Tonight, the Brandon Bell campaign announced that Sen. Mark Warner will be endorsing him tomorrow night in Vinton.
Ordinarily, a senior politician endorsing a lower level state or local candidate isn’t all that newsworthy. It’s expected. But, this one is different. Bell, a former Republican State Senator (elected twice non-consecutively as a Republican) is running as an independent this year against Republican State Senator Ralph Smith (who beat Bell in the GOP primary 4 years ago). Earlier this week, it was revealed in the Roanoke Times that Bell has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash from the Democrats.
Would the Democrats give Bell that much money and would Mark Warner waste valuable campaign time the weekend before a big election on a candidate who has no shot of winning? My gut says no. The Democrats must have some polling or at least a gut feeling that Bell is competitive and could pull an upset win.
And, if Bell were to win, wouldn’t he most certainly caucus with the Democrats instead of the Republicans?
Bottom line: given that financial support and Warner’s endorsement, Bell has become a Democrat, except in name. And, since there is no Democrat on the ballot in this race, it appears that he has become the de facto Democrat. And if he wins, Bell will most assuredly have the Democrats and Mark Warner to thank.
Posted by Jay Warren at 08:58 PM. Filed under: main •
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