“Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,–
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
The Conscience of the King, Act II: The Convention
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”. MacBeth, Act IV, Scene I
Yesterday, we Howlets set the stage for what may well prove to be the greatest community (political) theater we’ve seen in years. Just to recap:
-Jerry Carman, Independent uber-conservative materializes out of the mist, and begins a shadow campaign.
-Doug Brown launches “A Bridge Too Far” (ABTF) and begins catapulting [Rhetorical and Theatrical license here] everything from “severed heads” to “diseased cattle” over the MGOP castle walls, and engages in verbal sword-play with GOP chairman Steve “By the Books”Thomas.
-Baroness Aveni, inadvertently exposes her husband’s support of the usurper, Jerry Carman. (Out, out damn spot!)
So let us now take you back to the convention held on January 28th, 2012. Before doing so, we need to say that neither of us is a member of either party’s “machinery”. Some of the “in’s and out’s” of convention politics are very difficult to decipher, and it took quite a bit of research to figure out just exactly what happened. That said, we feel pretty confident that our account is fairly accurate. The up side is that, we have the scenarios from so many sources.
The way a convention works is people sign up to be “delegates,” by filling out a form. My dog Stoney used to get one in the mail each year. Often those who want to run for office will get his or her supporters to fill out the convention form so they can go vote for that person. This form is returned by a specific date, and the MGOP checks the applicants to make sure they are eligible to vote in Manassas elections. That’s it. Anyone who is an eligible City of Manassas voter can attend, according to the laws of Virginia. Once all the forms are collected and checked, a list is compiled and given to each campaign.
It is also used to prepare all of the “stuff” the convention staff needs to run the convention. Important: Also included on the application is a pledge to support the nominees of the convention. This is very important, so we’ll say it again: Also included on the application is a pledge to support the nominees of the convention. By signing the application, the applicant is pledged to support the nominees in the general election, regardless of whether or not the candidate the delegate supported was successfully nominated. Rules are Rules.
Let me (Moon) throw in that I HATE this rule and it is the main reason I left party politics. However, I left because I didn’t like the rules. I didn’t ignore the rules or ask them to be bent for me. Apparently not everyone feels as I do.
Several Moonhowlings reporters attended the convention as delegates. Apparently, there was a minor brouhaha, regarding the eligibility of some attendees. Jackson Miller and Marc Aveni wanted to challenge these delegates or in convention-speak, have a “floor-fight”. Now these don’t normally happen in Manassas conventions, as far as we can tell. No, Manassas conventions are reportedly congenial affairs: get the people in, get them seated, listen to speeches, take a vote, count votes, announce winners. Yawn. Go home.
This time was different. One ‘howler-reporter observed a few delegates being approached and asked to sign another pledge. Jackson Miller was there, and Aveni was there also, as well as members of the MGOP, so we believe it was Miller and Aveni who brought the challenges. For whatever reason, there wasn’t a “floor-fight”.
On to the speeches…. Oh, wait. We almost forgot: Allsion Carman, wife of uber-conservative newbie INDEPENDENT candidate Jerry Carman was a delegate to the convention. We know this from the exchange MGOP Chair Steve Thomas had with the Baron Aveni, at ABTF. We wonder if Mrs. Carman’s eligibility was challenged. Clearly, she wouldn’t be supporting all of the GOP candidates in the general. But we digress. On to the speeches…again.
There were speeches. Lots and lots of speeches. Two for mayor, five for council, plus each had someone give a “nomination speech”. From accounts we’ve gathered, one speech that was surprising was that of Ian Lovejoy, another new face on the Manassas political scene. Uber-conservative in its tone, it was well-received by a segment of the convention. What was more surprising was his nomination speech was delivered by Dan Arnold, founder of the Manassas Tea Party and former VP of Help Save Manassas. Our guess is the Tea Party was there to support one candidate: Ian Lovejoy, who would appear to have planted his banner outside the tent of Baron Aveni.
