Rigell's wife takes his place at Freedom Fest

Campaign workers for Republican Scott Rigell have been putting up signs around Old Dominion University today in the run up to Freedom Fest.

With dark blue Rigell t-shirts - they're everywhere and with good reason - thousands of conservative voters are here to hear Sarah Palin and George Allen speak. And Rigell was scheduled to take the stage.

Except it was his wife Teri who spoke to the crowd.

Could it be that Rigell doesn't want to share the stage with Palin because of recent polling data that suggests her endorsement might actually hurt candidates on the trail.

I wonder what U.S. Rep. Glenn Nye's folks make of all this?

 

Comments

[James "turbo" Cohen]

The irony is that the independent candidate Kenny Golden was available to speak.. If the event organizers wanted him to speak that would have been no problemo. Scott Rigell did not want to speak. And it was interesting to note that none of the guests on stage endorsed Scott.. Way to go Scotty.

[Josh Painter]

Rigell consultant Chris LaCivita told POLITICO Sunday that the campaign had decided against an onstage appearance out of caution for Federal Election Commission laws.

LaCivita explained that independent candidate Kenny Golden had not been offered equal time at the event. That Rigell’s car dealership, Freedom Ford, is a sponsor of the Palin event was also a concern, said LaCivita. “We like to follow the advice of campaign lawyers,” he said.

LaCivita said Rigell was “absolutely not” afraid to appear publicly with Palin, and that Rigell planned to take pictures backstage with her that would soon appear on his Facebook page.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/39074.html#ixzz0s6KSM0sx