Virginia Republicans are in a slide. They have lost two straight gubernatorial elections. In November, Democrat Mark Warner picked up the Senate seat vacated by John Warner; two years before, Democrat Jim Webb ousted George Allen, the Republican incumbent. Democrats last year claimed three seats in the U.S. House from the GOP, and now control the state's delegation 6-5. Barack Obama was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Virginia since Lyndon Johnson. His margin was not particularly close. In 2007, Democrats took a majority in the State Senate and increased their numbers in the House of Delegates.
Virginia used to be red. Now it is at least purple and may be blue. Democrats deserve considerable credit for the trend. Today's focus falls on the GOP's self-inflicted wounds.
For the past year the so-called leadership at state party headquarters has personified much of the problem. A chairman should be a tactician, an organizer, a builder of bridges -- not an ideological and stylistic lightning rod.
The Week's End box below includes a quotation from Newt Gingrich's speech at Randolph-Macon College. His emphasis on solutions is apt. The Virginia GOP has declined in part because the party gives the appearance it is more interested in purity than in the citizenry's real-world concerns. The depiction may or may not be accurate and certainly does not apply to all, but in politics image counts and Republicans are guilty enough to justify the electorate's skepticism.
In conversations with this office, Gov. Tim Kaine and other Democrats have been far less partisan than have various leading Republicans (Kaine focuses on issues and never indulges in personal rancor); the relatively serene Assembly session suggests Republicans might be catching on; Bob McDonnell -- former attorney general and probable GOP gubernatorial nominee -- understands. He knows structural change starts at the top. We agree.
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