Republican congressional hopeful Ben Loyola is working to get the word out abut his endorsement from the leaders of the Hampton Roads Tea Party.
Loyola's team is blasting the endorsement out to supporters online and touting on his campaign's Internet headquarters, along with this quote from Loyola.
“The campaign begins today,” said Ben Loyola of the primary race that will culminate on June 8th. “The Tea Party has been the center of gravity in American politics, especially in primaries, and this endorsement means we have essentially a two-person race, and a choice between yesterday’s establishment candidates and candidates who will fight for real change in Washington.”
Loyola, of course, it aiming at Republican Scott Rigell, the Gov. Bob McDonnell backed candidate with internal polling suggesting a huge 37 point lead in the race. Rigell certainly knows that being the frontrunner has its advantages - everybody loves to vote for the winner - but it also puts a huge target on his back.
The statement "the campaign begins today" should remind voters that in a clouded primary with a ton of candidates still working their tails off on the trail the race remains up for grabs. Ten days is a lifetime in this kind of political environment, and you never know what the final weeks of a primary are going to look like - especially with the potential for someone to go negative and simply start trying to bring down Rigell.
Recall that Creigh Deeds was the also-ran in last years gubernatorial primary until he surged out of nowhere to knock off Terry McAuliffe and Brian Moran.
At this point the race between Rigell, Loyola and Ed Maulbeck, Bert Mizusawa, Jessica Sandlin and Scott Taylor becomes a full blown sprint to the finish. A lot of these folks are first time candidates so you've got to believe that they are going to skip as much sleep as possible and break their backs working for votes.
Keep a close eye on this race, because it's got a ton of potential to offer some big surprises in the final stretch.
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