At the Hob Nob in the Valley in Middletown, both the Libertarian and the GOP candidates played to their strengths:
Libertarian Robert Sarvis talked about free markets and educational choice:
Robert C. Sarvis, the Libertarian candidate for governor, spoke before Cuccinelli. Sarvis said he was inspired to run by his experience working in high tech businesses in California, a place where “entrepreneurship drives innovation in a relatively free market where regulations are not choking them to death.”
Sarvis said he favored competition for public schools as an incentive for them to improve in communities where students are failing to learn.
“Let’s free ourselves from the bureaucratic mess of public education,” Sarvis said. “That doesn’t mean undermining it. I strongly believe in fixing public education. And I have a lot of ideas that we can institute in the public education system. “But I do believe in local control of the schools.”
I think technology is about to supplant the public school system with online programs to open up home schooling to millions more unable to do so. And while free markets hardly prevail in the Golden State (see this blog post) and free markets cannot answer every question (largely due to sin and the Fall of Man) there are certainly more areas where liberty and free markets can do more for the betterment of citizens and society.
Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s wife Teiro spoke for him. Teiro is very effective speaker and they should continue to use her in media and live. She spoke to her husband’s strengths: His interest in issues not usual for the stereotypical idea of a social conservative:
Teiro Cuccinelli described Ken Cuccinelli’s history as one of advocating on behalf of victims of sexual assault while in college, tutoring poor children in Washington, D.C., works of compassion toward the mentally ill and successfully clearing the record of a man who was wrongly convicted of rape and spent 27 years in prison.
This is good stuff for their campaign and I hope it means a positive turnaround. Virginia cannot afford Terry McAuliffe. But, he needs to debate his Libertarian opponent. Take the matter head on. Sarvis is an attractive candidate who is capable of holding effectively the office he seeks. He has won the hearts of many in the base of the GOP. Can the Attorney General win them back? Yes but it is tough.
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