Now, we must insert a flash-back here. In the weeks preceding the convention, Doug Brown at ABTF, as well as our old nemesis GregL, began a steady drum-beat against Mark Wolfe. Doug Brown also included Sheryl Bass in his attacks. The attacks on Mark Wolfe centered on his association with the Manassas Ballet. Those against Sheryl Bass centered on her previous service on the Manassas School Board, that bastion of liberal thinking. If there were two targets of the uber-right, Wolfe and Bass were it. But who was targeting them? Perhaps Baron Aveni didn’t like having Wolfe and Bass often vote against his uber-conservative agenda on council? Might the failed delegate challenge have been intended to weaken either of these two incumbents? Its really difficult to tell what ticks some folks off at others.
We return to the convention. So the speeches were finished, and the votes taken and counted, including those cast by Jackson Miller, the Baron & Baroness Aveni, Tea Party founder Dan Arnold, and the wife of independent Jerry Carman. We’re also pretty sure that Doug Brown’s vote may well have been in there too. The results were announced: Jon Way, Ian Lovejoy, and Mark Wolfe received the majority of votes. Eliminated were Sheryl Bass and newcomer Charles Patullo. Whether or not Sheryl Bass was their intended victim we cannot say. We would imagine that had their ‘druthers come to pass, they’d rather have done the Red Riding Hood thing and eliminated the big , bad Wolfe.
With the rightful nominees determined, the voters left the building. Many of them found a piece of paper under their windshield wipers. It was a Jerry Carman campaign flyer. Apparently, he was skulking around the convention, but we don’t think he attended or voted. None of our reporters saw him inside. Some think this shows a lack of class on the part of Jerry Carman. Others think typical politician. Jerry Carman could care less:
http://manassas.patch.com/articles/letter-experience-counts-in-city-council-election#photo-3959229
Sit back, enjoy a turkey leg and an ale and read it for yourselves. If you want refills, holler for the wench.
There are some interesting exchanges in Patch, including Steve Thomas unabashedly stumping for his Republicans and Jerry Carmen having conversation with some other dude.
Tomorrow, Act III: The Campaign
pass me the popcorn! this is getting good!
Moon,
It might be noted that a number of the Rep. Committee members who challenged certain delegate credentials were seen the next few days placing Carmen signs in their yards. Apparently they are all for the rules as long as the outcome of the convention is to their liking. Total hypocrits, a few(maybe 20-30) comittee members conspired to “rig” the process to get their candidates nominated and on the ballot. What happened was that supporters of Bass realized that she was the victim of these shenanigans, started a write-in campaign and are poised to upset the applecart. I would expect the R committee to try to change their by-laws so no on who appears at the convention can run as a write in the future.
Mark Wolfe has numerous groups and people opposing him; not just Greg and Doug:
1. Fiscal conservatives who despise his frivolous and cavalier spending of tax dollars.
2. Many non-ballet people in the arts community who are disgusted with his manipulation of the County and City arts funding processes.
3. Right to life people who don’t like his vote on an issue related to a clinic in Manassas.
His only supporters are the elites in Manassas. I give him a 50/50 chance of reelection, because that one group has a lot of power and controls many votes.
If Wolfe loses (I hope) let’s not give Greg and Doug all of the credit.
Need to Know,
Maybe GregL and Doug shouldn’t get all the credit but they are the ones doing Aveni and Carman and Lovejoy’s dirty work.
@Need to Know He is probably safe from the county people vote and as for the right to life people who don’t like his vote on the clinic, screw them. He was right. It wasn’t an issue in their purview.
I know lots of people who are supporting him in Manassas who I wouldn’t consider “elite” but you are certainly entitled to your own opinion.
Need to Know…not all of Mark Wolfe’s supporters are the elites in Manassas. Some of us are real people.
Need to Know, as a county resident, I’m obviously not going to vote in the City’s election but I’m glad to see the arts (ballet, Hylton Center, Candy Factory) flourish in Manassas and the county and thank Mark Wolfe and others on the Council for their support. I’m tired of driving into DC or Wolf Trap for all my entertainment. Folks have long commutes and it’s nice to have some entertainment close by.
