans when he spoke to them earlier this year. Everone I spoke to at his meeting with the Founding Father’s Republican Women’s group said he came off as rude and egotistical.
Coming from someone who’s jumped on the Pattie-bandwagon immediately, you should be rather understanding when someone changes his opinions on something. I have multiple reasons to not support Marshall Pattie after I learned more about him. The fact of the matter is, I do not think he is the best candidate to challenge Hanger…Nick Freitas is.
Cole Trower and Marshall Pattie are both supporters of Chairman Goodlatte. Do you even live in the 24th Senate District?
That’s interesting, considering Pattie mulled a challenge on Goodlatte back when he was a Democrat….
Do you enjoy personally attacking people for pointing out serious Red Flags in someone’s candidacy? My comments count as “spreading rumors” and “character assassination”? Perhaps you’re just concerned that the man you’ve hitched your horse to is potentially vulnerable?
Is this how you expect to win? By running down any Conservative with reasonable concerns about electing a guy who was running the Augusta County Democratic Committee in 2010?
I think everyone should take a deep breath. Its easy for Pattie to consistently take no votes on tax increases, when he safely knows that the majority of the board will override him. Its a safe “no” vote that burnishes his conservative credentials at little or no cost. These tax increases, by the way, have come as a result of increased spending in the past few years that was pushed by a certain faction that Pattie willingly choose to align himself with in 2011, as part of a “ticket” to get elected to the Board. The adults on the current board have had to make the tough choices of voting yes and taking the heat for past decisions, while Pattie now is taking credit for no-cost “no votes” on taxes. As far as Reagan, his conversion to conservatism was much slower and thoughtful, anything but a 2-3 year about face. Emmett Hanger presents a lot of questions, but I’m not sure that Pattie is the answer to them just yet. Let him work his way up through the GOP and show his seriousness by working to get other local GOP candidates elected first. If anything his most recent history shows that he actively worked against the local GOP (2011 BOS elections)in its electoral efforts so caution is the watchword to make sure that his “come to Jesus” conversion is legit.
https://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gp83ss
http://www.bluevirginia.us/diary/11803/marshall-pattie-political-chameleon
Ronald Reagan didn’t go from an Obama Democrat to a Republican Candidate in under 3 years. Give me a break.
Yeah…”rock solid”
Today’s democrats have nothing in common with JFK’s democrats.
As a rank and file grassroots activist door knocker/organizer (for the Tea Party, for AFP, for Shak Hill, etc.) I like to have specific talking points when I press the flesh and engage my neighbors. So, what SPECIFICALLY about the “largest tax hike in Virginia history” did some of you knee-jerk anti-taxniks find so abhorrent? In short, can someone please tell me how it adversely impacted the average, middle class Virginia voter? And what improved services and infrastructure improvements did we get for our money?
Say what you want about Emmett Hanger … he has ALWAYS been a Republican. He never supported Barack Obama or Creigh Deeds or anyone else like that.
Indeed, Chris. That’s a point worth remembering.
I disagree. Hangar voted with democrats for expanding medicaid in VA. Medicaid expansion is obama’s baby, which would be supporting obama. I tried contacting Hangar’s office many times and no one ever answered the phone. I wanted to ask him why he thinks doctors should be forced to work for free and why he would want to bankrupt VA.
So we send a guy who was a Democratic unit chairman not five years ago to fix it?
I believe SCOTUS ruler MEDX is not Obama’s baby? Do you believe in the Constitution?
Regarding your comments about doctors working for free?
Why don’t you visit the VPAP website and see who the top contributors have been to Sen. Hanger?
It appears to me that Sen. Hanger has the full financial support of the medical profession community in Virginia? Could I be wrong, am I looking at the info wrong?
Lisa in the interest of full disclosure, are you involved in the medical profession in any way, yourself, family, friends, or relatives?
Politics in a democracy is all about compromise. If you don’t like it, leave it.
The people of Virginia are about to see how stupid the loss of almost half a billion dollars in federal money is going to hurt our medical community. Other states will be more than happy to receive OUR money.
Because we live in a democracy I have to suffer along with the people who don’t know any better.
Hey jimbo, did you know 1/3 of all doctors in CA refuse to take medicaid patients b/c they would go out of business since the reimbursement rate doesn’t even cover the cost of one test! Did you know the reason libtard states want this money is b/c they know it’s a giant slush fund that they take and give to their union buddies and that money NEVER gets to the people it’s intended for!! Did you know doctors aren’t making any money obamacrap patients b/c they aren’t getting paid? The ONLY STUPID ONE HERE IS YOU!!!!
Hello Lisa, and I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit me at The Bull Elephant.
Regarding your response to my comment, first, why not let the folks in California worry about California? Do we not have enough here in the Commonwealth to worry about without taking on someone else’s problems 3000 miles away?
Second, if you read my comment, what it says is that it appears that the professional healthcare community has supported Sen. Hanger financially according to the VPAP website?
That being the case, does it not seem likely that they would have also supported his vote in the Virginia Senate?
One thing is certain, not expanding MediCaid in Virginia is going to hurt the middle-class healthcare worker. That was a lot of money. Now, that money will not trickle down.
Are you part of that healthcare industry Lisa?
Lisa I live in his district. Hanger’s community involvement is appalling.
He’s supporting Obama with medicaid expansion.
was he supporting Hillary or Obama? or even Creigh Deeds. Dont trust the guy. What would stop him if he won the election from going back to being a democrat…nothing.
He’s got a record as a conservative on the Augusta County BoS. I guess that record is just a sham because he previously was a Democrat? Of course. In fact Marshall has just been casting all these votes, fighting against raising taxes, and just making all of this up and biding his time to primary Emmett, win our nomination, win the general, and then switch back to being a Democrat? And the nonsense from “Moxley supporters”about Emmett asking him to run to split the ant-Emmett vote? I wasn’t born at night, but the last two claims sound a lot like conspiracy theories. There are assertions made with absolutely no evidence to prey on the fears of good folks. Politics as usual here in the rumor barn.