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Two Southern conservative newspapers bolt from Trump
Dallas Morning News endorses Hillary Clinton; Richmond Post-Dispatch opts for Johnson
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
DALLAS (CFP) — Two major Southern newspapers that are normally stalwartly Republican on their editorial pages have broken with the party for the first time in decades in refusing to endorse Donald Trump for president.
The Dallas Morning News endorsed Hillary Clinton, the first time Texas’s largest newspaper has endorsed a Democrat since before World War II. The Richmond Times-Dispatch endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson, ending a string of Republican presidential endorsements stretching back to 1980.
The Morning News editorial board not only endorsed Clinton, it ran a separate, scathing editorial calling Trump unqualified to be president and urging readers not to vote for him.
“Donald Trump is no Republican and certainly no conservative,” the editorial said. “We have no interest in a Republican nominee for whom all principles are negotiable, nor in a Republican Party that is willing to trade away principle for pursuit of electoral victory.”
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton
While Clinton has “real shortcomings,” including showing “poor judgment” in using a private email server when she was secretary of state, the paper told its readers that, in comparison, Trump is worse.
“Unlike Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton has experience in actual governance, a record of service and a willingness to delve into real policy,” the editorial said. “For all her warts, she is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.”
Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson
The Times-Dispatch endorsed Johnson in a September 4 editorial, despite the fact that Virginia’s junior U.S. Senator, Tim Kaine, is Clinton’s vice presidential running mate.
“Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton meets the fundamental moral and professional standards we have every right to expect of an American president,” the editorial said. “Fortunately, there is a reasonable — and formidable — alternative.”
The Richmond paper called Johnson, a former two-term governor of New Mexico, “a man of good integrity, apparently normal ego and sound ideas. Sadly, in the 2016 presidential contest, those essential qualities make him an anomaly.”
The paper also said that while Kaine’s presence on the Democratic ticket “flatters” Virginia, “it is futile to vote for a presidential candidate because one likes the vice presidential nominee.”
The Times-Dispatch has endorsed every Republican presidential candidate since 1980. The GOP candidate carried Virginia in every election from 1968 until 2008, when Barack Obama moved the Old Dominion into the Democratic column.
The last time the Morning News did not endorse the GOP standard-bearer was in 1964, when it remained neutral in the contest between Democratic President Lyndon Johnson, a Texan running against Republican U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. It had not endorsed a Democrat since throwing its support to Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, as World War II loomed.
A Democrat has not carried Texas in the presidential race since 1976.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine goes after Donald Trump in convention address
Virginian calls GOP standard-bearer a “one-man wrecking crew”
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
PHILADELPHIA (CFP) —U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia made his national debut as a vice presidential candidate in a speech to the Democratic National Convention in which he derided Donald Trump as not only trustworthy but as a threat to the Republic.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
“Our nation, it is just too great to put in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew,” Kaine said in a prime-time speech July 27.
Kaine, the only Southerner on a major party ticket this year, also offered effusive praise of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, saying she was ready to step into the White House.
“She is ready because of her faith. She is ready because of her heart. She is ready because of her experience. And she is ready because she knows that in America, we are stronger when we are together,” he said.
Kaine, little known outside Virginia before being selected by Clinton as her running mate, also introduced his family, including his father-in-law, Linwold Holton, a former Republican governor of Virginia whom he said would be supporting the Democratic ticket this year.
“He is voting for Democrats because any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln,” he said. “If any of you are looking for that party of Lincoln, we have got a home for your right here in the Democratic Party.”
Embracing a vice presidential candidate’s traditional role as an attack dog, Kaine went after Trump, particularly over his habit of telling audiences that they should just believe that he can make major changes in Washington.
“Most people, when they run for president, they don’t just say, ‘Believe me.’ They respect you enough to tell you how they will get things done,” Kaine said.
“Not Donald Trump. He never tells you how he is going to do any of the things he says he will do. He just says, ‘Believe me.'”
Kaine, a fluent Spanish speaker who peppered his address with passages in Spanish, also sought to create a contrast with Trump by embracing American diversity.
“God has created in our country a beautiful and rich tapestry, an incredible cultural diversity that succeeds when we embrace everybody in love and battle back against the dark forces of division,” he said.
“We are all neighbors. And we must love our neighbors as ourselves.”
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia is Clinton’s VP pick
Kaine is the first Virginian on a major-party ticket since 1840
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
MIAMI (CFP) — U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has been picked by Hillary Clinton as her running mate in the coming battle against Donald Trump.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine
Kaine was unveiled as Clinton’s choice at a rally at Florida International University in Miami July 23, where he pointedly noted that he has never lost an election in a political career that began back in 1994.
“I’m 8-0, and I promise you, I’m not about to let that change, especially when Donald Trump stands in the way of progress on every single one of these issues that Hillary has laid out as part of her campaign,” he said.
Kaine, 58, is serving his first term in the Senate. He served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010, lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006 and as mayor of Richmond from 1998 to 2001.
He was also picked by President Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee in 2009, a position he held for two years.
A Roman Catholic, Kaine served as a Jesuit missionary in Honduras and speaks fluent Spanish. He and his wife, Anne, have three children.
Kaine’s selection as Clinton’s running mate ends a long drought for the Old Dominion in presidential politics. The last time a major party nominated a Virginian to a presidential ticket was in 1840, when John Tyler was nominated by the Whigs.
President Woodrow Wilson was a native Virginian, although he had moved to New Jersey by the time of his election in 1912.