@Oy Vey
Need to Know should learn to start following the slime trail.
Judging from the attendance the ballet gets for their performances, there are alot of “elites” in Manassas.
I you go to the ballet you’re “elite”? Do any other activities qualify? I went to all-city orchestra the other day at the OHS gymnasium. Do I make the cut?
@Andy, you have to go twice to be part of that in-crowd. 😈
AndyH, why would a public official such as yourself make such a snide and utterly inaccurate statement like that? WHO attends the ballet is not at issue here, and you know it.@AndyH
Emma, everyone has been making jokes about tutus for 24 hours. lighten up. Can’t you for once laugh with us?
Andy is kidding/joking around.
Go back to comment #3 about the elites in Manassas. Catch up.
Is Andy the only one in your mind who isn’t allowed to laugh?
(point being lots of people who are not “elite” and who don’t consider themselves to be the “elite” like the ballet)
I’m sure andy is capable of answering for himself?
I feel quite confident he is capable of answering for himself.
However, I am also capable of chiming in and just did.
Oddly enough, being a county folk, I sort of view Andy more of a fellow blog-meister rather than my councilman.
When have I ever held back when you get snarky, Emma/. I didn’t want you to think I was on vacation.
I am trying to think of a name for each ‘bank’ of candidates. I see four.
There is the Tea Party/RTL group of candidates.(Lovejoy, Carmen, ???) There is the straight Republican bank of candidates (Wolfe, Way, Lovejoy), and then there is the Hybrid Republican (Wolfe, Bass, Way) bank of candidates. Lastly, there is the Democratic bank of candidate (Richie, ???,???).
The harbingers at the kettle each represent a candidate. Tuesday, they will remove cloaks and masks so we can see their real identity.
Moon, I wouldn’t put Lovejoy into the Tea Party/RTL…he’s fiscal conservative but not to the extent of TP. And, although he is pro-life, if it is not within City Council role such as with the famous “Last Stand of Mark Wolfe against the Marshall Plan”, I don’t think Ian would stand up and his church to rally people to storm City Hall on RTL issues.
@Ray, I don’t know the gentleman so I cannot say. I don’t care how people feel personally on the issue. I care how they vote and how they try to make political decisions that affect people’s personal lives. I guess I would judge by the company he keeps. After I have been burned by a few of our local politicians on RTL issues (and been lied to), I have found for ME, its just better to not vote for them. but like I said, that is for me.
Sad that is has come to that. It really isn’t what I would consider a main issue, until we got forced ultra sounds and contraception got questioned, a topic I thought had been settled 60 years ago. So, I have to be more careful.
Good for those who know that when something isn’t in the purview of local politics!!! I respect that.
Ian was endorsed by the president of the tea party, was he not? Who else doth you think was at the convention hense forthly exited stage left after the vote not even waiting until the scissors were cold.
Leave it to the witch to catch the sleight of hand.
brrrr brrrr cold as a witch’s scissor in a brass glove!!
Ray,
I’m not sure I buy your argument when you consider, as reported on this blog, Lovejoy chose the founder of the Teaparty to nominate him at the convention
Hecate & Oy Vey, point taken on Dan Arnold, an active member within the Manassas Republican Party which, in the string of the Old Bard thread here, the MRP “doth make strange bedfellows”. Please keep in mind just because endorsed by the TP, or by MRP discussion Dan became his spokesperson, it is not reflective of being a card-carrying member of the TP.
Ray, people (candidates) are judged by the company they keep. This may be fair or unfair, but it is reality.
“Fair is foul and foul is fair”,
Nesting marlets of a feather flock together. Good omen? You be the judge.
Squawk!!!!!
RV, true…so true. Of course, if judged by the company one keeps, this cast of the play brings a wide sweep of characters!
“What a piece of work is a man”