While Shaun Kenney came up short against Bobby Orrock in the 54th (55%-45% final), it wasn’t a loss. That Shaun was able to pull in 45% of the vote against a 16 year incumbant that outspent him 5 to 1 says something.
What sunk this race for Shaun were factors outside of his control: the 11th hour falsely claimed Allen endorsement by Orrock and Democrat crossover.
A Thursday mailer last week by Orrock claimed the endorsement of Senator Allen which was not the case. This claim was based off of Allen’s appearance at a fundraiser. The Allen camp moved to deny an endorsement and Orrock apologized with a quarter page ad in Tuesday’s Free Lance Star, but the damage was done. An interesting role reversal when you look at the 2003 Caroline County Board of Supervisors race where Orrock denied he had endorsed a candidate after showing up at one of their fundraisers.
And Democrat crossover was HUGE. The VEA had people at the polls handing out literature. Teachers walked by commenting on how they’d never voted Republican before and would probably be in trouble if others found out. The Free Lance Star even cites a poll worker’s observation:
At the Smith Station precinct in Spotsylvania, poll chief Sharon Deane said a few people had admitted they usually voted Democratic, but had picked up Republican ballots because they wanted to vote for Orrock.
“One said, ‘God forgive me,'” for voting for a Republican,” Deane said.
But despite all of that, despite the “endorsement” and the crossover and the huge difference in finances, Shaun was still able to pull 45% of the vote.
Conservative voters spoke loud and clear yesterday, and hopefully Orrock will listen.
“In two years, if we don’t get the voting record that we believe reflects the values of the 54th district,” [Kenney] said, “we will be here again.”
It was a good, hard fought race. There are always things you can look back on and say “we should have done that”. But in the end, Shaun Kenney ran a damn good campaign and if folks played by the rules, we’d have some different results today.