See Bob Run

How many conservatives does it take to change a light bulb?
65.
That’s the number of votes (out of 10,300 cast) last Saturday at the Virginia Republican Convention in Richmond by which Virginia General Assembly Delegate Bob Marshall lost the nomination to run for the Senate this fall.
Razor-thin. A squeaker. Lost by a hair. Lost by the wispy filament contained in the soon-to-be defunct incandescent bulb of joke lore. He was outspent  14-to-1 by Jim Gilmore, and he only started running in early January. A remarkable achievement and event, one that all Virginians should note and appreciate:--- how little it takes to change the course of political history and, in turn, our lives!
The crowd appeared evenly divided, as the vote ultimately showed, at least until they started making noise and waving signs. Gilmore’s crowd, rowdy enough for the occasion, was lukewarm compared to Marshall fans whose deeply resonant and prolonged cheers clearly left Gilmore’s supporters in the proverbial dust.
I spoke with a fellow delegate before the voting session, a man stirred by Marshall but leaning toward Gilmore because in his mind all that mattered was beating Warner in the fall. He wanted to vote for Marshall for all the right reasons, but political practicality was pressing. Could Marshall beat Warner?
You bet.
Vote according to your conscience, I told him, and the rest will fall into place. The truth will set you free. It always does.
There is a wave rising, I told him, of Virginia voters who are tired of Republicans acting like Democrats, tired of supporting candidates who waffle on fiscal responsibility and social conservatism. They are intelligent, rational, middle-class people who value life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without undue governmental influence. They want a Republican party that is truly conservative, not a watered-down PC version. They want a party that clearly lives up to the legacies of Lincoln and Reagan.
The wave is building, as the votes for Marshall and a young, aggressive Republican named Jeff Frederick as the new RPV chair attest. 
For the record, I am not a card-totin’ Republican.  I went in support of Bob Marshall, not because I’m a rabid social conservative but because Bob Marshall is a true leader, one who is unafraid to take unpopular stands, unabashedly moral, and unmistakably conservative in all areas. He is not a typical politician. He has Ideas. He pushes Ideals. He fights for what’s Right – not in the very limited Republican versus Democrat sense but in terms of Right versus Wrong.  
There aren’t many politicians of any ilk who would take on the taxation without representation issue by suing the government and winning in the Virginia Supreme Court in a 7-0 vote to end the practice by the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.  Few politicians would dare challenge the incompetence and bad judgment of a sitting college president at a state university. Marshall doesn’t claim to be Pro-Life while sitting on a Board that oversees the sale of the Morning-After Pill. Bob Marshall stands up while other politicians sit out or sell out.
Marshall is a lighthouse in a pre-dawn harbor, where the grassroots party faithful are bobbing in conservative rowboats, secure enough but not yet on dry land, united in principle and concern for the Grand Old Party, hopeful that the light bulb will soon be changed, especially if it only takes a mere 65 votes to do it.

Karla Kraynak Bruno

W&M ’81 and ‘92

Author of Mischiefs and Miseries: a novel of Jamestown 1607

The Virginia Gazette, June 4, 2008