Clinton told the Miami audience that Kaine “is everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not.”
“He is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one, and he is a progressive who likes to get things done,” she said.
In his remarks, Kaine made a full-throated call for immigration reform, saying that immigrants make the country stronger, not weaker.
“Anybody who loves America this much deserves to be here,” he said, repeating the remark in both English and Spanish.
Kaine also enthusiastically embraced the traditional VP role as an attack dog, going after Trump, the GOP nominee.
“Donald Trump trash talks folks with disabilities, trash talks Mexican-Americans and Latinos, whether they’re new immigrants or governors or federal judges, trash talks women, trash talks our allies,” he said.
Kaine also said “from Atlantic City to his so-called university, (Trump) leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes.”
GOP U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes loses primary in North Carolina
Seven-term lawmaker comes up short in reconfigured district
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
VIRGINIA BEACH (CFP) — U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes has become the second Republican House member to fall in a primary in 2016, after his gambit of switching districts to try to preserve his seat fell short.
In Virginia’s newly configured 2nd District, State Delegate Scott Taylor took 52 percent in the June 14 vote to 41 percent for Forbes, after a campaign that saw the veteran congressman outspend his challenger by 10-to-1.
Taylor, 36, a former Navy SEAL elected to the legislature in 2013, will now go on to face the Democratic nominee, Virginia Beach businesswoman Shaun Brown, in November. The district, centered in Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads, leans Republican.
U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes
Forbes’s demise was triggered by a federal court ruling earlier this year that racial considerations were improperly used in drawing the Old Dominion’s 3rd District. A redraw of the House map affected surrounding districts in both metro Richmond and Hampton Roads, including in the 4th District, the seat Forbes currently holds.
The court’s decision to add the cities of Richmond and Petersburg to the 4th District made it substantially more Democratic, prompting Forbes to run in the 2nd District, where GOP Rep. Scot Rigell was retiring.
But Forbes’s decision to parachute into a district where he did not live in order to save his congressional career did not go over well with some of his new constituents. Taylor, who had already been campaigning for the seat when Forbes entered the race, dismissed him as a carpetbagger.
Forbes had argued that his status as a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee would be an important asset for a district with major military installations. But that argument couldn’t save him.
In a statement after his defeat, Forbes said, “To each who have stood by us and partnered with us, I am blessed by your friendship and encouragement.
“We have had a vision for this region, for rebuilding our military, and for defending religious liberty, and while perhaps not embraced by voters tonight, we hope nonetheless (it) will be the path forward for our nation and our region.”
The other GOP House incumbent to lose a primary this year was U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers in North Carolina.
In other House primaries in Virginia:
- In the 4th District, Republican Henrico County Sheriff Mike Wade will face off against Democratic State Senator Donald McEachin, also of Henrico County. A win by McEachin in the redrawn district would add a second African-American congressman to the state’s delegation.
- In the 5th District, GOP State Senator Tom Garrett from Buckingham County will face Democrat Jane Dittmar, the former chair of the Albermarle County Board of Supervisors. The seat was opened up by the retirement of Republican U.S. Rep. Robert Hurt.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe express shock at federal investigation
Probe focuses on campaign contributions from a Chinese businessman who also gave to the Clinton Foundation
♦By Rich Shumate, Chickenfriedpolitics.com editor
RICHMOND (CFP) — Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe says he was shocked to discover from a news report that he is under investigation by the FBI and the Justice Department over $120,000 in campaign contributions from a Chinese businessman who also gave money to the Clinton Foundation.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe
But speaking to reporters May 24, a day after the news broke, McAuliffe insisted that contributions from the donor, Wang Wenliang, were legal and that he had been “fully vetted” by the governor’s campaign staff.
He also insisted that the investigation has “nothing to do” with the Clinton Foundation, even though Wang had also given money to the foundation and McAuliffe sits on the board of one of its subsidiaries.
“I didn’t bring the donor in. I didn’t bring him into the Clinton Foundation. I’m not even sure I’ve ever met the person,” McAuliffe said.
The governor was also asked about the more than 100 donors common to his 2013 gubernatorial campaign and foundation, and whether he used his position with the Clinton Foundation to solicit campaign contributions.
McAuliffe explained that given his close relationship with the Clinton family, it would not be surprising to find donors who had given to both the campaign and the foundation.
“I think we’ve traveled in the same circles,” McAuliffe said. “I’ve traveled the globe with President Clinton, and we have a lot of the same friends.
News of the federal investigation was first reported by CNN. which attributed its information to “U.S. officials briefed on the probe.” It centers on $120,000 in contributions to McAuliffe’s campaign by Wang, according to the network.
The reason for the FBI”s scrutiny remains unclear. While foreign nationals are prohibited from giving money to U.S. political campaigns, McAuliffe said that would not apply to Wang because he has been a permanent resident of the United States since 2007, and green-card holders can contribute to campaigns.
That would seem to point to the possibility that a relationship between the McAuliffe campaign and the Clinton Foundation is the focus of the probe. According to some news reports, the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server has expanded to the foundation.
McAuliffe is a longtime associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton, even loaning them money to buy a house after they left the White House in 2001. He was the co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and both Clintons campaigned for him when he ran for governor.
The governor is on the board of the Clinton Global Initiative, the international outreach arm of the Clinton Foundation, which, since its founding in 1997, has raised more than $2 billion.
Wang is the head of the China Rilin Construction Group. Forbes magazine put his net worth at more than $1 billion.
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